Pyrotechnic Bartender Gets November Court Date - "No One Got Hurt"

I only lit the drink on fire - not the bar.

"There is no requirement against flaming drinks," insists Albert Trummer, who has been charged with reckless endangerment for his pyrotechnic antics inside a posh Chinatown lounge called Apotheke.
Fire code officials say Trummer poured a liquid on the bar and ignited a five-foot flame back in June as 50 patrons stood nearby in the curtain-draped lounge.

The professionally-trained chef turned bartender faces a year behind bars if convicted.
Trummer flashed a peace sign as he exited Manhattan criminal court after a Tuesday hearing in which a Nov. 9 court date was set.

He insisted he didn't set the bar top ablaze - only the cocktail.
"No one got hurt. I didn't use any gasoline," he told cops, according to court documents. "People have been doing this for 200 years."

FDNY investigators say otherwise - and that they sent undercover investigators after being tipped off by worried patrons.

Trummer, 41, has billed his bar as a showplace.
One online listing says this of Doyers St. hot spot: "The presentation of a cocktail is just as dramatic as the cocktail itself. The bar is no longer a bar -- it's a stage, a chemistry lab, a theater."