The ongoing fight over flaming beverages at downtown cocktail lounge Apothéke is going to trial. You'll recall that last year one of the bar's owners, Albert Trummer, was arrested (not once but twice) for his pyrotechnic tricks, specifically his tendency to light the bar on fire in the process of making absinthe drinks. Today Trummer turned down a deal that would have let him go without doing hard time. “I am going to fight this all the way,” Trummer said after court.
Apparently the Manhattan DA's office offered Trummer a deal in which he would plead guilty to two counts of disorderly conduct with no jail time but he rejected it, choosing instead to take his chances in court facing charges of reckless endangerment (for which he could get up to two years in the slammer).
For awhile now Trummer, who also owns Theater bar in TriBeCa, has claimed that he is being set up by co-owner Heather Tierney, who has sued him over the matter, and he says is trying to force him from the business. He also claims that "controlled flaming of drinks, including those with absinthe, have been a common bartenders’ practice," which in the case of Apothéke, at least, seems true. Since it opened, the well-trained bar staff has been lighting drinks on fire to the entertainment of many (including Real Housewives). And every time we've seen it, at least, it always seemed highly under control.
Trummer is due back in court in September.
