You remembered the drink they made for you. You remembered the conversations. Maybe you remembered the way they greeted regulars or somehow knew exactly what you wanted before you ordered it. But outside the four walls of their bar, they were largely anonymous.

Today, a bartender can have thousands of followers, travel internationally for guest shifts, collaborate with global spirits brands and become recognizable far beyond their home city. In an industry built on personal connection, bartenders have gone from being behind-the-scenes hospitality professionals to public-facing personalities. So, when did bartenders become celebrities?

From service to spotlight

The answer lies somewhere between the cocktail renaissance of the early 2000s and the rise of social media a decade later. As consumers became increasingly interested in craft cocktails, premium spirits and the stories behind what they were drinking, bartenders began stepping into roles that extended well beyond service. They became educators, storytellers and ambassadors for a growing culture that treated cocktails with the same seriousness that food enthusiasts had long reserved for fine dining.

At the same time, the industry itself was becoming more interconnected. International competitions expanded. Cocktail conferences attracted attendees from around the world. Rankings such as The World’s 50 Best Bars became influential enough to shape tourism and media coverage. Major spirits companies invested heavily in bartender education, ambassador programs, and international travel opportunities.

For the first time, bartenders had a global stage. Then social media arrived.

The social media effect

Unlike chefs, who had long benefited from television appearances, cookbooks and mainstream media coverage, bartenders suddenly had a platform they controlled themselves. Instagram transformed cocktail culture into a highly visual medium. A drink created in Montreal could be seen in Tokyo within minutes. Techniques, recipes and ideas travelled faster than ever before.

For Kaitlyn Stewart, winner of the 2017 World Class Global Bartender of the Year title, social media helped bring bartenders into the spotlight. “I think with the rise of social media, especially in the last five years, we are seeing a shift from just having chefs and sommeliers in the forefront, to bartenders putting themselves front and center to promote not just themselves, but also their businesses,” she said.

The opportunities that followed were significant. A bartender no longer needed to spend decades building a local reputation before being noticed. Visibility could lead to speaking engagements, consulting work, brand partnerships, judging opportunities and international travel. In some cases, bartenders became destinations in their own right, attracting guests who specifically wanted to experience their cocktails. “Your social channels end up becoming part of your resume,” said Stewart.

That reality has fundamentally changed how success is measured within the industry. Twenty years ago, success was largely local. A respected bartender built a loyal clientele, earned the trust of colleagues, and perhaps became known within their city. Today, success can also mean competition titles, international recognition, brand collaborations, educational platforms and a substantial online following.

In many ways, bartending has followed a path similar to that of the culinary world. Recognition is no longer tied exclusively to a venue. Increasingly, individual personalities have become brands. Not everyone, however, believes visibility should be confused with excellence.

Visibility isn’t everything

Montreal bartender and consultant Maxime Coubès has witnessed the transformation firsthand. Like many bartenders who came of age during the industry’s rapid growth from 2010 to 2020, he benefited from an era marked by competitions, guest shifts and unprecedented opportunities for international collaboration. He credits those experiences with helping legitimize bartending as a profession and creating stronger connections between bartenders, producers and distillers around the world. At the same time, he believes the industry’s fascination with visibility sometimes overshadows the work itself.

“Social media can accelerate opportunities if you want to work with marketing, activations, agencies and brands,” he said. “But bartending has never been, and will never be, dependent on the internet.”

Bartending has never been, and will never be, dependent on the internet.

Maxime Coubès, bartender and consultant

His perspective highlights a tension that continues to shape modern hospitality. While visibility can accelerate a career, many of the industry’s most respected figures built their reputations through years of service, mentorship and consistency rather than online audiences. Reputation among guests and peers still matters, particularly within Canada’s relatively tight-knit cocktail community. Yet there is little doubt that visibility has become increasingly valuable.

Today, a bartender’s Instagram account often functions as a portfolio. Event organizers, spirits brands and employers frequently encounter someone’s online presence before they encounter their work in person. Understanding marketing, branding and content creation has become a professional advantage. The challenge is determining where visibility ends and performance begins. That question becomes particularly relevant as social media continues to blur traditional definitions of expertise.

For Quebec bartender, educator and manager Claudia Doyon, one of social media’s greatest strengths is its ability to democratize knowledge. When she entered the industry nearly 20 years ago, aspiring bartenders relied primarily on books, mentors and the experience gained on the floor. Today, techniques and educational resources are available instantly, allowing professionals to learn from colleagues around the world. But increased access has also created new complications.

As cocktail content has become increasingly popular, audiences have become exposed to a growing number of influencers operating within the drinks space. Some have successfully transformed that visibility into consulting work, event opportunities and collaborations traditionally associated with experienced hospitality professionals. The issue, Doyon argues, is not that influencers exist. Rather, it is that visibility can sometimes be mistaken for expertise.

“It is essential to maintain balance,” she said. “At the end of the day, we work in hospitality. Our passion should never be overshadowed by the desire to showcase ourselves on virtual platforms.”

Her concern reflects a broader conversation occurring throughout the industry. The rise of bartender personalities has unquestionably brought benefits. Greater visibility has elevated the profession, educated consumers and created opportunities that previous generations could scarcely have imagined. Yet celebrity culture introduces its own pressures.

The cost of being seen

Maintaining an active online presence requires time and energy in an industry already known for long hours and burnout. The pressure to remain visible can sometimes feel relentless, particularly for younger bartenders trying to establish themselves. There is also the question of what happens when personal branding becomes more important than teamwork.

Your social channels end up becoming part of your resume.

Kaitlyn Stewart, bartender

Doyon notes that recognition can inspire others and bring positive attention to the profession. As a manager, however, she has also witnessed situations where image began to outweigh collaboration. Hospitality remains a collective effort, and the strongest bars are rarely built around a single individual. The same tension appears in conversations surrounding competitions, rankings and guest shifts. Over the past decade, these platforms have become increasingly influential in defining success. They create opportunities, generate publicity and encourage innovation. Yet they can also create hierarchies that do not necessarily reflect the guest experience.

Coubès believes some aspects of modern cocktail culture have become overly focused on visibility and optics. “The best bar is simply the bar where you feel good, where the bartender becomes a friend,” he said. It is a deceptively simple statement, but one that speaks to a larger shift currently taking place across the industry.

Back to hospitality

After years of celebrating technical innovation and increasingly elaborate cocktail programs, many bartenders are returning to fundamentals. Guests are looking for experiences rather than performances. They want connection as much as they want creativity. In that sense, the industry’s future may look surprisingly similar to its past. The irony is that while bartenders have never been more visible, the qualities that define a great bartender have remained remarkably unchanged.

A strong social media presence may open doors. A competition title may attract attention. A guest shift in Singapore or London may expand a network. But none of those achievements guarantee the one thing guests actually experience when they sit down at a bar: hospitality. This sentiment is clear in Stewart, Coubès, and Doyon, despite their differing perspectives. Each acknowledged the opportunities that visibility has created. Each recognized the value of broader recognition for the profession. Yet all ultimately returned to the same principle: the work itself still matters most.

Bartenders may have become public figures. Some have become educators, consultants, ambassadors and entrepreneurs. Others have built audiences that extend far beyond their home cities. But behind every award, every ranking, every viral cocktail video and every international guest shift is still a person standing across from a guest, trying to create a memorable experience.

Bartending has finally earned the recognition many believe it deserves. The challenge now is ensuring that the spotlight never becomes more important than the people sitting on the other side of the bar.

Her first book, Three Cheers, which hit shelves in October, is packed with recipes for 55 cocktails, but her approach brings every kind of drinker into the fold. Each page features recipe variations for the classic, Stewart’s creative twist and a fully non-alcoholic version of the same cocktail. For her, it’s not so much about catering to drinkers or non-drinkers, but about dismantling the hierarchy that’s kept them apart.

“If you’re feeling like a Negroni, but you’re not wanting to drink, you can flip to the Negroni page and check out the non-alcoholic recipe,” she said. “You’ll know it’s going to be as equally [as] well thought-out as the classic or my version of it.”

Stewart has created recipes for cocktail menus in the past, but Three Cheers is the first publication that’s entirely hers. There’s no mistaking it, Three Cheers screams Stewart’s personal brand of skill, playfulness and inclusivity. Stewart is known for her inventive approach behind the bar, but for the book, she kept a broad audience in mind. “I can get super creative and do wild and crazy things,” she said, “but I reeled it in for the book. I didn’t want people to flip open to a page and see a recipe that called for an infusion, a syrup and 20 steps. That’s intimidating. I wanted the drinks to be accessible.”

Those driving forces – accessibility and inclusivity – speak to a larger cultural shift in which consumers value quality and nuance, while having the freedom to imbibe or not. That doesn’t mean her reader is necessarily a drinker or a non-drinker; rather, they value flexibility. “People are drinking more mindfully now,” she said. “One day they’ll have an alcoholic drink, and the next, they’ll choose a non-alcoholic version. In Three Cheers, each version is as important as the next.”

For Stewart, her Negroni trio ended up being one of her favourites in the book. She created the classic, her version called “High and Dry” (“a Negroni with training wheels”) and the spirit-free “No-Groni,” which leans into Italian bitters, tricking the brain just enough to feel familiar.

Especially when it came to spirit-forward cocktails like a Negroni or Old Fashioned, Stewart was up for the challenge. Translating those into non-alcoholic versions meant rethinking texture, mouthfeel and that elusive “burn” most alcohol-free spirits struggle to replicate. “That really distinct characteristic of alcohol – that lingering burn – it’s hard to recreate,” she said. “So, I used other bittering agents that give you that drying effect. It was a task, but it was a fun task.”

It was her mission to create non-alcoholic drink recipes that tasted just as good, if not better, than the real thing. “I have a lot of people in my life who don’t drink, and it was really important to create a book that was as inclusive as possible,” she said. “When I first started bartending 20 years ago, there were no spirit-free gins, tequilas, aperitifs. It was either a virgin Caesar or a virgin strawberry daiquiri. That’s all you were getting. But now, there’s no excuse.”

Giving equal weight to non-alcoholic cocktails and demonstrating just how complex they can be was strategic. “I hope people see it as a step forward. Especially in the non-alcoholic space, putting those drinks on the same playing field as any cocktail. Just because it’s non-alcoholic doesn’t mean it’s any less than,” she said.

People are drinking more mindfully now. One day they’ll have an alcoholic drink, and the next, they’ll choose a non-alcoholic version. In Three Cheers, each version is as important as the next.

Kaitlyn Stewart

While developing her book, Stewart had to make some tough decisions, starting with which drinks would make the final cut. The concept was built around 55 classic cocktails, but narrowing down that list proved to be one of the biggest challenges.

“Choosing those 55 cocktails was probably the hardest part,” Stewart said. “I really tried to spread the base spirits evenly. I didn’t want it to be all gin or all bourbon. I wanted to give each spirit a fair shot.” That meant including a few drinks that might raise eyebrows among purists. “There’s a Sex on the Beach in there,” she said with a laugh. “When you think of that cocktail, you don’t automatically think classic. But it was fun to play around with those kinds of choices. I didn’t want the book to be too stuffy. I wanted it to be fun.”

Fun plays a huge role in Stewart’s approach to recipe creation. Her creative process is fed by food, music, travel, late-night conversations and childhood memories. “I grew up in the restaurant world,” she said. “My parents ran restaurants, and my grandma was always cooking. I’d sit in the kitchen and watch her turn basic ingredients into a fancy meal. So, when I’m eating something now, say, a Thai green curry, my brain starts to dissect it. I think, ‘This makes sense in food, so why couldn’t it work in a cocktail?’”

Naming the drinks is one of her favourite parts. “A lot of people hate naming cocktails. I really love naming them,” she said. “A lot of the time I name them after song titles or lyrics, something I’ve listened to and thought, ‘That would sound really good as a drink.’” For instance, in Three Cheers, her version of a French 75 is the Eiffel 65 (Millennials will remember). It was her signature Tom Cat Collins (inspired by her cats, obviously) that helped her bag the World Class championship round.

Whether she’s behind the bar, in competition or now as an author, Stewart’s aim is to be unapologetically herself. “I wanted Three Cheers to feel like I was inviting you into my home. I wanted readers to feel comfortable, like they could make these recipes in their kitchen. It was made to feel personal and intentional,” she said. That means that while she loves a studio-ready image of the perfect cocktail, you won’t find that in Three Cheers. “We approached our photography in a grassroots way, with lots of natural light. It’s all very authentic.”

For its imagery, the entire shoot took place in Stewart’s apartment, captured by a friend who usually photographs people, not cocktails. She wasn’t interested in fancy backdrops, fake condensation or over-styled glassware, either. They worked with whatever natural light was coming through the windows that day.

Stewart has gotten used to inviting her audience into her home. Her social media followers get a daily glimpse of her life at her home bar, along with tutorials and education on cocktails ranging from classic margaritas to a cilantro, chocolate spritz. Finding popularity on social media wasn’t something Stewart ever planned, though it’s turned out to be an unexpected asset. She now uses her audience as a kind of real-time focus group, especially when curating menus or developing recipes.

“I’ll look at what’s resonating – what’s getting saved, shared, commented on – and use that to shape what I create. I can see if people are leaning into martinis or spritzes, and that data helps guide my decisions,” said Stewart That sense of collaboration has been infused into much of her career. From building bar teams to working with book editors, Stewart knows how to surround herself with people who make the work better. “If you don’t have a good team, you won’t be as successful,” she said. “As much as my Capricorn side wants to tackle it all myself, I’ve learned you can’t do it all alone.”

Now, with Three Cheers, she’s hoping the book will affect others in the way that all great hospitality does, by making people feel included, no matter where they are.

“Non-alcoholic drinks deserve to be on the same level as any other cocktail, not treated like an afterthought,” she said. For her, it’s a way to push the industry forward, but also make space for more people to feel included, no matter how they choose to drink. “It doesn’t have to be soda or juice. It can be thoughtful, complex and genuinely good. That’s what I hope this book shows: there’s room for everyone at the bar.”