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After leaving Clive’s Classic Lounge for a spell, Shawn Soole returned in 2020 with a new focus on training and education for his team. The long-time West Coast bartender, entrepreneur, podcaster and author says, “I still think… the industry is behaving the way it did pre-pandemic, in this sort of turn-and-burn mentality.” As a mentor, educator and cheerleader to a whole generation of Victoria bartenders, the genial, bearded Aussie is changing that.
“The key for me is that I work for my team, not the other way around. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to achieve the things we achieve.”
Within six months of Soole being hired at Clive’s, team members were required to complete the BarSmarts training program, followed by various spirits-specific online certifications, all supplemented with Soole-led practice tastings. Staff get an annual training budget and paid time off to learn, based on their years of service. For instance, Cara MacLeod, the manager of Clive’s, followed her passion for tequila and mezcal to complete a course through the Agave Spirits Institute. The costs, Soole says, are a comparatively small investment that pays for itself in staff retention.
When Soole hosts his legendary monthly Drinks Academy event, 80 local bartenders discuss topics such as local and sustainable cocktails and compete in black-box cocktail competitions. When his team or colleagues battle in events like Diageo World Class Canada, Soole is there to help prep and cheer them on. When he is asked to speak at a seminar, he might decline the spotlight and suggest a team member instead. He views guest-bartender shifts and pop-ups not as a glory for Clive’s, but as opportunities for the team to be exposed to new techniques, flavour profiles, and cultures.
When the star bartender of Clive’s, Harry Tham, expressed interest in doing a “stage” overseas (an international bartending internship), the boss set him up for a five-day session at a top bar in Italy. And more recently, when Soole and Tham won a fun cocktail challenge during Vancouver Cocktail Week — semi-blindfolded, with their hands literally tied together, and their one-foot height discrepancy making synchronized mixology comically challenging — it demonstrated just how the mentor and mentee are truly in tune.
As many bars struggle to keep the lights on, the investment of energy, time and resources in hands-on mentoring at Clive’s sets Soole apart. One of his past episodes of the Post Shift podcast was titled “Leadership through Empathy.” Soole explains: “The key for me is that I work for my team, not the other way around. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to achieve the things we achieve.”