Metroscape

Nov 29, 1999

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Bar Association

When Tom Cruise tossed bottles and glasses in the film Cocktails, cinegoers gasped in disbelief. Not Michael Tolley. Part of the swashbuckling ShowTenders, consultants to Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock Cafe among others, Tolley and his colleague Mathew Wilhoite are turning desi barmen into showmen during a five-city tour (Calcutta, Bangalore, Goa, Mumbai, Pune). In Calcutta last week they taught the city's bartenders their stuff. Some tips:

Wow clients with snazzy tricks. Such as the Waterfall (flip a bottle, let it roll over the back of your hand, then grab the neck).

Keep them crowded at the bar with anecdotes.

Have them coming back for more with sexy cocktails like Fuzzy Navel. Evidently, Drink No. 1 in the US, according to the gurus of the bar, is Sex on the Beach -- a delicious vodka-based number with peach schnapps and cranberry juice.

Learn about different tastes (Americans like a napkin with a drink to wipe their hands after squeezing out the lemon).

Tolley should have added another tip: don't play with fire. At the Bacardi night recently, when one of the pros was trying to show off with a fiery number, enthusiasm got the better of him. He burnt his chin.

-Labonita Ghosh

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