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| - The receipt says that my visit was only back on the 14th of August but it feels so much longer than that. It was for the occasion of a first meeting with somebody from POF. Oh the money I would save if I could give up this quest to shed singleness!
A reason I picked this place was because of its connection to the Bartending Institute and my interest in cocktails. But ff I did not know about the connection, I would not have assumed it at all.
So yes, the Spirit House is another one of these craft cocktails, semi big money places. This does not mean to imply that you are being fleeced. I started with their Negroni and it was about the best...no, it was the best Negroni I've ever had. I think it was straight on too with no liberties taken. Next up, I attempted to challenge the bar to make me a "Non LCBO Martini" meaning, making me a martini with gin and dry vermouth that I can't get at the LCBO. The menu seemed to indicate that this would not be an issue. (The menu is a fun book--quite clever!) I received an American gin, Aviation, and standard Martini mix. Ok, one out of two but trust your bartender, right? It didn't work for me. Not to report that it was not well made, just that this Aviation gin won't be one I'll seek the next time I'm over the border. (New Amsterdam is THE American gin to drink as far as I have found.) The waitress did come to check on me, and offered to exchange the drink so bonus points there.
Observation NOT related to this establishment per se: There are a lot of these craft cocktail places now and they have all established their own interesting card of choices. And of course they do the standards. But that seems to be where the magic ends. As in, you can't seem to just walk in and get an impressive drink that is NOT on the card. I have yet to get the feeling that you can just tell your wait staff person, "Hmmm... I feel like drinking something with XYZ in it--ask the bar to make me something with that in it." I assume that both wait staff and bar staff are just not used to this. I would assume sitting at the bar, especially during off hours, might yield better results.
More observations: there is an entire middle ground being missed in cocktail slinging these days. Again, these upscale places have developed nice menus of creations you won't find anywhere else but there are tons and tons of great lost cocktails just waiting to be made. Open up any bar book, one of those thick paperbacks with the recipes to 1000+ cocktails and tell me what happened to the Italian Stinger or the Napoli or the Fogcutter. Let me put it this way: If I were opening a bar tomorrow, I would waste no time developing my own special bitters or coming up with signature drinks. All I would do it crack open one of these books, find a bunch of easily made but interesting drinks and rotate them out from time to time. Easy!
Ok, back to this review! As alluded to, service was excellent. The lighting and feel of the place were all find. I can see why comments were made about it all being a bit too themed or made up but for my purposes it worked. I did not pay much attention to the crowd--I guess if you have a problem with the stereotype of who works in their part of Toronto, don't go to a bar in this part of Toronto.
The menu looked great but we just had some to-die-for taro chips, fried just mins. before reaching out table. Based on those I'm assuming the fare is quite good.
Value? No, this is not where you go for good value per se. You come here to impress clients or dates or because you have excessive cash. 3 drinks, chips, tax and tip were $55 or over 25% of my weekly "allowance" for going out.
The space seems like it could easily work for larger groups. There were two of them there that night.
Recommended if you are in the area or looking to try out every haute new cocktail palace in the city.
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