Local bartenders Danielle Tartarin of Keefer Bar and Justin Tisdale of Market by Jean-George have put Vancouver on the international cocktail map after placing first and second at the Giffard International Cocktail Challenge in Angers, France earlier this month.
“It’s huge,” George bartender Shaun Layton told Business in Vancouver Thursday night. “There are bartenders from all over Europe: Italy, Russia, U.K., Germany and Sweden. Vancouver is being put up there with some of the better cocktail cities in the world.”
Layton won the right to be among the dozen or so bartending stars to compete in Giffard’s global challenge last year. He won Vancouver magazine’s prestigious Bartender of the Year award earlier this month.
Tartarin and Tisdale have yet to return to Vancouver.
Giffard judges were reportedly impressed with Tartarin’s double shake in her recipe called La Belle Pomme and Tisdale’s use of a raw egg in his cocktail, The Caribbean Sunset.
Both winning cocktails included Giffard agave sec liqueur, a blend of Giffard triple sec and 100% Mexican agave nectar.
“To go to France and win is very tough. Their style and judging is a lot different from it is in Vancouver,” Layton said. “It shows how Vancouver bartenders can compete on a global scale.”