Cocktail Bar‘s Absinthe Whip, $12 (Happy Hour price), 923 Dundas St. W.
The drink
Normally this column sticks to food since I’m not much of a drinker. However, during the handful of times a year that I do order a cocktail, it better be well worth it. The Absinthe Whip ($17 regular price, $12 Happy Hour price) first appeared on Cocktail Bar’s menu 12 years ago, a sort-of spin on a piña colada combining absinthe, Cointreau, tangerine, pistachio and coconut. “I added the pistachio and (Cocktail Bar owner) Jen Agg said it needed a bit of lightness and suggested a bit of orange to stop it from being too cloying,” said beverage director David Greig, who is also a partner at Cocktail Bar’s sister restaurants, General Public, Bar Vendetta and Le Swan.
The milky coconut base gives the cocktail a smooth, velvety texture and its nuttiness carries over to the pistachio. The bitter orange peel in the Cointreau adds a zippy, citrusy brightness without the sugar overload of pineapple, which when combined with coconut milk can easily take the drink into sunscreen territory. It won’t transport you to a beach, rather it’s a drink that keeps you seated in a bar that even seldom drinkers like me can appreciate.
The bar
Cocktail Bar opened in 2011 during the city’s craft cocktail renaissance, when bartenders became as well-known as chefs. Mixologists built upon classic standards and added their own spins, whether swapping liqueurs and spirits or adding unconventional garnishes and herbs. Behind the counter is a shelf of dozens of clear containers labelled lavender salt, cascara, fennel pollen sugar, gentian and coffee sugar to make drinks as complex as a multi-course dinner.
The drinks are exciting without being gimmicky (you will never find a smoke bubble here) and they’re extra bang-for-your-buck during Happy Hour, when cocktails are $12 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. (regularly $17 to $20). Considering cocktails can exceed $20 nowadays, the thought and ingredients that go into Cocktail Bar’s drinks are well worth the $12.
For university students looking for a first-date option that’s budget-friendly, romantic but without a dress code and has a menu that doubles as a conversation starter, Cocktail Bar’s Happy Hour hits all the right notes.
What else is on the menu
The cocktail menu is split into five sections: mainstays, contemporary (spins on classics), seasonal, easy drinking (less boozy in flavour, good for nursing) and spirit-free. As the bar gets ready to switch to the fall menu, Greig prepared two drinks that aren’t going away, stark contrasts to the dessert-y Absinthe Whip.
The Little Shadow ($19, $12 during Happy Hour) is a savoury cocktail made with Cuban rum flavoured with sesame oil, nutty Amontillado sherry, kumquat juice and fenugreek syrup, finished with salt and finely ground lapsang souchong leaves (smoked Chinese black tea). There’s a hint of puckery sourness through the sesame rum and the smoky salted tea gives it an air of mystery, like stumbling upon a ramen stall at 1 a.m. in an unlit alleyway not listed on Google Maps.
On the opposite end, the Shiso 75 ($18, $12 during Happy Hour) is a herbaceous take on the French 75. The usual lemon is swapped with lemony, minty shiso leaves blended and strained with gin, then mixed with Sauvignon Blanc to match the shiso’s grassy notes. Elderflower adds floral sweetness and it’s carbonated for a cocktail that comes from the tap.
This drink takes you from the dark alleyway to a sun-drenched conservatory for afternoon tea. For bar snacks, the smoked trout dip with saltines ($14) is a good salty, fatty, briny and creamy complement to the drinks.
Explore the area
For more substantial bites, directly across the street are Cocktail Bar’s sister restaurants Bar Vendetta (928 Dundas St. W.) that specializes in house-made pastas, and for those that miss its previous incarnation, the Black Hoof, you can still get a charcuterie plate there. Next to Cocktail Bar is Haitian restaurant Rhum Corner (926 Dundas St. W), which is in the Star’s Top 100 Under 100 Restaurants guide. For takeout, next to Cocktail Bar is Lambo’s Deli (176 Bellwoods Ave.) for Italian deli sandwiches.
