When Jean Manuel Griman isn’t pouring cocktails behind the bar at The Wilder in Fort Lauderdale, he’s shaking them up Cirque du Soleil-style: juggling three tequila bottles at once, flipping syrup-loaded tins over his shoulder, and landing drinks deftly on his forearm.
These fluid flourishes are known as flair bartending, a performance style that blends acrobatic skill with drink making. You may remember the moves from Tom Cruise’s “Cocktail,” the 1988 film that catapulted “flairing” into the mainstream, inspiring a trend that hit peak popularity in the 2000s.
Well, now the high-energy art form is having a fresh moment.
Not only is it the subject of the new South Florida-set documentary “Shaken & Stirred: The Story of Flair Bartending,” streaming on AppleTV and Tubi, but there’s also a Cocktail Art Challenge starting this weekend at Biergarten Boca Raton.
During the main competition, presented by the Flair Bartending Association, participants must make five cocktails in six minutes, including one original drink and a Spanish Long Island Iced Tea with vodka, gin, rum, tequila, cognac, sour mix and simple syrup, topped with Coke. Judges grade on speed, mixology, flair and accuracy — as in, how little of the drink spills on the floor — for a $1,500 first-place prize.
Among the contenders is Griman, who says that the rules are tough but he’s already nailing his practice routine, juggling to a soundtrack that includes Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting.”
Though it began as a hobby in between karate training — a “way to put out my energy,” he says — Griman soon got serious with flair bartending, taking classes in Las Vegas before turning to competing. He’s won some prizes, not enough to quit bartending, but he enjoys the test of personal resilience. Next up, he plans to participate in a flair contest this July at New Orleans mixology summit Tales of the Cocktail.
“The body movements, controlling the room, entertaining people, it’s the same with martial arts tournaments,” says Griman, a former martial artist who treats the ninja-like precision of flair bartending like a sport. “Flairing is about having a good memory and putting on a show.”
Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Jean Manuel Griman shows off his flairing skills behind the bar at The Wilder in Fort Lauderdale. Griman will compete in the Cocktail Art Challenge in Boca Raton. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
At 10 feet, the ceiling of The Wilder’s dim drinking den is a perfect playground to practice before the event, tall enough to windmill bar spoons between his fingers, toss vodka skyward and catch bottles behind his back. It’s where delighted drinkers, often tourists seeking fun banter, will egg Griman on for tips, or clap or compare him to Tom Cruise.
“The tourists are like, ‘Oh, let me see a trick, let me send it to my son!’ or whatever,” says Griman. “That’s the magic moment, when it makes someone’s day.”
‘Cocktail’ with pizzazz
Lake Worth Beach flair bartender Rob Husted, who’s organizing the Cocktail Art Challenge and co-produced the “Shaken & Stirred” documentary, thinks the skill merits a long-overdue comeback. He says flairing’s polish and showmanship is no circus novelty and deserves a fair shake for its influence on modern mixology.
“When you’re behind a bar, you’re just knocking out drinks,” says Husted, who’s competed in flair bartending since 1999. “When you’re flairing, you’re a performer at the peak of their craft who’s telling an entertaining story, showcasing a passion and an art, all without spilling a drop.”
The film “Shaken & Stirred” dives into the precision and economic realities of competitive flair, following a trio of U.S. bartenders in the run-up to a contest at CityPlace in West Palm Beach. Along the way, it also looks at the history of the discipline.
Rob Husted / Courtesy
Rob Husted, a co-producer of the “Shaken & Stirred” documentary, is organizing a public flair bartending contest called the Cocktail Art Challenge from June 7-9 at Biergarten Boca Raton. (Rob Husted/Courtesy)
Ask anyone about this craft, and Tom Cruise slinging liquor in an aloha shirt is probably what comes to mind, Husted says. But flair’s roots stretch back to the 19th century, when Jerry “The Professor” Thomas first brought stagecraft to drink making, according to the documentary.
Restaurant chain TGI Friday’s then revived it in the mid-1980s, training bartenders to combine cocktails with pizzazz. The corporation’s top bottle-flipper at the time, John Bandy, even coached Cruise for the movie.
Afterward, TGI Fridays capitalized on the mainstream “Cocktail” exposure by throwing World Bartender Championships, and by the late ’90s, the international Flair Bartending Association mounted liquor brand-sponsored contests with first-place purses of up to $100,000, according to the film and the FBA’s website.
The competitive sport kept surging in the 2000s, as big liquor brands sponsored flair showdowns everywhere from Las Vegas to Islamorada. But contemporaneous TV shows made it a punchline, the documentary added, after “The Simpsons,” “Scrubs” and “How I Met Your Mother” spoofed flair bartending as a useless skill causing much broken glass. The 2008 Great Recession deterred sponsors, prizes dwindled and flair bartenders quit as competitive in-fighting and harder rules shrank the talent pool.
By the mid-2010s, flairing withered away “to almost nothing,” Husted says.
“I took a year off when flair kind of died 10 years ago,” says Husted, who still teaches flair classes and throws four contests a year. “It intimidated some competitors to compete because it was so hard. You couldn’t earn a living off it anymore. They’re putting so much passion and investment into this and it’s like, ‘Damn, I’m not doing as well as I thought.’ ”
Rob Husted / Courtesy
Las Vegas flair bartender Lindsay Palumbo is featured in the “Shaken & Stirred” documentary, which follows three bartenders in the run-up to a competition in West Palm Beach. (Rob Husted/Courtesy)
With fewer training outlets than ever, newer generations of flair bartenders are losing motivation, he adds, which the “Shaken & Stirred” film explores.
After dropping several shaker cups during her routine in West Palm Beach, Las Vegas bartender Lindsay Palumbo sounds ready to quit.
“I feel super-embarrassed right now,” Palumbo, one of few women in the field, says in the film. “My parents flew here with their friends because they’re so excited for me. Nights like tonight make me just want to stop competing because I’m not cut out for it.”
Watching such high-wire pressure in “Shaken & Stirred” might actually dissuade people from taking up the pastime, Husted concedes.
“I 100% agree the movie could be interpreted that way,” he says. “But I’m hoping it will inspire the next generation to have more fun behind the bar and create more opportunities for themselves.”
The flair magician
With 372,000 Instagram followers, Miami-based Nikolai Fomin is a self-made flair guru who shoots how-to reels and practices in the mornings at Lummus Park in Miami Beach. Taking his talents to social media has yielded plenty of liquor sponsorships, he says.
“If you are a new bartender and you want to connect your bartending to the world, [social media’s] the easiest way,” says Fomin, 22.
The bartender will compete against Griman at the Cocktail Art Challenge with a colorful niche: chucking bottles and shakers toward the ceiling with cheeky aerial twists while swinging red and blue “Star Wars” lightsabers.
Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel
Miami-based flair bartender Nikolai Fomin, seen here at The Wilder in Fort Lauderdale, has amassed 372,000 Instagram followers and will be competing in the Cocktail Art Challenge in Boca Raton. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Fomin, a self-described “flair magician,” plans to levitate cocktail napkins and straws during his routine, featuring blaster sound effects and orchestral music from “Star Wars” composer John Williams, plus an original cocktail he invented. Called Duel of the Fates, the bottom half of the drink is blue — a block of frozen peach butterfly flower tea — while the top half is red, combining strawberry juice, vodka and tequila.
“As the block melts, the colors blend and the drink becomes purple,” Fomin says. “It’s a simple solution for the presentation that plays out really well for the judges.”
Compared with the United States, flair bartending is more popular in Europe, he says, “where the world-ranking champions are superior.” He moved to South Florida because being a full-time influencer earns him more money than competing in flair bartending, which gives him “personal joy.”
Still, he doesn’t see the flair trend making a rebound.
“I haven’t seen a single person younger than me doing flair bartending in the U.S.,” Fomin says. “Drinking alcohol is a downward trend, but all the flair sponsors are liquor brands. And flair bartending isn’t the glorious position it used to be.”
Griman agrees that making money isn’t necessarily the point of flair bartending.
“Flair can be a magic trick or the way you make someone smile,” he says. “I think flair has a lot of room to grow, and it doesn’t need to be focused on contest prizes. It’s about taking care of people, hospitality and having a good time.”
The event starts June 7 with a participants-only meet-and-greet session. The competition will take place from 5 p.m. to midnight June 8 at Biergarten Boca Raton, 309 Via de Palmas, Suite 90, and at 1 p.m. June 9 at Lake Worth Beach Park, 10 S. Ocean Blvd. All events are free. There will also be a 5 p.m. June 8 livestream via CocktailNetworkLive.com/live. For information on rules and competitors, go to BartendBetterNow.com.