Message 131 of 1991 in Flair Bartending

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Dear All,
I find it very amusing that "Flair" bartenders have no problem with any other 
type of bartenders but "non flair" bartenders treat them as outcasts and 
freaks... whatever happened to live and let live.
It can be argued that Drinks like the Blue Blazer were the first steps down 
the round to Flair and that was over 100 years ago by the inventor of the 
Martini and the Planters Punch (or so he claimed). Flair is seen by many as 
merely a skill of the bartender as well as the extension of their 
personality... if you as a bartender pick up a bottle 500 times a day surely 
you should be able to balance it on your hand... of course you don't have to 
but why can't you?
 Competition Flair is a branch of bartending much in the same way that 
entering drinks into Competitions is. It should be distinguisehd from working 
flair which just about every bartender does (cut pours anyone?) and the two 
elements are discrete... don't confuse the artistic gesticulations of men like 
Ken Hall, leigh Miller and the like in competitions with what they do in the 
bar every night. Sushi chefs aren't like that but Teppanyaki chefs are... 
there is a time and place for all surely.
Also it has to be said that in all my time in bartendering and writing about 
bartenders that Flair bartenders are the most committed to their 'job' than 
others... check out flairbar.org (I think... the FBA website) and you have 
2165 bartenders who have all paid to be members, who regularly get together 
from around the world to compete against each other) and who have bothered to 
work at the industry part of the job (amusing customers whilst they are 
waiting or bored) as well as the artistic element.
Flair is not the next step in bartending but it is a bartending skill. The 
bars they work in are busy and lively and they work hard (many of them) to 
promote the drinking of cocktails... in their bars no-one is drinking martinis 
or manhattans but by the same dint few are drinking white wine or beers 
either...
hey ho
angus