Meet the founder | Nick Peach

Nick Peach is the founder of BareBones Bartending, former owner of Dumbo Snack Bar, and author of No Shots After Midnight. He has over 15 years experience working in Hotels, Restaurants, Bars, Breweries, and Private Members Clubs.  Nick is joined by a revolving team of guest instructors that represent the very best Toronto has to offer.

Brewer | Evan Bauer

Evan was born in Toronto, Ontario, and has worked as a brewer his entire professional career. While working on his BA in Sociology at Dalhousie University, Evan took a course at Kings College in the history and science of beer and brewing. This is where his passion for the art of brewing first became clear.

After graduating, Evan spent some time working in small breweries in Halifax, and quickly decided to study the science of brewing in an academic setting. He enrolled, and was accepted to the Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program at Niagara College here in Ontario. Graduating two years later with a technical diploma, and having brewed for Toronto’s Granite Brewery and Amsterdam Brewery during the summer months, Evan set his sights on Mill Street Brewery, and has never looked back.

Evan is currently one of two fortunate brewers who runs and operates the Mill Street Brew Pub in the Historic Distillery District. Their small brewery is an homage to the humble origins of Mill Street, and is where they think up the newest recipes.

Sommelier | Simon Leblanc

Born and raised in Quebec, Simon Leblanc started his career in the Hospitality industry in 2008. He moved to Toronto in 2011 where he started serving at Oliver&Bonacini. It was this experience that led him to start taking wine classes, eventually completing the Wine Specialist certification given at George Brown.

While working at well-established restaurants in Toronto, such as Buca Osteria & Enoteca, he continued to elevate his wine knowledge by taking the Certified Sommelier Certification (CAPS) program, which he completed in 2014. As well as having his Sommelier Certificate from George Brown, he completed Level 1 and Level 2 with the Court of Master Sommelier (CMS). He did a 60-hour internship at Patria, a well-renowned restaurant on King Street, to complete his program. Simon continued to work and progress at Patria after his internship came to fruition, and today he is the Sommelier/Assistant General Manager.

BYOB Cocktail Emporium | Grainne O’Flynn

All of the bartending tools used by BareBones are provided by BYOB Cocktail Emporium. For our lesson on Tools of the Trade we interviewed store manager Grainne O’Flynn, who also helped us put together our list of recommended equipment. Check out BYOB online or in store.

Tequila Tromba | peter filimonov

For our first of many lessons on Spirit Knowledge, we had the pleasure of interviewing Peter Filimonov, Tequila Tromba’s Brand Manager, as part of our lesson on Tequila. Here’s a bit of info from their website.

Tromba is always about quality not quantity. At Tromba we only produce small, lovingly crafted batches to ensure that our Master Distiller can oversee every step of the delicate process. If we say so ourselves, the end result is some of the finest premium tequila we’ve ever tasted. It may take us awhile, but believe us … it’s definitely worth the wait.

You can learn more about Tequila Tromba click below.