Cocktail Bingo
At the beginning of 2018 I read Gary Chapman’s 5 love languages book. If you are unfamiliar with them let me elaborate, if you’re here for the cocktails keep scrolling.
The key 5 love languages are Acts of Service, Gifts, Physical Touch, Words of Affirmation and Quality Time. Now just because you relate to one more quality stronger than the other doesn’t mean you don’t see value or won’t accept the others it just means you respond differently. For me quality time and gifts are the two ways I feel most loved.
Quality time is so valuable to me especially in the hectic world we live in. One of my best friends and I decided instead of switching gift cards for various birthdays and Christmases we would go on getaways or take each other out for dinner and cocktails, that way we get to spend time with each other while enjoying our favourite things. When we first came up with this idea we had no idea how many options we had available in our city! This was the beginning of Cocktail Bingo!
Scroll down to the bottom to print off your free Bingo Sheet! I have made a YYC one and a Blank one, if you are not a Calgary based reader!
**Warning** we like gin. So a lot of the drinks we’ve tried have been a gin cocktail of some kind but I will be sharing my entire thoughts on the location not just the cocktail. Let’s get started!
The first few spots we went to, were already tried and tested so we thought it would be a good place to start. Bar Annabelle is on 8th ave just past Blink Restaurant *edit now Annabelle’s Kitchen,and if you’re not looking for it you may just miss it. It’s a single door that blends into the street. The first time we went they didn’t even have a sign a part from the golden decal on the door. I believe I had a sparkling wine the first time, and the second time I went with a Manhattan.
Across the street you will find Wednesday Room, convenient second stop along our cocktail tour. This time I went with an old fashioned and made it a double as it came with a flask...so why not . As I am writing this we have been back a second and it seems to me they have updated the menu, which excludes the old fashioned flask but has been updated with equally inticing cocktails with tongue and cheek names.
Moving off of 8th Ave, we found ourselves at Greta Bar, which is an arcade bar with delicious cocktails! I think the games get more fun as the cocktails go one, or they at least get more competitive! I went with Flowers for Greta to begin with which had pisco, st. Germain, citrus,vanilla syrup, angostura and egg white.
I know we are already 3 restaurants in and I have yet to mention a single gin drink, but they’re coming I promise!
I know I have mentioned this before, but travelling for work I have started to become quite the critique of hotels and their restaurants, and in the past restaurants attached to hotels have fallen flat but Flower and Wolf is changing the stereotype! Attached to the Sheraton down in Eau Claire they have Great food along with cocktails mixed with good company...of course. The first time we went I had the Old London which has grapefruit bitters, orange bitters, Bar 40 sour bitters along with your choice of gin. Although a touch strong for Sunday brunch I would highly recommend it. The second time I popped in it was a Saturday evening and it was busy which I was glad to see, as the first time we went we had the place to ourselves...which was nice for instagram haha, but I went with the Cucumber Gimlet which also had Tanqueray Gin.
**Desclaimer/ Reminder** we didn’t complete this bingo chart over a bender weekend we took almost two years to complete it!
Now that’s out of the way I feel like I can carry on. The next part of the city we ventured into was Inglewood. I called this a Bermuda Triangle because there are 3 bars within a 10 Step radius. Those being, Madison 1212, Eden and The Off Cut Bar which is attached to The Nash. The original intention was to have one at each place and move on, 3 drinks and call it a day…or night in this case.
It worked for the first bit, we had a fantastic G&T at Madison 1212, which is where I discovered and fell in love with the Empress Gin from Victoria, if you love gin and tonics Madison 1212 is your spot, and to pair with it they have killer nachos, including vegan and dessert! Next was the Eden where we had dinner and then a cocktail…which I don’t remember the name I want to say it was something like the New Yorker, anyways after dinner we popped over to the off cut bar which is attached to the Nash and if you want a fantastic meal (and cocktails) this is a great date night spot! This is where we broke the rules and the wheels fell off, we had 2 cocktails here, the first was one off the menu and the second was a custom creation which had a tiger blend spice to it, it was amazing…and for any restaurants out there, hire chatty bartenders, guests will stay longer and drink more, I can speak from experience on more than one occasion.
After we polished off our two drinks, we thought we should make it fair and go back to the other two spots and have another bevy…that’s exactly what we did, being aware I had had a few different poisons I decided to keep with gin and keep it simple with gin and tonic.
It’s been a minute but I have finally been able to add another notch to my cocktail belt. Before I go any further I would like to give some special shout outs to a few places in Banff I have also had the pleasure of drinking my way through. Park Distillery is a great spot, with delicious food, I have been there a few time between brunch and dinner and have yet to be disappointed. Another spot I fell in love with was the Vermillion Room at the Banff Springs Hotel, before COVID I was able to enjoy a fantastic evening there with amazing cocktails and live music, now that have opened back up I hope to pop in for another visit during the autumn.
Now fast forward to last week, I met up with a friend and we did happy hour at Cleaver. It was absolutly fantastic, I only tried two varieties as the first one was so good I had to have it again, my friend on the other hand tried 3 different cocktails to which she was impressed by all of them here’s what we had X, I would also recommend going hungry because their food is also amazing, I am a big fan of their sliders…I think I’ve had them almost every time, except the first time I went when I had the flatbread.
