A Toast! To Toronto Bourbon Week

FGFS is pleased to welcome Janine Isabelle to our writing team. She plans on bringing you 100% more boozy cocktail content with her column A Toast! Janine is a Toronto-based designer and web developer with a penchant for kitting, the ukulele and the finer things. Keep checking back here for more from Janine and a lso, keep visiting Belle, Janine’s design & lifestyle blog cataloguing her work and inspiration.

Let me start off by saying that I am super stoked to kick off our new booze-themed column with a post about Toronto’s Bourbon Week festival. I’ve been a bourbon-drinker for a number of years, and I am hugely excited that the world is finally catching on to the awesomeness of Kentucky’s finest export.

I come from a very European family, so once I hit 12 or 13, having a small glass of wine on special occasions was pretty standard. I feel really grateful to have been brought up this way because it took the taboo away from alcohol consumption — getting hammered with your friends at 16 kind of loses its appeal when your grandmother lets you drink aperitifs before family dinners. Still, my taste in hard liquor has definitely matured over the years. I started out drinking mostly vodka, like most teenagers I think, then rum (Malibu & root beer, anyone?), and eventually gin. Then came one fateful day in my early twenties when I went up to the bar at a show in Vancouver to order my usual gin & ginger(ale). The bartender, bless her heart, said, “You should really try that with bourbon instead of gin”. I took her advice, and I’ve never looked back.

I moved to Toronto from the West Coast just over a year ago, and have been overjoyed at how this city has embraced the growing bourbon trend. Establishments like The County General, The Comrade, and Monarch Tavern all boast extensive bourbon offerings and fantastic cocktails. Cass Enright, founder of The Bar Towel and the Golden Tap Awards, decided to take things one step further and put together Toronto’s inaugural Bourbon Week, which ran from September 27th to October 3rd. With a myriad of bourbon-themed events like “Fingers & Bones” at the Indie Alehouse, “The Hillbilly Whisperer” at the Amsterdam Brewhouse, and “The Bourbon Derby” at 3030 Dundas West, the festival is a bourbon-lover’s dream. Yuli and I were particularly intrigued by “Classic from the Old School”, so we headed over to Monarch Tavern this past Monday to check it out.

The event was guest bartended by Joe Howell of the Spoke Club and featured five classic cocktails made with a range of the 35 bourbons Monarch regularly has on the shelf, including Ancient Age, Buffalo Trace, and Woodford Reserve (who also had a special lounge set up for tastings). The menu consisted of a classic Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Mint Julep, and Bourbon Sour, plus a Chocolate Vanilla Old Fashioned. Walking in, the place immediately had a speakeasy vibe, with the lounge setting, the bartenders in black & white, and a pianist in the corner playing old jazz standards.

For our first round, I tried the Chocolate Vanilla Old Fashioned. I was pleasantly surprised that the chocolate and vanilla flavours were both apparent without being overpoweringly sweet. I have to say though, it paled in comparison to my next choice – the Bourbon Sour. Now, this is my drink; it’s what I order when I’m channeling Don Draper (even though he drinks Old Fashioneds), so my expectations were pretty high. I was not disappointed. It was, quite possibly, the best Bourbon Sour I’ve ever had.

Bourbon Sour. Delish!

Here’s hoping Bourbon Week becomes an annual event in Toronto!

Getting the S’MAC Attack in NYC

Let’s make one thing clear, Fat Girl Food Squad: I am on the quest to find the perfect Macaroni and Cheese — or at least try all of them.  First up, we headed to New York’s own S’Mac to test out the multiple flavours they have of mac and cheese.

S’Mac currently has two locations in NYC, both in Manhattan, and they offer dine-in, take-out, free delivery and catering for all your many cravings. If I lived in this city I would probably turn orange from the amount and frequency that I would order.

After looking at their extremely large menu (and being indecisive), we decided to test out the S’MAC Sampler.  Served up in a skillet for $16,  you receive 8 different varieties of Mac-n-Cheese. This is the only version that accepts no substitutions, so they pick the flavours and it is only regular pasta. Thankfully they let us add breadcrumbs on top for that extra added crispiness.

The sampler comes with a visual wheel showing you which flavours lay where which helps both the picky folks, and those deciding what to order in a larger size next time. Flavours include: All-American, 4 Cheese, Cheeseburger, La Mancha, Cajun, Napoletana, Alpine and Parisienne.

Trying all of the flavours provided us with a daunting task, even for 2, but we managed to leave no noodle uneaten. The verdict for best flavour goes to the Cheeseburger. Made for the hearty meat eater, it comes with both cheddar and American Cheese combined with seasoned ground beef. There is not too much ground beef, and it’s definitely gooier and tastier than anything I’ve had like it before. With the breadcrumbs added on top it was like eating the best cheeseburger but a step above. Coming up in a close second would be the Alpine. This swiss mac goes a different route than the other traditional american styles and uses gruyere cheese and is filled with slab bacon. It was the perfect melty stringy cheese that stretches as you try and take a spoonful out for yourself, very hard to share. Our least favourite had to be La Mancha.  It may have very well been my personal distaste for onions leading that one, but if you’re looking for a taste of Spain in a dish, this is the one for you.  It was Manchego Cheese mixed with fennel and onions.

What was the most fascinating to me is that those were not the only flavours available.  They have another 4 recommended flavours to choose from as well as a build your own category with four different sizes: The Nosh, Major Munch, Mongo and Partay. Having been here before I felt that the Major Munch was enough for two but we each got one and it’s a really good portion leaving plenty of leftovers should you have the hankering for more later.

S’Mac makes sure to cater to everyone having the option of multigrain and gluten free pasta, as well as reduced lactose and dairy free cheeses as well! And for those who want the full cheese option but are worried about a tummy ache, they offer lact-aid’s at the counter just in case.

As a special secret if you check in at any S’MAC location on foursquare they have different loyalty specials. Including the 25% off for newbies and also 25% off on every 3rd check in for loyal customers. And on every other trip the option of 50% off (max $5 discount). I’ll definitely be going back for all those deals, and to try building my own soon!