When the temperature drops and grey snowstorms drift into our port city, mixologists around town adjust their cocktail lists in small ways to take the chill out of their bars. Take Cooper Tardivel, manager of Mosaic Social Dining Lounge on Argyle, for instance: Since winning Best Bartender in The Coast’s Best of Food poll back in balmy July, he’s been working on a revised cocktail menu at Mosaic—which he just released.
Tardivel knows something about cool drinks: He placed third in an international competition with his wintry-sounding True North Martini, which features the tawny flavour of Jost’s maple dessert wine. That said, the new drinks menu at Mosaic doesn’t favour winter. “I don’t really believe in seasonal menus,” Tardivel says. “A good cocktail is a good cocktail all year round.”
While his new menu, a mix of pre-prohibition classics and modern recipes, avoids cute holiday names, it doesn’t Grinch on tastes appropriate to the winter months. The “Flip” is one new Mosaic addition Tardivel enthuses over. It’s an Elizabethan-inspired cocktail, he says, made with egg. He uses 2oz of sweet sherry (Harvey’s Bristol Cream), 1oz of beaten egg and 1oz of simple (sugar) syrup, then shakes extra long to allow good mixing. A little grated nutmeg on top completes it.
Pre-prohibition cocktails are clearly Tardivel’s passion. He believes that cocktails developed in the late 1800s, such as the Sidecar or Old Fashioned, are becoming a lost art in Halifax. While these gut-warming classics enjoy a widespread revival in New York and Toronto, many bartenders here either don’t know how to make them or Tardivel is unhappy with their versions. “I asked for a Manhattan at one bar,” he recalls. “They said they were out of bitters, but they had ginger ale.”
Mosaic relies on its own array of in-house pressed juices and homemade syrups. The bar makes its own grenadine from pomegranate seeds and Tardivel’s working on a homemade cranberry juice. He says, “I train our staff to encourage consumers to drink these as you would a fine wine, allowing them to open up and soften.”
Over at Onyx on Spring Garden, Danielle McLean is part of the team that develops the cocktail menu. When the snow falls, she says people order warmer drinks such as “liqueurs after dinner, cognacs or warmed calvados. And lots of champagne, because Christmas is all about celebrating.”
Onyx comes out with seasonal variations every year. Its Yuletide Cheers menu has seasonal drink names such as Nutcracker and Mistletoe and incorporates traditional holiday faves like eggnog with spiced rum, warm apple cider with butterscotch schnapps or hot chocolate.
One of McLean’s favourites is the “Persephone Mojito,” a tasty holiday choice made by muddling pomegranate seeds along with the usual mint, then adding pomegranate liqueur with white rum before shaking. McLean recommends Onyx’s Sugar Plum Fairy Martini, made with Japanese plum wine, Grand Marnier and champagne. Super premium martinis, such as those that incorporate champagne, run to $13 and the Yuletide Cheers menu drinks are $10 each.Yes, you can still get a summery mojito year round at Mosaic or Onyx, but is it gauche to drink like you’re in Havana when there’s a river of slush running down Citadel Hill? There’s always room for escapism, McLean says. “It’s all about pretending you’re somewhere warm when there’s six feet of snow outside.”
Craig Pinhey is a certified beer judge, sommelier and freelance writer. Visit him at frogspad.ca.
This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2008.