How to Get Canada in the World’s Best 100 Bars
Last night saw the release of the World’s Top 50 Bars in London with the 50-100 list released last week. This year, there was no bars from Canada on the list anywhere and of course that begins to beg the question as to why. We have some of the best bartenders in the world, Kaitlyn Stewart winning World Class in 2017 and Jeff Savage coming 2nd in the world this year; so why aren’t our bars not taking the world stage like our bartenders? Jon Smolensky stated it perfectly on Facebook, “there are 400 judges for these types of awards, it’s just a tabulation of where they’ve been”. This is not easy to accomplish in our wonderful country because of a few things, restrictive liquor laws, limited brand budgets, the expanse that is Canada and the politeness of Canadian bartenders (this we will touch on in a moment). I have been fortunate in the past to get some accolades at Tales of the Cocktail for my little hotel bar back in 2011 and 2012, I have done a seminar on creating a small city cocktail culture; here are my pointers.
1. Ask, scream and yell
This one goes back to the politeness of Canadians; the ask is the biggest thing that we as a culture remiss. Introducing yourself to industry stalwarts at events like Toronto Cocktail Conference or Tales of the Cocktail gets your foot in the door to ask them to come to Canada. The worst someone will always say is no, but not asking is worse. It may take budget which we will address further, this is coverable. With the scream and yell, we as a collective industry need to celebrate our successes further afield, the internet spews pages of content every day; journalists and bartenders can champion our culture further through websites like Liquor.com, Punch etc. It is not boastful or obnoxious to celebrate your success, it brings attention to the larger cocktail market in your city; as the adage goes “a rising tide, raises all boats”.
2. Funding the Ask
Funding the ask is always one of the most difficult things to do especially in Canada. Canadian brands and distributors budgets are paper thin and often don’t click with the marketing plan that you want to do. Self-funding can be expensive outlay but it’s ROI is quite high if you get on these lists, it is also a three pronged strategy; first, the industry masterclass makes the industry better, the pop up that night educates your clientele and makes you the spot to visit post popup and third, the guest bartender/brand ambassador gets to experience your entire city which in turn shines light on it. These events should be a break even, covering costs because the long-term windfall is intangible but leads further afield than just your market.
3. Community
Victoria is a city of 100,000 people but has some of the best bars in the country; we’ve all worked hard to get to this stage where we help each other out, have amazing guests who really know their drinks and are the definition of small city cocktail culture. There are always detractors to these awards, the ones that say they are irrelevant; if you are in a small market, it could mean the difference between a great year to an epic year which could lead to so many more opportunities in the future as well. If you open a bar to try and win awards, you are already missing the point of the industry we are in. Open a great bar, build the community and the rest will come.
It was amazing when Clive’s got to the Top 4 International Hotel Bar in 2011 and 2012, the ways we built that culture out in Victoria has resonated since. It wasn’t easy, we had no budget, a ton of luck including visits from big names. People like Angus Winchester, who I luckily had reached out to months before his visit and he just happened to have a couple of days off while he was in Seattle and did a trip to Victoria. A mixture of solid emphasis on a quality venue, good drinks and hospitality, asking for anything we wanted knowing that 75% it would be a no, as much money and effort put into training the industry and our guests and just plain luck.
Canada is going to make the list, but unless we start being proactive in getting a slim number of judges into the country to visit our amazing bar scenes across the country, the little pockets in Saskatchewan to the bustling cities of Toronto and Vancouver. Just takes asking and seeing where it leads, you’ll lose lots and win big sometimes.