This is Adriana Cavarra, from Toronto.
Adrianna is 29 years old and grew up about 40 minutes East of Toronto, in a town called Whitby. She is the first generation Canadian in her family, both of her parents being Sicilian. She speaks English and Italian. Adriana studied marketing. Then one day on the train, she was looking at all the people run from the wagons to their cars in an attempt to avoid traffic and she experienced something resembling an epiphany. She realized that it was not the life she wanted for herself. She moved to Banff to go snowboarding for a season.
And that’s when Adriana started in the hospitality industry. She got a job as a dishwasher at the Fairmont. A few months later, she ran into a Maître D who realized how personable she was and offered her a job to help at the banquets. And that’s how it all started. Eventually, she moved to Vancouver, worked at a few places there and decided that it was time to come home. Little did she know that being back in Toronto would actually project her career very fast. In not even a year, she had made more connections and stepped up her game more than she ever did back on the West coast.
That being said, it was only a few years ago that Adriana got seriously into cocktails. It was back when she was working at Cloak Bar that she learned how to organize and prioritize everything, how to build drinks very fast, how to double strain, double shake, double stir, etc. From there on, she dove into cocktails and now works at famous Bar Raval. She’s been working there for a year now and loves how structured and efficient the bar program is built. She’s thinking about exploring bar management at some point in the future, but for now she still very much loves bartending.
Adriana is pretty active in Toronto’s cocktail community. She’s one of the nice faces you can always expect to see at most events. She goes around and sits at everyone’s bars as often as possible. And most of all, she makes sure to treat people well and make them feel at home when they come see her in return. Overall, she is an extremely talented bartender that sure knows what to serve people and how to make them feel better. We had a most pleasant time with her and are looking forward to our next encounter.
A little bit more about Adrianna...
The three words that describe her best: meticulous – outgoing – down to earth
Something she has achieved on her life to-do list: Skydiving and rafting (she actually did both on the same day).
Something she has yet to achieve on her life to-do list: Live in another country. When all of this is over she wants to move to Italy, learn about amaro and eat carbs.
The biggest lesson her job taught you: Patience. And letting little things go.
How does she drink her martini: Filthy dirty and wet, gin based. It’s one of her guilty pleasures.