There’s something very Las Vegas about flair bartending. You’ve surely seen it on the Strip before. It’s where the bartender flips liquor bottles around while mixing your drink.
So it’s fitting that a Las Vegas filmmaker who was once a practitioner herself has made a documentary about it. In Shaken and Stirred, writer/director Deborah Richards — who also co-founded 1905 Films, a local movie studio and production company — follows three local flair bartenders who travel to Florida for a competition. Along the way, experts and enthusiasts talk about the origin and evolution of the practice and its enduring appeal.
The film premiered in Las Vegas last week and is now available online.
It's the first feature-length documentary on flair bartending. Richards says that the practice peaked culturally in the mid-2000s, but at the time, other "extreme" activities like X Games overshadowed it. "You can't market a bottle of Patron to a 5-year-old the way you can with a skateboard," she added. "So for that reason, it's always been kind of underground."
Some notable facts about flair bartending explored in the film:
- The practice dates back to the mid-1800s, all but started by legendary bartender Jerry "The Professor" Thomas, who brought showmanship to his bars. The fiery Blue Blazer drink remains his most famous drink.
- Flair bartending began its cultural ascent in Los Angeles thanks to the ostentatious restaurant chain TGI Fridays and the competitions it began. That tipped off Disney's Touchstone Pictures, which then had TGI Friday's bartender John "JB" Bandy train actors Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown for the 1988 movie Cocktail. That film drove flair bartending into the American mainstream. (Bandy is interviewed in Shaken and Stirred.)
- Orlando and Las Vegas are two of the biggest hotspots for flair bartending.
- Competitions drove further interest in flair bartending until 2008, when the Great Recession scared competition sponsors away. The mixology craze that immediately followed also diminished flair bartending's appeal.
- The practice is dominated by men, though more women have joined the fray. "... All the guys pucker up a little when we go into what it's like to work as a woman in the hospitality industry," says Richards. "But it was really important for me to show that side of it."
- Despite the showmanship, flair bartending still prioritizes hospitality. "If you're standing there behind the bar juggling six plastic bottles and a guest is waiting, you've lost the fight," says Richards. "They're not going to return and tell their friends about the place. It's such a service-oriented industry that [flair bartending] really is about elevating the experience, rather than just making it all about you."
Guests: Deborah Richards, filmmaker, co-founder of 1905 Films.
