Raising the bar at Montreal's top drinking spots

“Part of the fascination for visitors, especially tourists, is like going on some kind of urban treasure hunt” to find these best of the best bars.

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There is no big, enticing sign outside. There is no sign at all. You have to make your way past a fashionable men’s clothing boutique-cum-barbershop before coming to a closed doorway entrance, which then brings you into one of the city’s, the country’s and North America’s most swank and intimate hideaways, the Cloakroom Bar.

Talk about understated. No cloakroom that ever hung a coat or a cloak resembles this place.

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The bar sits on de la Montagne St., just south of Sherbrooke St., and the only giveaway that a bar exists there is a small Maison Cloakroom boutique sign outside and another emblazoned on its window. But those who have been frequenting the place since its inception in 2015 need no maps or introductions.

More to the point: the Cloakroom Bar and a few other choice civil spots may be the perfect antidote to the summer festival madness taking over Montreal streets the next three months, starting with this weekend’s Grand Prix — the crush of humanity, sonic blasts of indecipherable music and muscle-heads revving up their muffler-less vehicles to the max.

Chill not only represents the temperature of the myriad summer cocktails being served by the ultra-creative mixologists at these club oases but is also a reflection of the non-discernible decibel levels which allow patrons to actually talk to one another while reposing on comfy divans.

The Cloakroom Bar has not only been deemed the third best drinking establishment in the country on Jacob Richler’s recently released Canada’s 50 Best Bars list, but it also landed on the famed Perrier list of 50 Best Bars in North America, placing 39th.

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Best bars in Montreal fly under the radar
“This place is so unique, unlike any bar we’ve ever been to,” two of the patrons of the Atwater Cocktail Club say. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Another understated city delight, the Atwater Cocktail Club, offers an exquisite escape just a little farther away from the madding crowd on Atwater Ave., a few steps north of Notre-Dame St. No signs here, either, but those who know, know where to go. For those not in the know, patrons have to wend their way through a short, graffiti-lined lane to enter. A red light at the door indicates the club is open for some fine swilling and laid-back banter amid an uber-classy interior.

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The Atwater Cocktail Club, marking its eighth birthday in July, is much lauded as well, drawing clients from the ‘hood but also from all over this continent and a few others. The club finished just behind the Cloakroom on the Richler and Perrier scales. It was chosen fourth best in Canada and 50th on the North American list.

That’s some kind of accomplishment and acknowledgement for both the Cloakroom and the Atwater Cocktail Club, considering that more than 100,000 bars throughout Canada, the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean are eligible for the Perrier recognition. Well-merited kudos for both establishments, which, considering their lack of promotion, remain mysteries to many Montrealers.

The Atwater Cocktail Club can also boast about this year’s recipient of the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award winner — presented by Perrier. The club’s co-owner, Kate Boushel, has taken the prize as this continent’s best mixologist.


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Best bars in Montreal fly under the radar
Cloakroom Bar co-owner Louis Ialenti at the entrance to the boutique that leads to one of the city’s, the country’s and North America’s most swank bars. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

The Cloakroom Bar was essentially an after-thought, according to its co-owner Louis Ialenti, also the co-owner of the tony boutique, Maison Cloakroom. His bar partners, Andrew Whibley (Bar Dominion, Le 9e) and Diego Iovino (Bar Dominion, Still Life), are well-known players on the bar scene.

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“We had some dead-end space to fill and we decided to do a little venue just for our own clients and friends, but that quickly evolved before opening the bar it is now,” the dapper Ialenti says. “The ethos is the same for both the boutique and the bar: made-to-measure garments and made-to-measure cocktails.

“At the beginning, it was definitely a slow burn. But with word of mouth, the place caught fire. It started with locals, but with all the accolades, the tourists came and now represent half our business. Yet we’re still a secret to some in the city.”

The bar, renowned for one of the finest — and priciest — collections of rare whiskies and bourbons anywhere in the world, doesn’t require big crowds to fill it. Its bar, couches and adjoining small room sit only 25. Open daily from 5 p.m., no reservations are required but best to get there early. Also best not to expect any wine — save for some champagne — or any food.

“Our clients are generally aficionados of great scotches, bourbons and amaros as well as of innovative cocktails with the best ingredients — enjoyed in peace and relative quiet,” Iovino says. “But getting those honours from the Richler list for this year and the two previous and then the Perrier list ­is like the equivalent to getting a Michelin star for a bar. This tells us we’ve been on the right track here.”

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Yes, but there has been one downside for the owners.

“The place is too small so we can’t even hang out in our own bar,” Iovino cracks.

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Best bars in Montreal
“At the beginning, it was definitely a slow burn. But with word of mouth, the place caught fire,” says Cloakroom Bar’s co-owner Louis Ialenti, far left, next to co-owner Diego Iovino. Behind the bar, from left: Jack Forbes, Jay Lawson and Maximillien Jean. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

No matter, after a couple of American customers dipped into a bottle of Double Eagle Very Rare 20-year-old bourbon — that can fetch up to $17,000 a bottle, according to Iovino — and ran up a bill of $12,000, as was the case not long ago, the owners weren’t complaining. Nor was bartender/co-manager Jay Lawson complaining after pocketing more than a 20-per-cent tip.

Then again, Lawson can’t boast that he sold Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid 14 suits to outfit his wedding party for his coming July nuptials — hopefully after his team nabs the Stanley Cup — as Ialenti’s boutique recently did.

Regardless, no surprise that there is a waiting list for jobs at this bar.

Lawson began in the business decades back at the rowdy downtown Mad Hatters pub — about as far removed from the Cloakroom as it gets on the bar front. He is considered something of a chemist for his ability to mix various fruit and vegetable extracts together in exotic cocktails.

“They call me a mad scientist,” Lawson jokes. “And that’s about right.”

“Jay is like an executive chef at a very fine restaurant,” Iovino declares. “There are very few who have his knowledge anywhere.”

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Who needs a sign here anyway?

Kate Boushel

Although it may be small, behind it is a liquid kitchen twice the size of the club where Lawson and the other bartenders mine these extracts and where different varieties of concentrates and specialized ice cubes are concocted.

Having heard about the Cloakroom from a friend, first-time visitor Elissa Larkin, a bioethicist and speech-language pathologist from Chicago in town for a bioethics conference, had checking out the bar on top of her to-do list here.

“Surprise me,” she tells Lawson after he inquiries about her tastes. “I’m pretty open to everything. I’m a cocktails gal. Maybe something on the herbal side.”

Lawson asks if she has any allergies and then suggests an intriguing mix of vodka, liqueurs, fennel and aromatic herbal extracts for good measure.

“This has to be the first time I’ve ever been asked about allergies at a bar or interviewed about my choice of cocktails,” says the beaming Larkin. “And also the first time I’ve been given a mini starter (vermouth-laced) drink, like a sorbet at a restaurant, before the main cocktail course comes.”

“We offer that to all our clients, so that their palates are ready for the cocktail,” Lawson explains.

Then comes the cocktail, appropriately dubbed Herbal Calling by Lawson.

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“Wow!” Larkin marvels after tasting. “It’s everything I would have wished for, refreshing and herbal and seemingly simple, not over-sophisticated. It’s as if I just walked into a forest on a sunny spring day. I’ve had some amazing cocktails over the years, but this one just kind of blows all the others out of the water.”

Lawson simply smiles. His days are filled with similar compliments.


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Best bars in Montreal fly under the radar
Patrons have to wend their way through a short, graffiti-lined lane to enter the Atwater Cocktail Club. A red light at the door indicates the club is open. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Smiles also abound from a group of first-time Atlanta visitors, who didn’t require the skill of a Magellan to find the laneway leading to the Atwater Cocktail Club.

“This place is so unique, unlike any bar we’ve ever been to,” two of the patrons say almost in unison. “The décor and ambience are so, so cool.”

Music to the ears of Boushel, the award-winning barkeep, who is director of beverage for the Barroco Group, a collective of three restos and three bars, including this club, the adjacent Foiegwa eatery and the Pointe’s funky Milky Way — which placed 28th on Canada’s Best Bars list.

“Who needs a sign here anyway?” the grinning Boushel says. “Part of the fascination for visitors, especially tourists, is like going on some kind of urban treasure hunt. But if we see people who look like they’re coming here but getting lost, our door person normally spots them and brings them in.”

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Best bars in Montreal fly under the radar
The Atwater Cocktail Club’s co-owner, Kate Boushel, has taken the prize as this continent’s best mixologist. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Boushel is naturally overjoyed at not only being selected as North America’s best bartender, but also the Atwater Cocktail Club taking spots on the both the Canadian and North American lists for best bars.

“The Canada list is very important to us because we are among peers. The North American list is incredible, because that means a sufficient number of voters have managed to travel to Montreal, to discover what the city has to offer in terms of restaurants and bars — which is even better.”

The club décor is a glossy eyeful. Its dazzling chrome banquettes change colours based on the lighting selected for the evening.

Best bars in Montreal fly under the radar
“I would describe most of our clientele as cocktail-curious,” says Atwater Cocktail Club’s Kate Boushel at Foiegwa next door. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Open daily from 5 p.m., the club sits 60 on the banquettes and another 10 at the bar. Unlike the Cloakroom, food is available — from Foiegwa, whose kitchen is conveniently attached to the club.

But the main attraction is, of course, the club’s extensive cocktail list, which Boushel has played an integral part in assembling. The bar pretty much carries every category of spirit that exists as well as a solid selection of wines and beers.

“I would describe most of our clientele as cocktail-curious. There are those arriving earlier who often live outside this area, but as the evening progresses, we amp up and dim the lights with a different crowd of regulars from the area, often hanging in till closing time at 3 a.m.,” Boushel says.

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“Regardless, we have lineups every night with people who just want to get away from all the lunacy.”

And Boushel has a special concoction for those overwhelmed with the lunacy surrounding us: “It’s my twist on the classic Corpse Reviver No. 2, an equal-part cocktail with a floral gin, a rosé fortified wine, a Mandarine Napoleon liqueur, fresh lemon juice and an absinthe rinse. … It makes most people very happy.”

No doubt. And it could indeed revive the dead as well as the alive.


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Best bars in Montreal fly under the radar
At Milky Way in Pointe-St-Charles, assistant manager Emanuelle Ouellette is surrounded by lime-green banquettes, mini-pink flamingos and a huge skylight. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

The same Atwater Cocktail Club customer base applies to the second-floor Milky Way bar in Pointe-St-Charles’s more barren but still buzzing Centre St., next door to the Fugazzi pizza parlour, also owned by the Barroco Group.

While the Atwater Cocktail Club may be more on the urban glam side, the Milky Way is truly a trip, perhaps not to the stars but back to another time and place. Think of it as taking a step into another dimension altogether. The colours are wild, from its lime-green banquettes to its bar dotted with mini-pink flamingos.

Enhancing the scene is a massive skylight delivering both sun and stars.

“At the Atwater Club, we wanted everything to be classic cocktail bar motif, dark and warm,” explains Boushel, having made her way over to the Milky Way.

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“But Milky Way is 1980s Miami on one level and Dr. Who on another, tropical and colourful with an entire skylight over the bar. Everything is to make you believe you’ve travelled somewhere. When you walk into the bar, you walk into what looks like an Alice in Wonderland portal into a wondrous, warm paradise. It could be Miami. It could even be Rio.”

And that’s without knocking back any mushrooms of the magical variety.

Milky Way co-manager Emanuelle Ouellette puts it this way: “It may beat a spaceship ride to a faraway planet. It’s the ultimate trip.”

Opened in late 2019, the Milky Way, which can accommodate 60 patrons, was mainly frequented by locals at first, but Americans and even European tourists have since begun to end up in its orbit.

And, oh yeah, like the Cloakroom and Atwater Cocktail Club, there is no outdoor signage leading into the Milky Way.

“Signs are just so overrated,” Boushel quips.

Taking a cue from the Field of Dreams mantra, the grinning Boushel softly utters: “If you build it, they will come … eventually.”


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Best bars in Montreal fly under the radar
El Pequeño, in Old Montreal, is Canada’s tiniest bar. An unmarked door inside leads to the Coldroom, another top bar. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Those in the know know about these bars too

Here are the other Montreal drinking establishments to make it on Jacob Richler’s 2024 Canada’s 50 Best Bars list.

The Coldroom (12): Yet another bar without a sign, but then again, like the others, this speakeasy on St-Vincent St. in the heart of Old Montreal is well known enough to locals and tourists alike both for its cocktails and rustic surroundings.

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El Pequeño (27): Affixed to the Coldroom on St-Vincent St. is Canada’s tiniest bar which sits but nine customers and two bartenders, but what this Cuban-inspired cocktail bar lacks in size it more than makes up for in character, offering tipplers a memorable slice of Havana.

Bisou Bisou (37): Close by on the same street in Old Montreal as the Coldroom and El Pequeño and all owned by the Northern Hospitality Group is this cocktail hotspot focusing more on apéritif culture, with the accent on sherries and vermouths.

Le Majestique (43): As a bonus, this ever-hopping resto-bar on the Main not only serves up divine cocktails but also some of the best seafood around in an alluring bistro setting.

Bar Henrietta (46): Situated on ever-fashionable Laurier Ave., this warm lounge, with its massive chandeliers, has both knockout cocktails and a solid wine list with a menu top-heavy on tasty munchies.

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