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| - So the name makes me giggle a little bit. Where I went to grad school, there was a super cheap bar in the basement, which was called the Debasement Bar, or D-Bar for short. This is definitely 180 degrees different...upscale without being pretentious.
I just came here for drinks on a Wednesday...surprisingly bustling inside. SERVICE was absolutely top-notch. Service that's attentive without being intrusive, polite without being obsequious, and formal without being stuffy. I was under-dressed for the place, and was made to feel that I was being just as well treated as the celebrity sitting next to us.
The COCKTAILS are on the expensive side ($16-$18) but are very well-mixed. Given the fantastic ambiance, service, and free snacks (roasted nuts and olives), I didn't mind paying the couple buck surcharge over the Toronto median. I particularly enjoyed our two cocktails:
**Neo-negroni: swaps out the sweet vermouth for chartreuse and dry vermouth. Very nice modification
**Manhattan-royal: A manhattan-variant with brandy and barrel-aged vermouth.
Some of the cocktail prices on the website are out of date.
The AMBIANCE was pleasant. Nice volume of music gave the place a lively feel, but conversation was easy. Lots of beautiful people. And Christopher Plummer (Captain von Trapp from the Sound of Music) was dining right next to us. I was not one of the rude people that interrupted his dinner.
OVERALL, this might be my new "classy date night cocktails" place in Toronto.
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