by Andrew Morrison | Vancouver’s top bartenders recently sat for a gruelling 50 question exam at The Diamond in Gastown to mark the first round of Scout’s Bartender of the Year tournament. Today we announced the sixteen with the highest marks on our Twitter feed. They are…

16th (tie) David Bain – Diva at the Met
16th (tie) Josh Boudreau – Veneto (Victoria)
15th | Ryan Malcolm – Sauce (Victoria)
14th | Ally – Revel Room
13th | Dani Tatarin – Keefer Bar
12th | “JS” – Tableau
11th | Jay Browne – Calabash
10th | “H” – Jules Bistro
9th | Brendan Brewster – Fiamo/Svelte (Victoria)
8th | Brooke Levre – The Marina (Victoria)
7th | Jon Smollensky – Hawksworth
6th | Marc Smolinski – Max’s
5th | Gez McAlpine – Keefer/LA/Somewhere lucky
4th | Josh Pape – The Diamond
3rd | Ben de Champlain – Boneta
2nd | Simon Kaulback – Boneta
1st | Shaun Layton – L’Abattoir

It’s a great collection of talent, and how cool is it that Victoria is so well represented!? This group now moves on to an insane day of competition at The Keefer Bar in Chinatown on July 2nd.

The final will begin with a blind tasting of 5 different alcohols with each bartender having to guess what is what (extra point opportunities for accuracy). Then a select group of professionals will blind judge an original cocktail from each bartender who will also furnish a written description of the drink as it would appear on a cocktail menu (no more than 50 words). Points will be awarded for taste, presentation and originality.

The scores from these two competitions will be added together – 20% coming from the entrance test, 40% from the blind tasting, and 40% from the cocktail. The top 8 will then compete in a live action tournament that will decide who will take the title.

We wish all the final competitors luck, and thank every bartender who took the time to sit for the exam. The marks were especially tight, and every participant represented their bar extremely well.