A popular steakhouse in Little Italy has opened a second-floor speakeasy
Bitters and Bloom is the new cocktail lounge above J’s Steak Frites on College Street
The team behind J’s Steak Frites has swapped out strip loins for spirits. Just weeks after closing their popular Queen West location, Jad Sfeir and Tara Tang have launched a new concept above their College Street outpost: Bitters and Bloom, a sultry speakeasy serving Prohibition-inspired cocktails and bar snacks.
The closure of the Queen West restaurant wasn’t a retreat—it was a reality check. With just 26 seats and a wait list that stretched up to 40 days long, the original J’s had maxed out. The College Street location offered more: 36 seats inside, a 55-seat patio and a second floor. Rather than stack their steak frites operation vertically, Sfeir split the space and followed the data. “When we first opened in 2021, I thought most people would order wine with their meals,” he says. “But more than half were drinking cocktails.” So instead of fighting the trend, he leaned in.
While J’s Steak Frites is proudly French, Bitters and Bloom is borderless. Bar manager Jason McNeely (previously of the Broadview Hotel) was given carte blanche to build a globe-trotting menu: anise-heavy absinthe and crème de violette conjure France, banana peel syrup and pineapple rum drift toward the Caribbean, and Italian bitters like Vecchio del Capo and Amaro Montenegro point to aperitivo hour.
Some cocktails land squarely in a place: the Stampede Club—a blend of tequila, vodka, tomato shrub and clam juice, rimmed with crushed ketchup chips—is modern Canadiana. The Monkey’s Paw, with pineapple rum and banana peel syrup, is entirely tropical. Others are harder to place, like Don’t Dream It’s Over, a tequila-and-aquavit combination lifted with aloe and eucalyptus. “Every time I drink it, it takes me somewhere I can’t quite name,” says Sfeir. “I still sip it almost every day, trying to remember.”
The menu also includes two zero-proof cocktails, crafted with the same care (and multi-day prep) as their boozy counterparts.
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The bar snacks, from chef Tang, who also leads the kitchen at J’s, mirror the drinks in their peripatetic spirit. There’s a soft pretzel (very German) served with whipped maple butter (very Canadian). Other small plates—like a smoked salmon éclair with cream cheese and chives or a caviar-topped madeleine—are French with a wink. “The whole point of opening a restaurant together was to showcase Tara’s talent,” says Sfeir. “Everything in the kitchen starts with her. I just stay out of the way.”
Bitters and Bloom doesn’t scream 1920s; it whispers it. Think moody lighting, gold accents, plush velvet seating and jazz on the speakers—more modern cocktail salon than Gatsby cosplay. It seats 36, though Sfeir says they could have squeezed in 80. “But we didn’t want it to feel crowded or clubby.” Instead, every table faces the bar. “It’s a show,” he says. And the cocktails are the main event.
Caroline Aksich, a National Magazine Award recipient, is an ex-Montrealer who writes about Toronto’s ever-evolving food scene, real estate and culture for Toronto Life, Fodor’s, Designlines, Canadian Business, Glory Media and Post City. Her work ranges from features on octopus-hunting in the Adriatic to celebrity profiles.
