Originally from: Vancouver, Canada
Profession: Proprietor
At: Vancouver, Canada
Ever since graduating university in 2003, Jonathan Smolensky has been part of the hospitality community in some capacity in Canada. Starting as a sales director for a British Columbia winery and then later as a bartender/sommelier in a fine dining restaurant, it wasn’t long before Jonathan went from drinking wines and sharing them with his friends, to making syrups out of them for cocktails. In 2011, Jonathan won the inaugural Tales on Tour official cocktail.
Later that year, Jonathan and fellow TOTC CAP Alumni Cooper Tardivel joined forces to help start Hawksworth Cocktail Bar at Hawksworth Restaurant, located in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver. The goal was to curate and manage the most prolific and comprehensive backbar and cocktail program in Canada. The bar, the restaurant and the hotel continue to receive top national accolades in their respective categories.
In May of 2015, Jonathan turned his attention fully to Sovereign Wine and Spirits Canada, a by the bartender/sommelier for the bartender/sommelier liquor agency that he had created in 2011. Sovereign imports fine wines and spirits specifically catered to the on-premise and specialty retail sector in Canada. The impetus of this project was a community desire to create a free-flowing, unabated connection between the passionate industry professionals within Canada and the boutique brands made globally by their peers. Sovereign continues to invest in the entrepreneurs that manufacture such fine wines, spirits, and restaurant friendly wares, offering an avenue for them to seamlessly share their creations in the Canadian marketplace.
Jonathan is also the Corporate Liaison for the Canadian Professional Bartenders Association; he is always finding new initiatives to help advance the Canadian hospitality sector alongside his contemporaries.
“Cherry Heering makes drinks so delicious”
Jonathan's Santiago Sling
Glass: Collins
Garnish: Pineapple frond & grated tonka bean
Method: Shake first 7 ingredients with ice and strain into ice-filled glass. Top with soda (shouldn’t be more than 50 ml, just to give the effervescence).
• 50 ml Chilean Pisco
• 20 ml Cherry Heering
• 50 ml Fresh pineapple juice
• 10-15 ml Freshly squeezed lime juice (depending on the acidity of pineapple)
• 1 spoon Juniper syrup
• 1 dash Cardamom bitters
• 1 dash Amargo Chuncho bitters
• Top with Soda
