An evening at Furlough

  I recently had the pleasure of checking out Furlough, a small cocktail bar on Queen West known for amazing cocktails.  I went for dinner with a few friends, and we ate our way through their new menu items.  Before dinner, we also had the opportunity to attend a private mixology class at Furlough, where we tasted through a variety of classic and contemporary cocktails while learning about the craft of mixology.

Our bartender for the night, Gabriel was super knowledgeable and made this an educational drinking experience.   (pictured here: THE LAST WORD  //  OLD WORLD)

He walked us through a tasting featuring some of the bar’s favourite cocktails including the Hemingway Daquiri, The Last Word and Old World.

Many of their cocktails feature their own house made liquor infusions and bitters.   My favourite was the Hemingway Daiquiri, a refreshing cocktail with white rum, fresh grapefruit juice, fresh lime juice, Maraschino liqueur and simple syrup.

We enjoyed a candle lit dinner on their quaint patio and their food did not disappoint.

We were treated to a beautiful charcuterie board, tuna tartar and crispy ham hock croquettes to pair with the drinks.

For appetizers, I would also recommend the roasted asparagus with feta, flax seeds and sherry caramel.  We shared many dishes so we could try everything and highlights of the dinner included the Brioche Chitarra, and Fried Chicken.

The Bricohe Chitarra was fresh and unique pasta dish with peas, cipollini onion and mint gremolata.  The flavour has a buttery element to it as the pasta is covered with toasted brioche crumbs.

The fried chicken is crispy and juicy and sits on a creative bed of shredded baby cabbage and pickled cauliflower.

To finish off our dinner, we returned to the bar where we tried their signature dessert cocktail, The Furlough.  This cocktail was made with backwoods infused bourbon, patchouli syrup, cacao bitter and sweet vermouth, all stirred over ice and strained into a coupe glass, garnished with a flamed atomized essence of cigar. Wow!

This drink was paired with a deconstructed black forest cake giving us a pleasant mix of smokey and chocolate flavours to cap off the night.

Special thanks to our bartender, Gabriel for helping us come up with our very own “Good Food Toronto Sour” cocktail.  A delicious custom cocktail that we created using backwoods infused bourbon, mint bitters, lime and an egg white.

*** note: Furlough is now closed according to NOW Magazine article ***