This is Joshua Escobar, restaurant manager at Fairmont Empress in Victoria.
Josh is 34 years old and is originally from Montreal. He lived there until he was 15 and then moved with his family to Toronto. It was in Toronto that Josh met his now wife, who is originally from Victoria. Six months after they had their first baby, they got an opportunity to move out west. They haven’t looked back since.
Josh started in hospitality back in Toronto. As a young man, he didn’t have many real ambitions or goals, so he got himself a job as a busboy. Then like most of us, he kinda found new ambition within the industry. After a few years of working as a busboy, Josh was looking for new challenges and wanted to give a bit more direction to what he was doing. He applied at a small restaurant called Home of the Brave, a venue unfortunately closed now. Back then, though they had a strong bar program, with cocktails that were well crafted and well thought out. That’s when Josh fell in love with bartending and decided that he wanted to pursue that.
And so he did. He went on working at a few dive bars and eventually applied at Hy’s Steak House, where he started as a busboy and left as the bar manager. And then from there, he got himself a job at Alo, where he bartended until he moved to Vancouver Island. Now working as the restaurant manager at Fairmont Empress Josh is still very passionate about hospitality and is happy to now be part of Victoria’s bartending community.
For Joshua's cocktail recipe, click here.