Travel

Where to Drink in Montreal, According to One of Its Best Bartenders

Santé!

Photo by Elizabeth Gartside
Photo by Elizabeth Gartside
Photo by Elizabeth Gartside

Montreal has a long history as a city of sin: In the early 20th century, Québecois gangs and bootleggers fueled a thirsty USA during Prohibition. Today, with a legal drinking age of 18, Montreal still plays host to bachelor parties and college kids who head north to slurp up drinks at one of the city’s many clubs, speakeasies, and bars (or from someone’s belly button at a cabaret, if that’s their style).

While Montreal certainly isn’t as seedy as it once was, it’s still unquestionably Canada’s party capital. For a taste of what the city’s got going on, look no further than the Atwater Cocktail Club, a craft cocktail refuge with a speakeasy vibe that consistently ranks as one of the country’s best bars.

Photo by Elizabeth Gartside
Photo by Elizabeth Gartside
Photo by Elizabeth Gartside

Atwater is “glamorous, dark, and intimate without being stuffy or pretentious,” says head bartender Thomas Yeo, who has plenty of accolades in his own right. “You can come in early and chat with the bartender about one of the 700 or so bottles on our back bar, or come in late and party with the DJ while drinking cocktails and shooting tequila. Or you can stay all night and do both!”

Originally from the small town of Chelsea on the border of Quebec and Ontario, Yeo’s spent most of his adult life embracing Montreal’s joie de vivre. “It’s a city where people still smoke cigarettes and eat poutine. We’re all more concerned with living well than living long,” he jokes.

When visitors come to town, Yeo finds it tough to recommend all of Montreal’s best places to drink-other than his own bar, of course. But here, he was kind enough to share his personal favourites.

Milky Way
Milky Way
Milky Way

For 5à7 (aka happy hour): Milky Way

“Full disclosure: Milky Way is [Atwater’s] sister bar, but this cocktail spot in Pointe-Saint-Charles would have made this list whether it was part of the family or not. As soon as you walk up the black-lit staircase from the street, you feel like you’ve been transported somewhere else. The aesthetic has a very Miami Vice kind of vibe to it, and the huge atrium over the bar makes it feel tropical all year round. The cocktail card reflects the atmosphere: big bright flavors and eye-catching glassware. (Two-foot-tall copper swan, anyone?) They share a kitchen with Fugazzi Pizza downstairs so it’s the perfect place to grab a wood-fired pizza and a cocktail or two while the sun sets over the city.”

For a neighbourhood dive: Bar de Courcelle

“Bar de Courcelle is exactly what a neighbourhood dive should be. Nestled in an old building in Saint-Henri marked with a winking Felix the Cat decal in the window, the space is low, dark, and full of character. They serve up big bottles of Labatt 50, $4 Wild Turkey shots, and a great bar snacks menu. Like any true dive, the staff don’t take anyone’s shit and won’t hesitate to call out obnoxious behaviour. The big upside is that as long as you behave yourself (somewhat) you couldn’t ask for a safer or more welcoming environment.”

El Pequeño
El Pequeño
El Pequeño

For a hole in the wall: El Pequeño

“I’m pretty sure at one point El Pequeño had the honour of being Canada’s smallest bar-it’s certainly the smallest one in Montreal. It’s worth pulling up to one of their seven seats for some of the city’s best Cuban-style cocktails and Cubano sandwiches. The room evokes Hemingway’s Cuba, so grab a daiquiri and have one of their knowledgeable bartenders tell you about Cuban cocktail history or some of their rums. They’re also affiliated with and located right above the hidden entrance to The Coldroom speakeasy, and asking your bartender about it is one of the best ways to get in.”

For keeping things hush-hush: Cloakroom

“The Cloakroom feels like a true speakeasy experience. The entrance is hidden behind a gold wall just outside a menswear shop, and you wait patiently until the wall magically opens and you’re ushered inside. The space is small and elegant and makes the bar the center of attention. There’s no menu, so a bar team that has featured some of Montreal’s best-known bartenders over the years creates cocktails made-to-order using a carefully curated back bar and house-made ingredients.”

Le Mal Necessaire
Le Mal Necessaire
Le Mal Necessaire

For tiki drinks in a speakeasy: Le Mal Nécessaire

“Montreal’s original tiki bar, Le Mal Nécessaire (or Necessary Evil) is a full-on tiki experience in the heart of Chinatown. They serve up great tiki classics and tropical creations served in pineapples and coconuts, but also have an awesome boilermaker list. They’re known for championing sustainability and finding creative ways to reduce food waste in their bar program, which is super cool-head bartender and GM Mickey Rizk even did a TED Talk about it!”

For a go-to pub: Honey Martin

“There’s just something about this place. It feels super authentic, especially in contrast to so many other Irish pubs that often feel almost like caricatures of the concept. The walls are covered floor to ceiling in framed paintings, mainly of boxers but with a few curveballs thrown in. When it fills up-and it does on the weekends-the crowd is a real cross-section of the neighbourhood and has a pretty special energy. Go grab a shot of good Irish whiskey and a pint of Guinness and enjoy the live music.”

Photo courtesy of Le Royal
Photo courtesy of Le Royal
Photo courtesy of Le Royal

For an essential wine bar: Rouge Gorge (+ Le Royal)

“A quintessential Montreal wine bar, Rouge Gorge is the perfect place to go to immerse yourself in the city’s wine culture. They have a beautiful wine list with plenty of options by the glass so you can try a variety or have the staff suggest a bottle and really get to know it. The menu of easily sharable plates is simple, fresh, and delicious and provides a great compliment to the wines. After dinner, pop downstairs for a cocktail by Manu Ruiz and his team at Le Royal, a gorgeous cocktail bar in the basement.”

Bar George
Bar George
Bar George

For classing it up in a hotel bar: Bar George

“Located in Le Mount Stephen Hotel, Bar George is one of the most spectacular spaces to drink in the city. The boutique hotel and bar are housed inside an immense Victorian mansion that screams old-world opulence. From the insane amount of detail in the woodwork that covers the space from floor to ceiling to the bizarre religious iconography in the stained glass windows, every inch of the place is a feast for the eyes. Bar-chef Elise Sergerie and her team (featuring a few Atwater Cocktail Club alums-shoutout to Niz and Brandon!) offer up thoughtful creations and well-crafted classics alongside a menu of English and Scottish fare with a Quebecois twist. Grab a seat at the huge oval bar in the main room and enjoy something fancy to really feel the vibe.”

For dinner AND drinks: Café Entre Deux and Tuck Shop

“For me, this one is a tie. Entre Deux is a relative newcomer to the scene and has quickly become a favourite. It’s owned and operated by a group of young industry vets (and yet another Atwater alum) and feels like a real passion project. They have a small but excellent cocktail menu, a great selection of wines that are very on-trend, and a delicious and creative rotating food menu. I love seeing what they’ve come up with each time I go in.

Tuck Shop has been a Saint-Henri favourite since 2010, and for good reason. The menu is market-driven fine dining and is always spectacular. The wine list is wonderful and the service is what really sets it apart. Owner-operator Jon Metcalfe has hospitality in his bones and it shows. If you’re in the mood to manifest some fun after dinner, you might talk him into getting behind the bar to show you his perfect pour.”

For a wild night out: The Wiggle Room

“Who doesn’t love burlesque? The Wiggle Room commits to their stated goal of bringing a traditional Vaudeville spirit back to Saint-Laurent Boulevard with host and general manager Frenchy Jones leading the charge. From the opening swearing of the house oath until the last scraps of lace are collected from the floor, the show is always interactive, bawdy, and, above all, entertaining. The great cocktail menu is icing on the.. well, I’ll let you figure out where the icing goes.”

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Joel Balsam is a Canadian freelance journalist and guidebook author who writes for Lonely Planet, National Geographic, TIME, BBC Travel, and more. His home base is Montreal, but he can often be found tasting his way through a packed market somewhere.

Travel

Ditch your Phone for ‘Dome Life’ in this Pastoral Paradise Outside Port Macquarie 

A responsible, sustainable travel choice for escaping big city life for a few days.

nature domes port macquarie
Photo: Nature Domes

The urge to get as far away as possible from the incessant noise and pressures of ‘big city life’ has witnessed increasingly more of us turn to off-grid adventures for our holidays: Booking.com polled travellers at the start of 2023 and 55% of us wanted to spend our holidays ‘off-grid’.  Achieving total disconnection from the unyielding demands of our digitised lives via some kind of off-grid nature time—soft or adventurous—is positioned not only as a holiday but, indeed, a necessity for our mental health. 

Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, an accommodation collection of geodesic domes dotted across a lush rural property in Greater Port Macquarie (a few hours’ drive from Sydney, NSW), offers a travel experience that is truly ‘off-grid’. In the figurative ‘wellness travel’ sense of the word, and literally, they run on their own independent power supply—bolstered by solar—and rely not on the town grid. 

Ten minutes before you arrive at the gates for a stay at Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, your phone goes into ‘SOS ONLY’. Apple Maps gives up, and you’re pushed out of your comfort zone, driving down unsealed roads in the dark, dodging dozens of dozing cows. Then, you must ditch your car altogether and hoist yourself into an open-air, all-terrain 4WD with gargantuan wheels. It’s great fun being driven through muddy gullies in this buggy; you feel like Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park.  As your buggy pulls in front of your personal Nature Dome, it’s not far off that “Welcome…to Jurassic Park” jaw-dropping moment—your futuristic-looking home is completely engulfed by thriving native bushland; beyond the outdoor campfire lie expansive hills and valleys of green farmland, dotted with sheep and trees. You’re almost waiting to see a roaming brachiosaurus glide past, munching on a towering gum tree…instead, a few inquisitive llamas trot past your Dome to check out their new visitor. 

To fully capture the awe of inhabiting a geodesic dome for a few days, a little history of these futuristic-looking spherical structures helps. Consisting of interlocking triangular skeletal struts supported by (often transparent) light walls, geodesic domes were developed in the 20th century by American engineer and architect R. Buckminster Fuller, and were used for arenas. Smaller incarnations have evolved into a ‘future-proof’ form of modern housing: domes are able to withstand harsh elements due to the stability provided by the durable materials of their construction and their large surface area to volume ratio (which helps minimize wind impact and prevents the structure from collapsing). As housing, they’re also hugely energy efficient – their curved shape helps to conserve heat and reduce energy costs, making them less susceptible to temperature changes outside. The ample light let in by their panels further reduces the need for artificial power. 

Due to their low environmental impact, they’re an ideal sustainable travel choice. Of course, Tom’s Creek Nature Domes’ owner-operators, Cardia and Lee Forsyth, know all this, which is why they have set up their one-of-a-kind Nature Domes experience for the modern traveller. It’s also no surprise to learn that owner Lee is an electrical engineer—experienced in renewable energy—and that he designed the whole set-up. As well as the off-grid power supply, rainwater tanks are used, and the outdoor hot tub is heated by a wood fire—your campfire heats up your tub water via a large metal coil. Like most places in regional Australia, the nights get cold – but rather than blast a heater, the Domes provide you with hot water bottles, warm blankets, lush robes and heavy curtains to ward off the chill.

nature domes port macquarie
Photo: Nature Domes

You’ll need to be self-sufficient during your stay at the Domes, bringing your own food. Support local businesses and stock up in the town of Wauchope on your drive-in (and grab some pastries and coffee at Baked Culture while you’re at it). There’s a stovetop, fridge (stocked as per a mini bar), BBQs, lanterns and mozzie coils, and you can even order DIY S’More packs for fireside fun. The interiors of the Domes have a cosy, stylish fit-out, with a modern bathroom (and a proper flushing toilet—none of that drop bush toilet stuff). As there’s no mobile reception, pack a good book or make the most of treasures that lie waiting to be discovered at every turn: a bed chest full of board games, a cupboard crammed with retro DVDs, a stargazing telescope (the skies are ablaze come night time). Many of these activities are ideal for couples, but there’s plenty on offer for solo travellers, such as yoga mats, locally-made face masks and bath bombs for hot tub soaks. 

It’s these thoughtful human touches that reinforce the benefit of making a responsible travel choice by booking local and giving your money to a tourism operator in the Greater Port Macquarie Region, such as Tom’s Creek Nature Domes. The owners are still working on the property following the setbacks of COVID-19, and flooding in the region —a new series of Domes designed with families and groups in mind is under construction, along with an open-air, barn-style dining hall and garden stage. Once ready, the venue will be ideal for wedding celebrations, with wedding parties able to book out the property. They’ve already got one couple—who honeymooned at the Domes—ready and waiting. Just need to train up the llamas for ring-bearer duties! 

An abundance of favourite moments come to mind from my two-night stay at Tom’s Creek: sipping champagne and gourmet picnicking at the top of a hill on a giant swing under a tree, with a bird’s eye view of the entire property (the ‘Mountain Top picnic’ is a must-do activity add on during your stay), lying on a deckchair at night wrapped in a blanket gazing up at starry constellations and eating hot melted marshmallows, to revelling in the joys of travellers before me, scrawled on notes in a jar of wishes left by the telescope (you’re encouraged to write your own to add to the jar). But I’ll leave you with a gratitude journal entry I made while staying there. I will preface this by saying that I don’t actually keep a gratitude journal, but Tom’s Creek Nature Domes is just the kind of place that makes you want to start one. And so, waking up on my second morning at Tom’s —lacking any 4G bars to facilitate my bad habit of a morning Instagram scroll—I finally opened up a notebook and made my first journal entry:

‘I am grateful to wake up after a deep sleep and breathe in the biggest breaths of this clean air, purified by nature and scented with eucalyptus and rain. I am grateful for this steaming hot coffee brewed on a fire. I feel accomplished at having made myself. I am grateful for the skittish sheep that made me laugh as I enjoyed a long nature walk at dawn and the animated billy goats and friendly llamas overlooking my shoulder as I write this: agreeable company for any solo traveller. I’m grateful for total peace, absolute stillness.” 

Off-grid holiday status: unlocked.

Where: Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, Port Macquarie, 2001 Toms Creek Rd
Price: $450 per night, book at the Natura Domes website.

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