Cocktail Correspondent: Weldon Gardner Hunter
Sunday, March 16 was almost unsalvagable. I met my brother at a secret location in Gastown for Sunday Roast. As members of a Canadian-British household, a good Sunday Roast feels like one of the only satisfying expressions of our cultural/ethnic heritage, so we seek it out like Diogenes sought a single honest man.
We'd been weeks before and had an amazing gustatory experience. This time, though - disappointing. The mashed potatoes were replaced by hash browns. Yikes!
I won't discuss our dessert fiasco. That came at another place.
The big event was a Canucks game with the mysterious Moe Gorge (my brother had absconded by now - no hockey fan he). Unfortunately, the boys weren't up to it and lost 3-1 to the Utah Hockey Club. Our game, however, was bookended by 6-2 wins. Eep! We picked the wrong game. The guy behind us in the lower bowl was more disappointed that there wasn't a "tilly." He had been quite vocal in his desire for one.
After all these letdowns, the inestimable Gorge suggested we repair to The Chickadee Room (182 Keefer Street, Vancouver). It's a short walk from the arena, on the edge of Vancouver's Chinatown. It's attached to Juke Fried Chicken, which means the snack menu was going to be good.
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| The menu |
I ordered a Midnight Hour, the most expensive drink they had. I was tempting fate.
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| Blanton's Bourbon, Coconut Miso Calvados, Vecchio Del Capo Amaro, Lemon Marrakech |
This potent potion reversed the curse of the day. In fact, the day had been seized, arrested, sent off to jail for being a bad guy, while the elixir changed my mood. I wasn't writing notes because I was socializing with MG, but I remember that the drink was rich with a velvety chocolate finish from the Capo. A similar flavour profile to the two drinks I had recently at The Homer Café. It was garnished with a chocolate wafer, which I ate after maybe two sips.
The Chickadee Room has an 80s theme, the lighting is a subdued neon hue. I was slightly distracted during Moe's reminiscences of Normandy by an episode of Miami Vice with Bill Paxton on the TV at the bar that was in my eyeline. There's also the whimsy of this door that was hanging above our table:
Here's Moe worried about the Door of Damocles, the photo also gives you a sense of the space:
I like the décor, but I can't help thinking that an ornithological theme would be more appropriate. Bright murals of passerines, soundtracked by Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux, perhaps? Did you know that chicakdee brains grow 30% seasonally in order to remember their extensive caches of seeds? In addition to being cute. This is Emulsified: Cute Cocktails, after all.
Happy Spring to all! Feed your local chickadees!
