Raise a glass

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This article was published 11/05/2016 (3653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The serious cocktail bar has been a North American nightlife staple in cities of all sizes and cultural temperaments for years. The idea of a “restaurant” centred around the skills and creativity of a mixologist, rather than a chef, is anything but new.

But the modern cocktail bar could not take root in Winnipeg until 2014, when Manitoba’s Liquor & Gaming Authority made small but significant changes to its liquor-licensing regime. One of the regulatory tweaks eliminated the onerous food-vs.-booze ratios that annoyed restaurant owners late in the evening, when their patrons quite naturally wanted to consume less of the former and more of the latter.

As a result of the change, there are many more Winnipeg restaurants that stay open later in the evening — and half a dozen where cocktails are the focus.

In a quirk of hospitality-industry happenstance, brothers Richard and Josey Krahn each run one of these cocktails bars — not together, but as entirely different entities, located a mere 270 metres apart in the Exchange District.

In April 2015, Richard opened Albert Street Cocktail in a heritage building that used to house the anarchist-vegan Mondragon restaurant. Eleven months later, his brother Josey opened Bar at Forth in the basement of a McDermot Avenue structure renovated by former Manitobans now living in Berlin.

The two bars do not compete as much as they complement each other. They’re also diversifying the character of the Exchange at night by creating a middle-ground option between restaurants and large nightclubs.

“It’s amazing. The crossover means more people come to the Exchange,” said Richard Krahn, 33, who spent six years at Bar Italia on Corydon Avenue before setting his sights on Albert Street Cocktail. “It’s nice to see that around here. It used to be you came down here for dinner and got out of town.”

No mixologist himself, Richard poached bartender Mike Fox from Bannatyne Avenue’s Peasant Cookery to work behind the stone countertop that stands where the Mondragon staff used to take orders for southern-fried tofu.

“Bartenders have a cult of personality around here,” Richard said of Winnipeg, citing his brother Josey and Elsa Taylor at the Roost and Fox as mixologists with followings of their own.

After a year of tinkering at Albert Street, Fox has created a large menu of cocktails that tend toward the slightly complex. As a counterbalance, there are only a handful of solid things to consume, including a charcuterie plate, a cheese board and a very nice $4 cup of olives marinated in fennel, chili and orange juice.

Bar at Forth, which most of its patrons just call Forth, is a much smaller space with a menu to match. Josey Krahn, best known for his years behind the bar at Deer + Almond on Princess Street, offers a very short selection of cocktails, typically composed of three or four ingredients.

“I’m a big fan of simplicity,” he said.

He’s also a huge fan of low light: Bar at Forth is easily one of Winnipeg’s darkest rooms. Show up in the late afternoon, when the light filters down from McDermot Avenue through wooden slats, and you’ll be afforded a better glimpse of the heritage restoration. “I wanted somewhere that would feel really comfortable, almost like a living room setting or a cool grandfather’s basement,” Josey said.

Food is slightly more important here. Pamela Kirkpatrick, who opened Cakeology on Arthur Street and now runs the Forth restaurant kitchen upstairs, offers a bar menu featuring pot stickers and tacos topped with either pulled pork or sweet peas with pecorino cheese and a salty, savory okonomiyaki, which is a Japanese cabbage pancake.

Given the two bars’ vastly different characters — Albert Street Cocktail has enough space to host a bachelor party, while Bar at Forth is the very definition of intimate — the Krahn brothers have found themselves sending patrons to each other’s establishments. They’ve also sent each other emergency bags of limes.

“It’s super rad. I don’t know how both of us ended up in the position where we are — two brothers who run cocktail bars — but it’s great,” Josey said.

The brothers say they don’t believe Winnipeg, after coming late to the cocktail party, now suddenly has too many similar establishments.

“Never, man. Bring it on. I think it’s great,” Josey said. “It’s a small city, but a lot of people like to go out.”

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca