Vancouver's fabled Keefer Bar gets ready to share trade secrets with a Cinco de Mayo Casamigos cocktail party

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      As anyone who's ever watched house guests grimace their way through a well-intentioned margarita that really shouldn’t have been made with two-year-old RealLime knows, making a great cocktail can take some practice.

      The first step is educating yourself. With the possible exceptions of Professor Jerry Thomas and Harry Johnson, almost everyone who's stood behind a bar has learned his or her craft from a mentor. Before you become Master Po, you start out as Kwai Chang “Grasshopper” Caine.

      That’s what makes a new initiative by Vancouver’s celebrated Keefer Bar intriguing.

      Since opening a decade or so ago, the downtown cocktail emporium has been hailed as not only one of the best bars in Vancouver but in the world. The Keefer is the kind of place that uses ingredients that you never knew existed: salted-plum syrup, maca root, seahorse tincture, and bonito-infused sesame oil.

      The idea of stepping up to the plate with the bar’s heavy-hitters sound intimidating? Well, in a real-life world where the customers sit two feet away, absolutely and totally.

      But thanks to COVID-19, you’re getting the chance to be let in on some Keefer trade secrets.

      The city’s bars and restaurants have been hard hit by COVID-19—no customers during the past six weeks of lockdown means no revenue stream, which isn’t a good thing when there are suppliers and landlords to be paid.

      To help keep staff working, the Keefer is hosting what it’s calling a virtual Cinco de Mayo Casamigos Cocktail Party on Tuesday (May 5) at 7 p.m.

      Sign up to the tune of $200 and you get a kit that includes Casamigos Reposdao tequila and fancy cups, Cointreau, limes and lemons, eggs, a bartending kit (think juicer and muddler), ice, chips, salsa, and three different syrups (including­—hello—spiced salted plum!). On the mixology side of things, that’s enough ammunition for 12 cocktails.

      The best reason for signing up for one of the limited-space spots? That would be that the party includes a cocktail class hosted by the Keefer’s bartenders, who’ll break down how to make three different tequila drinks.

      Need an added incentive? Providing live music for the experience will be Keefer favourite Alex Maher.

      See you there in cyberspace on Cinco de Mayo. I’ll be the guy wearing the Kung Fu baseball cap and Fátima León hoodie.

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