E77 Daphnée Vary Deshaies

This weeks guest is Daphnée Vary Deshaies - co-founder and co-creator of the cocktailroads.com website. Daphnee along with co-founder Roxanne Mailloux, decided to bring together their respective skills and talents in a photo-reportage that would shine the light on the Canadian Cocktail community, all the while allowing people to connect and be creative at a time when most bars & restaurants across the country were closed.

Currently residing in Montreal, Quebec, Canada - Daphnee started to work in hospitality a little over 10 years ago. Daphnee began as a busser and worked her way up from there. After several years, Daphnee was working in fine dining and it was not until about 6 years ago that she found herself working in a bar. Daphnee spent several more years working in Montreal as a bartender and then moved to Vancouver after graduating university. It was in Vancouver that Daphnee really delved deeply in to the cocktail world and started to understand how little she actually knew about cocktails. As a result, Daphnee spent time every day studying stories and recipes of classic cocktails, reading about booze, testing drinks at the bar, asking questions to her colleagues, etc.

When Daphnee moved back to Montreal, she started a new bachelor degree at university and got a part time job as a bartender at Foxy Restaurant. Daphnee stayed there for 3 years and left as the general manager. Shortly after, Daphnee became responsible of the bar program for A5 Hospitality, one of the biggest group of restaurants and bars in Montreal, that is until covid hit. During the early stages of the pandemic, Daphnee and her partner Roxanne created Cocktail Roads, a platform for the bar community that aims at showcasing the many talents and amazing people that work in the cocktail industry. Daphnee and Roxanne travelled from coast to coast in Canada, interviewing people who work in the cocktail industry. They decided to set base in Vancouver for a little while once they reached the West coast but just recently moved back to Montréal. Daphnee is back working with A5 Hospitality, but now as a Project Director for a new restaurant that will open this winter.

Daphnee has also participated in a few cocktail competitions. Daphnee was a national finalist for Speed Rack Canada in 2018 and 2019 and she just recently made it to Diageo World Class Canada top 4 several months ago.

Links cocktailroads.com

@cocktailroads

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Podcast Artwork by Zak Hannah

@zak.hannah