Tony Adams: The best in the world - bar none

May 13 2008 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

Emma Johnson talks to the barman whose Army rejection led him to be a real winner

IT IS one thing being able to pull a decent pint; it is quite another being able to tell people you are the best barman in the world.

But that is exactly what Southport’s Tony Adams is.

The 25-year-old, who mixes drinks at the Haymarket TGI Friday’s, in London, was recently crowned the world’s number one bartender at the annual TGI Friday’s World Bar Tending Championships in Las Vegas.

It was quite an accolade for Tony, whose first bar job was as a 16-year-old glass collector at China City, in his hometown.

Not that back then he expected to be making a career out of bar tending, never mind one that would take him around the world winning competitions.

"I thought I was going to join the Army. I went to university to do my degree to become an officer, but in the end my knees were too bad from all the rugby I played when I was young and I couldn’t join," the Nottingham graduate explains.

Tony’s bar tending career started with him working as a regular bar tender at The Park Pub, in Southport, but after a friend told him about "flairing" – the art of cocktail making – he became hooked on honing his technique.

"That was back in January, 2003," recalls Tony, who began working for TGI Friday’s the same year. "I just practised and practised like nothing else in the world mattered, and then I started entering competitions.

"I’m proud to have turned my passion into a career. Being World Champion makes all the time, practice and studying worthwhile. Bar tending is not just about theatrics and flairing, but it’s about being on the ball mentally. You have to learn hundreds of recipes, know what they are called in different countries, know your free pour measurements and all this while you are flairing and keeping the customer entertained."

These days, bar tenders tend to fall into two camps – "mixologists" and "flairs". Tony, who is one of only three master bar tenders in the UK, says he sees himself as a bit of both: "I am more of an entertainer barman. I know how to flair, but I am most concerned with making sure the people who come into the bar have the best night they can and how I can affect that."

In Las Vegas, Tony impressed the world championship judges in a series of skill tests, including the mastery of bar mechanics, technical knowledge and accuracy, and freestyle cocktail making to win the title and walk away with the £5,500 prize money.

"I didn’t really know how big a deal the competition was," says Tony. "I just thought:’ Right, I have 10 minutes to make five drinks for five judges and got on with it’. I did exactly what I do every day of the week and I just kept talking through the routines and tricks. For me, it is all about the interaction and the banter."

With an eye to owning his own bars in the future, for the moment Tony – who works at the busiest TGI Friday’s bar in the world – is keen to get us Britons being a bit more adventurous about our drinks.

"I think people panic when they go into a bar," says Tony. "They have all the optics in front of them and all these drinks and this guy wanting their order and they don’t want to make a fool of themselves in front of whoever they are with, so they order something safe that they have heard of.

"That’s why everyone drinks mojitos and cosmopolitans. If you offer someone a new drink and get them to try it, they will never say no."

As for Tony’s own particular poison, he is a pretty straightforward kind of guy, as it happens.

"I would probably just have a beer," he laughs.

"Or something honest and straight up like a rusty nail."

* CHECK out Tony’s winning action at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmmYqJH1Vm0

emmajohnson@dailypost.co.uk

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