Nick Nemeth, Founder | Bark & Bitter
Nick Nemeth is the founder of Bark & Bitter, the Niagara-based maker of Novara Aperitivo, a non-alcoholic Italian-style aperitivo, and a growing line of 0% ABV cocktail bitters and mixers, all crafted from whole botanicals with no artificial flavours, extracts, or essences.
A bartender by trade, Nemeth has spent more than two decades in the drinks industry, from fine-dining cocktail bars to the international competition circuit, twice representing Canada abroad, in France (2010) and the UK (2011). He was one of the youngest speakers in the history of Tales of the Cocktail, the spirits industry's largest annual conference, and went on to lead national beverage development for Canada's largest full-service restaurant brand, a $250M+ category spanning close to 400 locations. He holds a General Certificate in Distilling from the Institute of Brewing & Distilling and a WSET Level 3 Advanced Certificate in Wine & Spirits, and spent time pursuing a Postgraduate Diploma in Brewing & Distilling at Heriot-Watt University.
Nemeth founded Bark & Bitter in 2019. After years developing beverage programs at the corporate level, with concepts handed down to restaurants far from his own hands, he wanted to make something tangible again, with a direct line to the consumer. Taking his own break from alcohol around the same time, he could find no non-alcoholic stand-in for the bittersweet aperitivo at the heart of his favourite drink, the Negroni, and drawing on a bartender's long love of Italian aperitivos and amari, he set out to build one.
The result, Novara Aperitivo, was among the earliest craft non-alcoholic aperitivos in the modern adult non-alcoholic beverage category. The company began in St. Catharines and is now based in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Through its Poured With Purpose platform, a portion of every sale supports mental health in the hospitality industry.
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founder of Bark & Bitter and a 20-year veteran of the drinks industry
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Nick Nemeth is the founder of Bark & Bitter, the Niagara-based maker of award-winning non-alcoholic Novara Aperitivo and 0% ABV cocktail bitters, and a bartender whose 20-year career spans international competition, national beverage development across hundreds of venues, and formal training in brewing and distilling.
Short bio
Nick Nemeth is the founder of Bark & Bitter, the Niagara-based company behind internationally award-winning Novara Aperitivo and a line of 0% ABV cocktail bitters and mixers. A bartender with more than 20 years in the drinks industry and formal brewing and distilling training, he led national beverage development for hundreds of locations of Canada’s largest full-service restaurant brand before setting out on his own. On a break from alcohol, he found no proper, non-alcoholic answer to the bittersweet Negroni he loved, and in 2019 created Novara Aperitivo, drawing on a long love of Italian aperitivos and amari.
Bark & Bitter is a labour of love. Plenty of brands start with a flavour extract, a marketing budget, and someone else's money. We make ours the hard way: small batches, whole botanicals, and no shortcuts. You can taste the difference -- these ingredients are crafted by a bartender, not a food chemist. Proudly bitter-forward, we're not for everyone, and that's the point.
Nick Nemeth, Founder
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