This is Bastien Rémillieux .
Bastien is 27 years old and has two brothers and one sister. He grew up in Joliette and moved to Montreal in 2011.
Bastien grew up with a very French chef dad, who taught him the value of being hard-working from a young age. Bastien pretty much always worked in restaurants and bars since he was a teenager. Even though he tattooed, had a recycled skate company, and studied marketing, the bar industry kind of always found him at the right moment.
Bastien got into cocktails when he was working at Cobra, a well-known neighborhood bar in Little Italy where many hospitality folks would meet after work or on their days off. One day, while he was getting slammed on a busy Monday night, a bunch of well-known bartenders sat at his bar. Bastien shifted gear and worked very hard to keep the drinks coming and the space clean. One of the bartenders noticed how fast and efficiently he was working and decided to put his name up for Drunken Masters Competition.
From there on, Bastien realized he actually had more potential than he thought and he started to get more involved in the community. He did a couple more competitions himself but particularly enjoys being the MC at these events rather than competing. What Bastien likes most about the bartending community is how it is sort of a lost children environment. As he says, no one is a kid and dreams be a bartender when they grow up. Wherever you go, bartenders, each have their own stories of what led them to this trade. Bartenders have a passion for hospitality and for making people feel welcomed, they are a bunch of awesome people and this is what makes our community so special.
Bastien is now head bartender at the famous El Pequeño Bar and the co-founder of Social Drink Tasting.
A little more about Bastien...
-The three words that describe him best are: impulsive/emotional/attentive
-Fun fact about Bastien: He has an entire thigh covered with extremely varied tattoos made by people he had great moments with. All great memories. Not all tattoos look great.
-One thing he has yet to achieve on his life bucket list: Swim with great white sharks, skydive, sailboat, pretty much everything on the water or high in adrenaline.
-The most magical place he ever visited: A spot only known by locals near St-Alphonse-de-Rodriguez, commonly referred to as Le Tourbillon. It is quite a mission to get there but once you made it after a 45 minutes drive away from the main road and a thirty minutes walk, you find this amazing waterfall between the mountain with lots of natural pools (Tourbillons). A magical and peaceful place.
-The quality he likes more about a customer: Curiosity
-His biggest strength: Patience.
-His advice to young bartenders: To listen. And don’t talk back.