There are all sorts of competitions for bartenders happening in and around Vancouver, when I heard that Jay Jones, one of the partners of the new restaurant/bar Pourhouse in Gastown was organizing ‘The Craft of Cointreau’ I had to be there. This was an awesome event that featured ten of the best bartenders in Vancouver in competition. Cointreau was the sponsor and the winner of this competition was Geoff Robinson of The Diamond who is the lucky man who gets a free trip to France to spend 5 days courtesy of Cointreau. This was Geoff’s first competition and his winning drink was the “Auld Alliance”. In 2nd place was Justin Tisdale from The Market and in 3rd place was Lauren Mote of The Refinery.
Trevor Kallies Competing Behind the Bar
The other participants included:
Bobbi Kay of Boneta | Christina Kuypers of Voya | Colin MacDougall of Blue Water | Danielle Tatarin of DB Moderne | Giovanni Giardino of Campagnolo | Mike Parks of The Cascade Room and Trevor Kallies of The Granville Room.
Jay Jones (Left) & Shaun Layton (Right) Announcing the Winners
Geoff Robinson (Left) WINNER & Jay Jones (Right)
The Head Judge was Jay Jones (marking on personality, style, passion, technique and their use of Cointreau), and the Cocktail Judges included- Dan Volway, Remy Cointreau Brand Ambasador | Mark Brand, Proprietor of Boneta, The Diamond | Shaun Layton, Bar Manager of George Ultra Lounge (each marking on cocktail appearance, flavour and overall impression).
By: Richard Wolak