Introducing: CC Lounge, a new Prohibition-themed bar near St. Lawrence Market
Name: CC Lounge
Neighbourhood: St. Lawrence
Contact Info: 45 Front St. E., 416-362-4777, cconfront.com
Owner: The St. Lawrence Bunch, a business partnership fronted by Costa Kosilos
Head Chef: Brent Richardson, formerly of Glas Wine Bar, La Carnita and Beerbistro
The Food: The menu is heavy on share-friendly versions of old favourites, like mac n’ cheese topped with crushed Goldfish crackers and kale, and fried quail on bacon pancakes. For the real carnivores, there’s also a 12-ounce bone-in aged ribeye that comes on a wood cutting board with a dollop of whiskey ketchup.
The Drink: Befitting the Prohibition theme, the bar is focused on Canadian whiskeys served neat, as a flight or by the bottle. There’s also a long list of cocktails, both classic and new-fangled. Many of them, like the Caramilk-liqueur-flavoured Micky Finn, are mixed with generous helpings of Wiser’s.
The Place: CC Lounge’s owners have transformed their space in the historic Beardmore Building, formerly home to the Nicholas Hoare bookstore, into two 1920s-themed areas: an entrance lounge filled with leather-clad couches and crystal chandeliers mounted at impossible-seeming angles, and a moody bar at the rear equipped with a DJ booth, dangling disco balls and high-top tables made from whiskey barrels. Lounge staff host tastings in the J.P. Wiser Whiskey Tunnel, a bottle-lined cellar that’s supposed to be reminiscent of the underground smuggling routes used by the likes of Al Capone.
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