This season, as you pack up your parka, step out into a local bar or restaurant for a spring inspired sipper. Need inspiration? Here’s what some of our favorite cocktail connoisseurs are pouring right now.
This year, when you think spring we want you to think sake! Ever since Toronto became home to its first sake distillery, Ontario Spring Water Sake Company, the spirit has been on the rise.
Take a break from your spring shopping at D|Bar at The Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville. Keep it on brand by ordering the Yorkville Affair — a mix of Dillon’s Rose Gin, rose petals, elderflower liqueur and white cranberry.
Say bye bye to winter, literally, at Farmhouse Tavern with a cocktail of the same name. The bar team mixes Collingwood Whiskey, Moondog Bitters with house-made orange and clove simple syrup to shake things up a touch.
At Actinolite, they’re making booze forward cocktails with foraged ingredients — when they can find them. The list changes regularly, but we love the Solstice Sour. It’s a mix of earthy sherry, Cynar, lemon, cranberry bitters and egg white.
Meanwhile, cocktails at Cafe Belong are undergoing their seasonal transformation too. Black walnut bitters, chili infused maple syrup and Vicki’s Veggies Hot Sauce all make an appearance; but it’s the Former Rosa, a mix of tequila, grapefruit syrup and homemade rhubarb cordial, that us hooked!
If bubbles are more your style, get yourself to Harvest Kitchen for a Dillon’s French Canadian 75 with gin, honey and a punch of Southbrook Framboise — or if you want to keep things classic, Le Select Bistro makes a lovely Kir Cheri, a twist on the French sparkler: Kir Royale, subbing in just a dash of Niagara cherry juice.
Looking for more ways to add a little locally made flare to cocktail hour? Check out a Feast On restaurant near you!
Exploring Toronto? Check out SeeTorontoNow.ca — or pick up their newly released Food & Drink Issue of Toronto Magazine for itineraries, ideas and inspiration.
