\u201cThe body movements, controlling the room, entertaining people, it\u2019s the same with martial arts tournaments,\u201d says Griman, a former martial artist who treats the ninja-like precision of flair bartending like a sport. \u201cFlairing is about having a good memory and putting on a show.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n
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)<\/p>\n
At 10 feet, the ceiling of The Wilder\u2019s 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\u2019s where delighted drinkers, often tourists seeking fun banter, will egg Griman on for tips, or clap or compare him to Tom Cruise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tourists are like, \u2018Oh, let me see a trick, let me send it to my son!\u2019 or whatever,\u201d says Griman. \u201cThat\u2019s the magic moment, when it makes someone\u2019s day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Cocktail\u2019 with pizzazz<\/p>\n
Lake Worth Beach flair bartender Rob Husted, who\u2019s organizing the Cocktail Art Challenge and co-produced the \u201cShaken & Stirred\u201d documentary, thinks the skill merits a long-overdue comeback. He says flairing\u2019s polish and showmanship is no circus novelty and deserves a fair shake for its influence on modern mixology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re behind a bar, you\u2019re just knocking out drinks,\u201d says Husted, who\u2019s competed in flair bartending since 1999. \u201cWhen you\u2019re flairing, you\u2019re a performer at the peak of their craft who\u2019s telling an entertaining story, showcasing a passion and an art, all without spilling a drop.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film \u201cShaken & Stirred\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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Rob Husted \/ Courtesy<\/p>\n
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)<\/p>\n
Ask anyone about this craft, and Tom Cruise slinging liquor in an aloha shirt is probably what comes to mind, Husted says. But flair\u2019s roots stretch back to the 19th century, when Jerry \u201cThe Professor\u201d Thomas first brought stagecraft to drink making, according to the documentary.<\/p>\n
Restaurant chain TGI Friday\u2019s then revived it in the mid-1980s, training bartenders to combine cocktails with pizzazz. The corporation\u2019s top bottle-flipper at the time, John Bandy, even coached Cruise for the movie.<\/p>\n
Afterward, TGI Fridays capitalized on the mainstream \u201cCocktail\u201d exposure by throwing World Bartender Championships, and by the late \u201990s, 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\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cThe Simpsons,\u201d \u201cScrubs\u201d and \u201cHow I Met Your Mother\u201d 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.<\/p>\n By the mid-2010s, flairing withered away \u201cto almost nothing,\u201d Husted says.<\/p>\n \u201cI took a year off when flair kind of died 10 years ago,\u201d says Husted, who still teaches flair classes and throws four contests a year. \u201cIt intimidated some competitors to compete because it was so hard. You couldn\u2019t earn a living off it anymore. They\u2019re putting so much passion and investment into this and it\u2019s like, \u2018Damn, I\u2019m not doing as well as I thought.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Rob Husted \/ Courtesy<\/p>\n 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)<\/p>\n With fewer training outlets than ever, newer generations of flair bartenders are losing motivation, he adds, which the \u201cShaken & Stirred\u201d film explores.<\/p>\n After dropping several shaker cups during her routine in West Palm Beach, Las Vegas bartender Lindsay Palumbo sounds ready to quit.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel super-embarrassed right now,\u201d Palumbo, one of few women in the field, says in the film. \u201cMy parents flew here with their friends because they\u2019re so excited for me. Nights like tonight make me just want to stop competing because I\u2019m not cut out for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Watching such high-wire pressure in \u201cShaken & Stirred\u201d might actually dissuade people from taking up the pastime, Husted concedes.<\/p>\n \u201cI 100% agree the movie could be interpreted that way,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019m hoping it will inspire the next generation to have more fun behind the bar and create more opportunities for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n The flair magician<\/p>\n With 372,000 Instagram followers<\/a>, Miami-based\u00a0Nikolai Fomin is a self-made flair guru who shoots how-to reels<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are a new bartender and you want to connect your bartending to the world, [social media\u2019s] the easiest way,\u201d says Fomin, 22.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cStar Wars\u201d lightsabers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/p>\n 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)<\/p>\n Fomin, a self-described \u201cflair magician,\u201d plans to levitate cocktail napkins and straws during his routine, featuring blaster sound effects and orchestral music from \u201cStar Wars\u201d composer John Williams, plus an original cocktail he invented. Called Duel of the Fates, the bottom half of the drink is blue \u2014 a block of frozen peach butterfly flower tea \u2014 while the top half is red, combining strawberry juice, vodka and tequila.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the block melts, the colors blend and the drink becomes purple,\u201d Fomin says. \u201cIt\u2019s a simple solution for the presentation that plays out really well for the judges.\u201d<\/p>\n Compared with the United States, flair bartending is more popular in Europe, he says, \u201cwhere the world-ranking champions are superior.\u201d He moved to South Florida because being a full-time influencer earns him more money than competing in flair bartending, which gives him \u201cpersonal joy.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, he doesn\u2019t see the flair trend making a rebound.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t seen a single person younger than me doing flair bartending in the U.S.,\u201d Fomin says. \u201cDrinking alcohol is a downward trend, but all the flair sponsors are liquor brands. And flair bartending isn\u2019t the glorious position it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Griman agrees that making money isn\u2019t necessarily the point of flair bartending.<\/p>\n \u201cFlair can be a magic trick or the way you make someone smile,\u201d he says. \u201cI think flair has a lot of room to grow, and it doesn\u2019t need to be focused on contest prizes. It\u2019s about taking care of people, hospitality and having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, and at 1 p.m. June 9 at Lake Worth Beach Park, 10 S. Ocean Blvd.<\/a> All events are free. There will also be a 5 p.m. June 8 livestream via CocktailNetworkLive.com\/live.<\/a>\u00a0For information on rules and competitors, go to BartendBetterNow.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t![\"Las](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/tfl-l-flair-bartending-03.jpg\")
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