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| Up Front.. |
A flair for bartending
T.G.I. Friday's mixologists compete for 'Greatest Bartender in World'
Brian Zachau, the two-time defending U.S. champion, couldn’t KO the thriller from Manila, Eric Martinez, a 26-year-old flair bartender from Caloocan, Manila, in the Philippines. Martinez out-finessed him to capture the title of “Greatest Bartender in the World” in T.G.I. Friday’s World Bartender Championship held in Las Vegas in March. Zachau, who tends bar at the T.G.I. Friday’s at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, had to settle for the U.S. title for the third year in a row.
To claim their titles, the two beat out 8,000 Friday’s bartenders from 58 countries. The final competition came down to eight finalists performing for drink-ordering judges in front of nearly 1,500 people at The Palms in Vegas. The scoring is similar to ice skating competitions, Zachau pointed out, and while they’re judged on a set criteria—speed, bar mechanics, accuracy and technical knowledge—it still boils down to a matter of opinion. And the judges went with Martinez’s slate of tricks and showy tosses.
 Brian Zachau takes flair bartending seriously. He practices three hours a day and even takes his show on the road to other competitions. |
The competition showcases the contestants’ “working flair”—the same moves a bartender might use in the restaurant bar, except there’s a lot more flipping cocktails and bottles in the air and catching glasses behind the back. “They entertain guests with their...ability to demonstrate accurate and precise mixology with charisma,” said Richard Snead, president and CEO of Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, parent company of Friday’s.
During the finals, the judges sit on bar stools at the performance bar and order drinks. Each contestant has to make the drinks correctly, serve them to the right judge, all while charismatically juggling and balancing the napkins, ice, bottles, limes, whatever’s on hand...or elbow...or foot.
Friday’s has a long-standing history of flair bartending. According to Zachau, Friday’s bartenders trained Tom Cruise for his role as a flair bartender in the movie, “Cocktail.”
When Zachau’s not bartending, he’s training. He spends three hours a day in his warehouse studio with a rubber floor tossing bottles and cups, perfecting his skills. He and a partner, Paul Trzcianko, run a flair bartender school and the Liquid Motion League, where they train bartenders for the pro tour.
Yes, that’s right, flair bartending is the next professional sport, according to Zachau. “I call it a sport,” he said. “There are rules, winners and losers, it’s competitive and it takes skill to do.” (Just like the other non-sport sport, competitive eating, which actually takes more guts than skill.) And, like mainstream sports, flair bartenders look for sponsors to help offset the cost.
That’s because it’s not cheap. In order to practice, they need the same bottles used in competitions. “We go to the liquor store buy a hundred dollars worth and then dump the liquor out,” Zachau said. Bartenders who don’t drink? “That’s because it was a bottle of Triple Sec,” Trzcianko explained. Plus, there are travel expenses, entry fees and equipment. Zachau hauls a traveling bar that folds into a narrow trunk so he can take it on airplanes. He sets up the bar in the hotel room so he can practice before competitions.
Zachau won $5,000 in the Friday’s competition, while the world champ took home $10,000 and had his name engraved on the propeller that hangs above his bar in Manila. The propeller, which is over every bar in the chain, signifies “the bar is the engine that drives the restaurant’s energy and atmosphere,” according to the company,
Losing that extra $5,000 is why Zachau trains three hours a day. He’s motivated to toss his bottle in the ring for the next Flair Bartender competition.
