LCBO Food & Drink Travel 2025

Toronto Cocktail

WHAT Call this Canada’s answer to the Manhattan, with a pour of bracingly bitter Fernet Branca replacing the sweet vermouth. It can be served straight-up or on the rocks, garnished with orange zest.

WHERE The earliest mention of

this drink in print was in a 1922 U.K. book that said the Fernet Cocktail was “much appreciated by the Canadians of Toronto.” By 1948, it was being referred to in recipe books as a Toronto cocktail.

TRY Sip a modern take made

with spicy Lot No. 40 Rye at Canoe, the centre for culinary Canadiana perched on the 54th floor of the downtown Toronto TD Bank Tower.

Find a recipe for the Toronto cocktail at LCBO.com/fdtravel25

Vancouver Cocktail recipe p. 104

WHAT The spirit-forward combination of gin, Benedictine herbal liqueur, ver mouth and orange bitters is typically served straight-up in a coupe or cocktail glass.

WHERE This drink is usually credited to the venerable ivy-covered Sylvia Hotel that’s prettily perched on English Bay in Vancouver. This is where the city’s first-ever licensed cocktail lounge opened in 1954. However, early cocktail books indicate a bartender at the members-only Vancouver Club likely served it there even earlier.

TRY Sylvia’s Cocktail Bar at the Sylvia Hotel still proudly serves this drink. Historical sources, and local versions, vary on whether to include dry white or sweet red vermouth: we like a blend.

91

TRAVEL 2025 ————————