Flair bartenders flip, spin at Nightclub Bar & Show — VIDEO
Lorenzo Garcia began his routine to the sounds of ZZ Top, starting off slowly — spinning, flipping and juggling a liquor bottle and a mixing tin above his head and behind his back. Less than a minute into his performance, he expanded the repertoire to include a second tin, occasionally catching and balancing one of them momentarily on the back of his hand or his forehead before nudging it back into the mix.
Garcia was one of 10 contestants in Tuesday’s flair bartending competition on the main stage of the Nightclub & Bar Show, which wraps up on Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center. He used his allotted five minutes to create a cocktail called The Devil Went Down To Texas, a mix of vodka, Aperol, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, simple syrup and rhubarb bitters. He, like all of the contestants, would be scored by two sets of judges. One, seated in front of the stage, would grade them on the originality and difficulty of the presentation. The other, sequestered behind the stage, would do a blind taste test of the finished drinks.
Flair bartending is regaining popularity in bars nationwide, with Tuesday’s competitors hailing from as far away as New York, and as close to home as the Las Vegas Strip. But, its fans are quick to point out, it’s progressed significantly since Tom Cruise took it mainstream in the 1988 film “Cocktail.”
“Flair is making its comeback in a way that is meshing with the standards of today,” says Anthony Alba, a longtime Las Vegas barman and representative of Casa Noble tequila who helped judge the competition. “It’s just not throwing things around. It’s that style, the personal style that you see.”
This contest was a small part of the much larger trade show. Over the course of three days, more than 30,000 bar and nightclub professionals are expected to mix and mingle at the Convention Center and several Las Vegas clubs to discuss just about anything remotely related to their industry.
Products on display Tuesday ranged from liquor and mixers to bartending uniforms and video projection systems. Countless vendors were on hand to sell bar entertainment including beer pong tables and two different axe-throwing cages. And Jon Taffer, one of three keynote speakers, offered an address on how to “Cut the BS Excuses that Hold You Back.”
Back on the main stage, Luis Ortiz gave the final flair performance at 2:30 p.m., running 19 seconds over his allotted time because of a mix-up with his glassware. By early evening, Colby Ashton of Las Vegas’ Fuel Bar was crowned the winner, securing the opportunity to represent the United States at the World Cocktail Championship in China.
“This one is my unicorn,” Ortiz said, clutching his trophy. “I’ve been trying to get this for seven years, and it’s just been a roller coaster of emotions and struggles trying to get to it. But I finally got it, so it’s awesome.”
Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlManciniVegas on Twitter.
