Mixology hasn’t really gone too far in Toronto the way it has, say in Vancouver or Seattle. However, I’m seeing more and more hints these days that Torontonians are starting to get into their cups a bit more seriously. Now, I can’t really count myself as one of the knowledgeable bunch, but I can appreciate house-made bitters and well-crafted drinks.

So on a whim, we went to Harbour Sixty to check out their (now not-so-new) renovation and sit at the bar for drinks. There, we discovered a rather interesting list of drinks and decided to partake from it, despite the hefty per-drink price tag. I also discovered my current favourite dessert in town!

We started off with a Vesper martini – an oft-repeated order and something of a tradition now when we hit the bar at Harbour Sixty. They manage to make it with just the right amount of – well, everything. Of course, we’ve come a long way from the times where we’ve tried to make our own. While some things are worth a repeat, others are not. I classify the brutal home-made Vesper experience as one of the latter. Glad to know where I can get a really good one to banish those memories.

While this isn’t a drink, I have to say I was totally enthralled by the S’mores dessert – especially when I discovered that it came with its own dish o’ fire. Highly recommended for sharing with people (the fire doesn’t last long enough for one person – I tried), as it’s a lot of marshmallow, graham, and fruit to get through. Currently, this tops my list of fun desserts to try in the city. But I know the pastry chef there (I never see her – she’s usually only in during the day) and she’ll probably hate that I love this dessert so much. Shhh…

Though not quite the best accompaniment for dessert, I really enjoyed the Sugar Cane Kumquat Mojito a lot. Lovely citrus notes, sweet, and a light hand with the mint. Would definitely get this again, even though this was a b-list order. I had initially wanted the Shady Grove – rum, carica-infused bacardi, organic root beer, pink salt. Mostly because I wanted to see how that carica-infused bacardi turned out. However, they were out of the root beer. Alas, next time.

Our third and final drink of the night is pictured at the start of this post. Can’t seem to remember what this was and it wasn’t off their Artisan Mixology menu (the only menu shot I took). I attribute the lack of memory to the fact that this was actually our fifth attempted order (due to many ingredient shortages). I suppose it was okay though, since they ended up comping us two drinks because of it. Not complaining there. Though I swear we weren’t that drunk, I can only vaguely recall thinking that the amber-coloured drink was good too, but liking my Mojito more.

The bar is this lovely white marble, lit from underneath. I didn’t get a chance to look in the main dining room, but the decor on the bar side has certainly been updated while still maintaining that stately look of a steakhouse. We arrived very late in the night, so I don’t know if they still kept their cones of bacon strips, but I secretly hope they did.

More from Harbour Sixty

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