Find these top bartenders at guest shifts, seminars and the Green Garden Gala.

Vancouver Cocktail Week is your best chance to meet — and learn from — some of the world’s greatest bartenders, and you don’t even need to get on a plane to do it. From March 3 to 10, the third annual VCW welcomes some of the most skilled, talented and highly awarded barkeeps from London, Singapore, Argentina and other corners of the planet, and you will definitely want to sample what they are shaking up.

Among them is the legendary Jesse Vida, famous from NYC’s The Dead Rabbit (named World’s Best Bar by Tales of the Cocktail) as well as his days as head bartender at World’s 50 Best Bars-recognized Atlas in Singapore. He’s now partner in the agave-forward Singapore speakeasy Cat Bite Club, and ready to share all his hard-learned lessons at a seminar and guest shift at Laowai.

But you can also learn all about:

• Chinese spirits from Bastien Ciocca and the team at Guangzhou’s Hope & Sesame, No. 74 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list;
• The art of hospitality from Diego Cabrera, winner of the Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award whose Madrid cocktail bar, Salmon Guru, is No. 16 on World’s 50 Best;
• Cocktail skills from Ronato (Tato) Giovannoni of Florería Atlántico in Buenos Aires, Altos Bartenders’ Bartender 2020 and winner of the World’s 50 Best Bars’ 2023 Roku Industry Icon Award.

(You can find these legends leading seminars and hosting guest shifts at Laowai and Bagheera.)

But that’s not all.

In recent years, Botanist at the Fairmont Pacific Rim has become famous for its collabs with some of the world’s most celebrated bars, and they would certainly not miss the opportunity VCW24 offers. They will welcome two team members from London bar Lyaness (named World’s Best Bar and Best International Hotel Bar at Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited Awards) to demonstrate the team’s cutting-edge creativity and exemplary service.

Plus global brand ambassadors will be popping up all over town: Among them, Carlino will welcome an international crew to talk all things vermouth, while Taste of Legacy will host both Diplomático rum’s Gavin Miller and Ben Sheffield of Scrappy’s Bitters, who will also lead a seminar at The Modern Bartender.

Seminars and guest shifts aside, the best place to meet the best bartenders from around the world, across the country and right here at home is at the closing night Green Garden Gala on Saturday, March 9. The signature event of Vancouver Cocktail Week will transform the Sutton Place Hotel ballroom into a botanical bower with live music, a DJ, fine food, more than 35 premium brand sponsors and, of course, more cocktail creativity than you could fit into a bootlegger’s bathtub.

Tickets for seminars, dinners, neighbourhood crawls, drag shows, the opening brunch, the closing gala and all other events at Vancouver Cocktail Week presented by The Alchemist, March 3 to 10, 2024, are now on sale. For tickets, information on the unticketed Cinq à Sept series of happy hours or to browse the Vancouver Cocktail Week 2024 program guide, visit thealchemistmagazine.ca/vcw/. A print version of the program guide is also available at bars, restaurants and private liquor retailers around Vancouver.