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Bar Mordecai

Toronto

Designed to feel like a vintage hotel lobby from a Wes Anderson movie, Bar Mordecai can feel just about as twee as its muse, with its resident hipster clientele and neon-signed basement karaoke rooms. But it’s not just Instagrammers drawn to this trendy stretch of Dundas Street West, you’ll also find serious drinkers thanks to Bar Mordecai’s community-building that extends beyond the bar. Bartender-owner Christina Veira – 2022’s winner of the Roku Industry Icon Award – has made a name (and raised many thousands of dollars) with community events that support causes important to women, people of colour and the LGBTQ+ community.

Cocktails here are fun and focused, with drinks such as The Departed (rum, Campari, amaro, mezcal, bitters) and Bill Ubell’s Espresso Machine (rum, amaro, Tia Maria, cold brew) as glorious as their cinematic inspirations. It also offers deeply satisfying, carefully crafted riffs on classic cocktails, such as its Royal Old Fashioned (rum, Jamaican tea chocolate, mauby bark, chaney bark, demerara, coffee bitters), which are just the sort of concoction that has made this bar beloved in and beyond its neighbourhood.

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