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Dani Tatarin
World's 50 Best Bars
- Discipline
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i. Biography
Bar work is measured in repetition: prep, pour, adjustment, service, and the read of a room. Dani Tatarin was a bartender at The Keefer in Vancouver in 2014, placing their early practice inside a setting where atmosphere and precision had to work together. The later record runs through The Keefer and into a mezcal-focused ownership chapter with Gota Gorda and Las Animas Botica, extending service-floor discipline into agave, craft, and conviviality.
Coming Up
Professional bar culture in Canada was still defining shared standards, language, and peer structures when Dani Tatarin served as president at Canadian Professional Bartenders Association. That role placed them inside the trade’s conversations about practice and recognition, while the daily work of bartending continued to sharpen the practical side: prep rhythm, pour control, guest exchange, balance, pace, and presence. Cocktail service at The Keefer Bar in Chinatown, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, required more than a drink list. A bar program is built from glassware, temperature, scent, light, music, timing, and the way each choice affects service. As bartender / bar lead at The Keefer Bar, Tatarin worked in that full field of detail, with cocktails expected to be considered without losing the immediacy of the room. The earlier fact that Dani Tatarin was a bartender at The Keefer in Vancouver in 2014 anchors this chapter in one of the city’s most distinctive drinking scenes. Beverage programming widened the task from station work to system work. As Beverage Program Maven at Acre Resort, Tatarin’s role moved into the composition of a program: how a beverage identity is selected, maintained, and carried through hospitality. The work was no longer only what was poured in a single exchange, but how continuity and point of view are built across an experience. Agave became the center of the later ownership chapter. Dani is owner of Mezcaleria Gota Gorda, owner of Mezcal Gota Gorda, and owner of Las Animas Botica, carrying bar-trained precision into a portfolio rooted in agave, craft, and conviviality. In that context, mezcal is not just a category label; it is the organizing thread for places and projects shaped by service, texture, ritual, and guest connection.
Where They Are Now
Mezcal-focused ownership became the defining current chapter in 2019, when Tatarin became owner at Gota Gorda and owner at Las Animas Botica. The craft specialty attached to this period is mezcal, with 2019 as the named year. Gota Gorda and Las Animas Botica serve as the named vessels for this work, extending the discipline of bar service and the broader view of beverage programming into ownership. The through-line is the construction of drinks as both craft objects and social instruments. From Canadian Professional Bartenders Association to The Keefer Bar in Chinatown, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, from Acre Resort to Mezcaleria Gota Gorda, Mezcal Gota Gorda, Gota Gorda, and Las Animas Botica, Tatarin’s record stays close to hospitality as a working practice: measured, expressive, and dependent on the live exchange between spirit, room, and guest.
Honors
Dani Tatarin has received Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards — Bartender of the Year. Bartender of the Year and Bartender of the Year tournament, 2nd place, mark recognition within the trade for competitive and professional bar craft. In Dani Tatarin’s case, those honors sit alongside leadership, hands-on service, beverage programming, and ownership, pointing to skill under pressure as well as sustained fluency in the working standards of the bar.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Dani
Where did Dani Tatarin work before?
Dani Tatarin's earlier career included Canadian Professional Bartenders Association, The Keefer Bar, and Acre Resort.
What recognition has Dani Tatarin received?
Bartender of the Year (2012).
