Luis Brosas is by far one of the most talented bartenders in the Torontonian scene: Senior Instructor at BartenderOne,elite member of the Movers N Shakers Events Team and Director of the BartenderOne SmashLab program, Luis still finds time to successfully pursue a career in Business Management with a specialization in HR at the prestigious Ryerson University. Nevertheless, this success hasn’t been easy and as he admits, Flair Bartending is the key that opened so many doors.
Luis’ story began six years ago in Highschool, when watching a flair video sparked the interest for flair in his heart. This interest would transform 3 years later into a passion after joining the BartenderOne MasterClass and seeing with his own two eyes B1 instructor, Andrew Campolli flair like a pro in class. In that moment, Luis knew this was something he had to master…. and he did.
One week after graduating from B1 MasterClass, Luis participated in his first ever Flair Competition. His superb skill earned him the right to be crowned as the Number 1 Amateur Flair Bartender by the Toronto Flair League (TFL) 6 months down the road in 2011, only to be ranked Number 1 Semi Pro Flair Bartender by the TFL one year later
His talent, charm, discipline and willingness to work hard quickly earned him a seat at the BartenderOne team to travel around Canada producing top quality events for thirsty clients demanding top quality entertainment, as well as getting him a job as Flair Bartender at Jack Astor’s and College Street Bar.
The road was not easy, Luis remembers training 4 to 6 hours a day at the beginning of his career, even today, after all these years of practice, Luis still practices around 30 hours a week to stay sharp and develop new routines.
Does knowing how to flair have a positive impact on a bartender’s career? Luis knows clearly his answer: “My career as a bartender would be nonexistent if it wasn’t for flair. The best opportunities have come from flair; from standing out in competitions to developing a great personality behind the bar”
Now you know it, flair, with enough hard work and dedication can literally change your life just as it did with Luis. Grab your bottles and tins and start practicing. We want to see you at the next Flair Competition along side Luis and other flair artists.
Do you dare to flair?
The new bartender’s best friend? An app to catch fake ID’s
Fake ID’s are a precious investment for many youngsters desperate to get their hands on a cold pint of beer and a big headache for the industry. Bar owners, bartenders and security team learn that failing to identify a fake ID may result in severe penalizations, fines and the potential loss of their license
This makes the constant challenge between bar staff and clients something close to a delicious game of chess where each opponent tries different moves to outsmart the other: every day, enthusiast college students show up at the bar flashing their newest $150 fake ID to permanently skeptical bartenders.
Well… bad news smart kids. A new jewel is here to help catch every underage drinker wannabe and send them back home until they are old enough to deserve that pint.
An American Company, Intellicheck Mobilisa created an app, BarZapp which scans a driver’s license’s barcode and verifies encoded information displaying the card owner’s name, date of birth, ID expiration and ID number.  Identities are confirmed—or not, in the case of a fake ID. Photos of sample IDs from the appropriate state are able to be shown to aid further visual inspection, which is far quicker than reviewing a book of sample ID’s –
The best part? It costs only $1.99 on iTunes. Although the company announced that bar and restaurant owners will need to purchase annual or monthly licenses, this is still a pretty good deal for bartenders to cover their butts.
Not only this but the BarZapp keeps track of bargoers, so it can identify who has been given the lifetime boot from a particular establishment. Could you ask more?
Evidently, this app will trigger a response from the vast industry of falsification which surely will come with a way around BarZapp, but in this moment we can say… sorry kids, probably next year.