Add It Up: 515 Bar

 Cocktail Correspondent: Weldon Gardner Hunter

Tuesday, May 28: My Strega Sense was tingling after teaching two Tuesday classes, so I decided to Expo line to The 515 Bar (521 Seymour Street, Vancouver). It's on one of the city's most architecturally interesting blocks - Seymour between Dunsmuir and Pender. This is real downtown, baby!

I haven't been to 515 in a couple of months, so there's been a menu change - The Spaghetti Western cocktail which I planned to have has been sent out of town by the Sheriff, but I was told there was just enough Strega left in the bottle to make one last drink. 

Spaghetti Western: Bourbon, Strega, Simple Syrup, Egg White

The drink is emulsified, foamy. It’s balanced. It only comes out at night: something about Bourbon & Strega together in a cocktail makes me imagine an oddly successful blind date between Sam Cooke and Stevie Nicks. There’s no bitter bite, the sips are slightly sweet followed by the herbal, witchy aftertaste of Strega.

Here's a picture of the cocktail back when it was still on the menu, and I had brighter lighting:

The space that the lounge is in used to be known as The Sidebar. At one time, there were two "Sidebars" in Vancouver, the other one being a 70s rec-room that was in Bosman's Motor Hotel on Howe Street. The new moniker for the Seymour Street Sidebar locale is evocative ... notice the digit discrepancy between the name and the actual address. *

The environment of The 515 is stellar. There's about room for 30 people, consisting of a bar (natch), tables and chairs by the windows, and a small raised area with two couches.

Midnight Marauders on heavy rotation when I was there. A dash of Digable Planets, too. The room filled up gradually and the bar staff welcomed everyone warmly as they came in. The bartender was happy to talk about drinks; in fact, when I arrived there was just one other person at the bar and they were having a spirited discussion about spirits. As a cocktail correspondent, this is always a good omen.

The lounge is in a very historic building that once was the Clarence Hotel. It's now the Cambie/Seymour Hostel, and there's an even bigger bar you can enter from the Pender Street frontage, known as Malone's. 

The Clarence Hotel. Zoom in to see a dapper gentleman.

I was also impressed with this saloon door, which a young barback would periodically and mysteriously emerge from:

The featured cocktail on this visit was a Sidecar, which I've imbibed and enjoyed before at 515. So I ordered one. A Sidecar at the old Sidebar seemed right.

Sidecar:  Torres Spanish Brandy, ¾ lemon juice, ¾ Cointreau, a small dash of Simple Syrup

Definitely sour, but the Torres is an interesting sub for the expected Henney or Rémy. It makes me feel like I’m on the Costa Brava (though inland, not right on the ocean, maybe Girona?). With the Cointreau, you have that slightly bitter orange bite – the whole drink is intense, like life was in the 30s and like it is now. 

At the end of my stay, the bartender rewarded me with a digestivo of Fernet-Branca, which is an Italian amaro with myrrh in it. Myrrh! That means it was a Gift of the Magi, the bartender being the wise man who figured a patron who likes Strega will like another herbal and aromatic Italian spirit. It's a rich, dark brown liquid and I sipped at it after I stopped taking notes and my laptop stashed away, but I remember it was minty and strong.

 

Recommendation: become one of the High Numbers to drink at the stylish 515 Bar.

* Further research tells me 515 was the original address of the Clarence