FOUNDER - The roots of his current career are in the first café his mother opened when Sofian was 15 years old. As an Industrial Engineering student, he worked at festivals for clients such as Bacardi and Martini. He had so much fun making cocktails so he decided to go all the way for this. He immediately booked a cocktail training course in New York: "When I go for something, I always want to excel at it." This determination also allowed him to start working at Cocktails at Nine after his return from the States.
At the Nine, he focused entirely on cocktails and it paid off immediately. He took third place two years in a row in the Diageo World Class Competition and managed to take second place in a third entry. In 2018, he was voted Belgium's best bartender by VENUEZ Hospitality Magazine, and in 2019 he received an award from Cointreau for creating the best twist on the Sidecar cocktail in Belgium.
It doesn't stop at these awards. He scored the highest three years in a row at the Blind Tasting. Each year he managed to improve his score. In his first participation, he won first place in Belgium. At his second participation, he won first place from the Benelux countries and last time, he achieved the highest result from Northern Europe (Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Finland).
Working with Yannick and Naushad, Sofian focuses on pure products. He likes to combine a very familiar Belgian product with a tropical product. This creates surprising, yet recognizable flavors and that is exactly what Craftails stands for.
