Watch: One of the world’s best bartenders makes drinks for thousands from her Vancouver home

She’s spreading her world-class knowledge online.

Vancouver-based bartender Kaitlyn Stewart is TikTok famous

Kaitlyn Stewart loves to learn.

If the Vancouver bartender sees a new technique or tries a drink that captures her interest, she wants to know how it works. “I’m like a sponge, I’m always trying to soak it up,” she tells V.I.A over the phone.

She believes constantly learning is a testament to being a good bartender or even chef. It’s also likely one of the traits that earned her the title Bartender of the Year at the World Class Competition in 2017.

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Cocktails that tell a story

Three new bars define cocktails, each in their unique way

At Carlino. bar manager Gianluigi Bosco revisits the ingredients he grew up with in Italy. Christopher Giannakos photo

There’s a special camaraderie between keen patron and impassioned bartender. The room design, flavour and atmosphere combine and create fertile ground for storytelling. Luckily, these three new cocktail-forward bars and restaurants that have just opened in Vancouver are more than happy to indulge us. 

We stopped by these hot spots to get a taste of what they’re serving.

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8 of Canada’s 50 Best Bars of 2022 are in Vancouver

3 of our favourite bars even made the top 5

Botanist was named the second-best bar in Canada according to the Canada’s 50 Best Bars list. Canada’s 100 Best photo

The absence of the Canada’s 50 Best Bars list (there hasn’t been one since 2020) means that this year’s entry has an extra celebratory zeal behind it. Canada’s 100 Best even declares “Pour us another. Bars are back!”

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‘I don’t want to be a dreamer’: These former set decorators are disrupting the landscape of gin distilling in North Vancouver

Copperpenny Distillery looks like a stunning cocktail lounge but it’s the behind the scenes work that sets them apart.

You won’t find any wide shots of the room on social media because like with their gin, the couple aims to take people by surprise. | @copperpennydistilling/Instagram

One of the statement pieces of Copperpenny Distilling Co.‘s emerald and gold, peacock-esque cocktail lounge is a bunny lamp that made the 7,581 km trek from London to North Vancouver segmented in co-owner and mistress of distilling Jennifer Kom-Tong’s hand luggage. The shade, stashed under the seat in front of her, forced Kom-Tong to spend the nine-hour flight with her legs shoved to the side—but it was worth it.

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