Vache Manoukian and Spyder Rigor talk tricks and stunts and getting drinks poured at a bar longer than an Olympic swimming pool.
When you’re a flair bartender, the whole world looks like something to toss.
And so it is when Vache Manoukian, a flair bartender at Mega Bar in Circa, flips everyday items without thinking when he’s at home: utensils, his toothbrush, his phone. And so it is when Spyder Rigor, another flair bartender at Mega Bar, cruises the condiment aisle at the grocery store: “I need this ranch?” he recalled. “I flip it, toss it behind my back, toss it into the cart.”
On duty, the flipping habit flourishes, as the bartenders perform tricks with barware and bottles to entertain customers. Like juggling, flair bartending presents an obvious demonstration of manual dexterity and eye-hand coordination, all seasoned with showmanship.
At the same time, a balance must always be struck between entertaining customers and supplying them with drinks (the basic job description, after all, of a bartender). On a recent day off, Manoukian and Rigor shared the secrets of striking that balance — at a bar longer than an Olympic swimming pool.
If any bar should be staffed by shifts of flair bartenders, it’s Mega Bar, which is itself an instance of flair, writ large. Very large: The bar stretches 165 feet on the first floor of Circa. There are 46 television screens and 53 seats with gaming machines and 120 beer handles.
Each day, the bar goes through 500-plus pounds of ice and about 50 bottles of base booze (vodka, gin, rum, whiskeys). In a year, that’s more than 90 tons of ice and more than 18,000 bottles. Mega Bar, which opened in October 2020, generates more business than the property’s six other bars combined.
“Sometimes, every seat is filled and it’s two-deep and they’re hanging around the corner of the bar,” said Sam Pulliam, beverage director of Circa. “We try to cultivate a bar with something for everyone. More often than not, a guest is going to remember the engagement they had with a bartender more than their cocktail.”
Which is where flair bartenders come in.
Manoukian and Rigor have both flaired at Mega Bar since its opening. Manoukian got into flair bartending 20 years ago after his band broke up and he stumbled on a flair competition during a vacation in Florida. Rigor also took up flairing 20 years ago, inspired by a cousin who was throwing bottles when they owned a bar together in Seattle.
“What is this?” he recalled asking. “I fell in love with it.”
Flair bartending is partly built on fluid dynamics. “If the bottle has more than 3 ounces of liquid, it won’t do a full end-over-end rotation, so it’s not a working flair. It flies out of the spout,” Manoukian said. “If it has 3 ounces or less, you can do end over end, a full rotation.” Flair bartenders must learn to quickly judge, by look and feel, the volume of liquid.
The shape of the bottle is also fundamental. “There’s a lot of easy bottles to flair and a lot of hard bottles to flair.” Rigor said.
The ideal bottle is cylindrical, with sufficient neck. The cylindrical shape allows the bottle to be flipped, spun and tossed more easily; a long enough neck affords a better grip than holding the bottle by its body. Examples of easy? Standard bottles of Skyy Vodka and Captain Morgan Spiced Rum.
Bottles with short necks or squat bodies are much more difficult to enlist in flairing. Like Crown Royal or Chambord or Hendrick’s Gin. And draft beer, from a flair perspective, is flat-out dull, “but we can do a ton of stuff with beer bottles,” Rigor said.
How often do the dropsies happen? Very rarely, Manoukian said, because practice. “We only do moves at work that are dialed in.”
Flairing isn’t just about fluids and bottles.
The craft is also reflected in smaller gestures, like lighting the orange slice that garnishes an old fashioned or finessing a cocktail napkin so it lands with a swirl on the bar or suctioning a can of Red Bull to a palm, then inverting the can to pour the liquid into a drink.
Sometimes, flair bartenders observe the buddy system, Manoukian said. “If they’re doing a multi-pour flair, you have to knock out a couple of customers for them, help them if they’re setting up something big,” perhaps involving a bartender on a ladder pouring from a cocktail shaker into glasses balanced on bottles that are perched on a second bartender’s head.
But tricks, no matter how large or small, must always yield to the demands of basic bartending. The bartenders must constantly observe the flow of business to judge if, when and what style of flair to perform.
“If it gets busy, if it gets four-deep, everybody behind can see what I’m doing, so for the next people, I bring it down a notch,” Rigor said. “The most important thing is to serve guests in a timely manner.”
The other afternoon off duty, though, it was tricks, not service, as Manoukian and Rigor demonstrated signature flairs on the customer side of Mega Bar.
Manoukian’s move involved balancing a bottle on the spinning side of a cocktail shaker, lofting the bottle onto the shaker’s edge, then flipping the bottle on the underside of his bent forearm. Rigor poured liquid into a cocktail shaker, then juggled the bottle and shaker, back and forth, without spilling a drop.
“You guys have three arms!” a passerby shouted.
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ItsJLW on Twitter.
The new restaurant reportedly will take over the space once occupied by Joyful House Chinese Cuisine.
Whether you frequent these chains or are on the hunt for some delicious places to stop on your next road trip, Stacker compiled this list of 20 fast-food chains that are only in certain states, making them must-tries for those traveling around the United States.
On a stretch of South Water Street, architect Windom Kimsey is close to completing his take on live-work-play. It will include his restaurant, Azzurra Cucina Italiana.
Vegan Dining Month features completely vegan restaurants and those with vegan options, about 25 in all. A portion of the sales during January will aid Animal Help Alliance.
“Jump! The Ultimate Dog Show,” Disney on Ice’s “Road Trip Adventures,” and Date Skate highlight this week’s lineup of things to do in Las Vegas.
Vic’s Las Vegas in Symphony Park takes its name from the famed Vegas Vic neon cowboy on Fremont Street.
The Peppermill Restaurant and Fireside Lounge remains a remarkable assault on the senses — even by Las Vegas standards. Turns out, its history is nearly as colorful as its interiors.
The pop-up window at Resorts World follows the inaugural Vegas Randy’s that launched in August.
An immersive viewing of “Nightmare Before Christmas,” the Enchant winter attractions, and Human Nature’s holiday show lead this week’s lineup.
As the year ends, we celebrate 22 noteworthy restaurants that opened in Las Vegas, and we bid goodbye to more than a dozen that closed.
Copyright © 2019 Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
Powered by WordPress.com VIP