Slingers serves drink with flair

Most guys who throw a bottle in a bar would be arrested. The five guys who do it at Slingers in Cape Girardeau get tips.

The five men are flair bartenders. They serve you a drink and a show at the bar on Sprigg Street behind Cafe N Me and Pizza Hut. Flair bartenders juggle, flip, toss and catch liquor bottles and cocktail shakers before, after or in between pouring a drink.

Shaun Langford grew up in Jackson and after a period in St. Louis decided to return home to open a big-city bar with friends in the business. The manager, Brian Williams, owned an entertainment company that provided and trained flair bartenders. Williams has worked in half a dozen towns and countless bar atmospheres and jumped at the chance to introduce something new to another town.

"We came down here to be a big fish in a little pond," Williams said. His company, Energy Entertainment, still takes contracts for large conventions or energy drink events. He, Langford, Ben Burch and two others entertain customers six nights a week — 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Saturday — at Slingers.

For one act, Williams mixes up some liquors, hops on another guy's shoulders and pours out two tiers of shots in four different colors — and he claims he's afraid of heights.

The space across from Towers Complex has been open as several different bars, but Williams and Langford are walking away from the past.

"It's not the same crappy, feet-stuck-to-the-floor bar that it used to be," Williams said.

The bar is strictly 21 and older, but they have a special college night on Thursdays when they increase security to deter underage drinking. With staff members who have background and experience in larger cities like St. Louis, Las Vegas and Orlando, ID checks are strict.

For those who are allowed to drink, the bartenders know how to pour. They have an extensive knowledge of drink recipes and favorites to recommend. Ben Burch, one of the five who flip bottles each night, has a soft, medium and hard shot recipe on standby for indecisive customers. He's been behind the bar for seven years and spinning bottles for four, but don't worry about the flair slowing down the service.

"To me," Burch said, "there's a time and place for it."

If the bar is slammed and customers are waiting, Burch said he puts the show on hold.

If you can tear your eyes off the pretty spinning bottles, Slingers has activity nights. Monday is Rock Band Karaoke. Thursdays Matt Murphy plays on stage. The weekend nights alternate between a DJ and a live band.

The bar has four lounge areas where a group can get bottle service, and when the amiable weather returns, Langford said they plan on having a beer garden of sorts.

"Except a little twist to it," he said.

The twist he's referring to is the flying bottles.