#64 Tom Dyer - Flair Bartending: History, Culture, Training, Competition, Legends of Flair

Tom Dyer is a flair bartender, founder of the World Flair Association, and a bartending educator. Tom rose through the ranks of the flair bartending in the early 2000s and over a fifteen year stretch he won 12 UK championship titles, 2 World Championship titles and over 80 international flair bartending competitions across the globe. 

Unlike many of his contemporaries Tom has remained one of the leading figures in the flair community to this day, so is uniquely positioned to comment on the history and current status of this often misunderstood side of bartending. Tom has recently co-written the Flair Bartending book, which chronicles in great detail the story of flair going back almost 400 years!

On the episode we discuss the history of flair, from the early days of TGI Fridays, through to the movie Cocktail, and into flair competitions, the so-called 'golden age' of flair in the noughts, right up to present day stars of flair. We also touch on the evolution of flair, discussing craft flair, bar magic, and much more.This was such a fun conversation and Tom is genuinely the best ambassador for flair bartending that I can imagine.

⁠The Flair Bartending Book is available here⁠

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00:00 Documenting the History of Flair Bartending

04:20 *What it Takes to Become a World Class Flair Bartender

07:10 How Flair Competitions Work - IBA, FBA, WFA - Competition Structure, What Its Like Competing in a Flair Final, How Competitions Have Evolved

15:35 The Flair Bartending Book

18:24 The Origins of Flair Bartending - Jan Steen, Jerry Thomas, Japanese Flair

20:47 John Mescall - The First Modern Flair Bartender, TGI Friday’s

21:40 Cocktail Movie - Tom Cruise, John Bandy

25:40 The First Flair Competition - Bartender Olympics26:37 Regional Distinctions Between Flair: US vs European, Lee Miller & Bottle/Tin

31:25 Working in Flair: Bennigan’s, TGI’s, Ray Blade, Everyone’s a Flair Bartender

36:00 Craft Flair: Marian Beke, 5-Star Flair

40:30 Flair During a Bar Shift 

45:10 Bar Magic, Dickens

50:07 The Golden Era of Flair - Nicholas Saint Jean, Christian Delpeche, Tom Dyer, Neil Lowey

59:15 Flair in Las Vegas in 2004: Mindaugas Gradeckas

1:01:35 Tom Dyer Flair: Bottle Tin Is King

1:02:35 Legendary Flair Bars, Opening a Flair Bar Today - Pressure, Failure

1:08:20 Social Media: Flair Education, Entertainment, Exposure

1:12:52 The Difficulty of Originality

1:15:00 Physical Punishment of Flair Bartending

1:17:42 Current Flair Competitions: Arctic Flair, Las Vegas, Food Town Flair, Legends World Flair

1:19:42 Who are The Current Best Flair Bartenders in the World? Who are the Best of All Time?

1:22:50 Learnings from Writing the Book

📷 Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tristanstephenson/

📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/