Hamilton’s restaurant scene is exponentially approaching fraternity status as an overwhelming number of men open and run the new restaurants in town. In July of 2014, two sisters, Michelle and Gillian Couture, opened The Strathcona Bar to combat this imbalance with in-house pickles and savoury dishes that boast big flavour with a firm assimilation of veganism.
It’s all about the booze, and Gillian the mixologist shakes up excellent cocktails with enough punch to knock the beanie off the back of your head and splendidly finish with polished flavour profiles, like the Hattie, a gin sipper with cucumber and lime in a playful tug-of-war with apple cider and ginger bitters that ruefully mimicked the comforting unfamiliarity of a recent warm November evening. She’s also dishing out classics like an ice-cold Queen Negroni and the Barcelona, a jazzed up Tom Collins perfumed with rosemary and given a pleasant seltzer finish with sea salt and a caper berry.
Stepping down into the space from Queen St. at King is like walking into a hazily-lit late-eighteenth century burlesque house supplanted on a like-era cargo ship with deep aquamarine ceiling and walls and antique, reclaimed hardwood tables, chairs, banquets and wainscoting. Dim Victorian chandeliers light the tables for roughly forty, including additional seats around the bar and two elevated booths in the front windows.
Michelle, incongruently to her bubbly smile and bright blue eyes, hits hard with bold flavours. The cheese board — a selection from Mickey McGuire’s Cheese — rises with intensity from a creamy Brigid brie, through an elegantly pasty Cape Vessey, a classic St. Augur blue and on to a rosemary-crusted Cabra al Romero. A blackberry jam is classic with the brie, but the rose hip jelly has a remaining hint of bitterness that prompted one guest’s insistence that everyone “get this shit in your mouth right now.”
The pickle board riffs of bar classics like spicy beans done better with oil and a big hit of fresh sriracha chilies. Mistaken for the serving dish, silken yet firm paper thin slices of beetroot hold slices of watermelon radish. Of the most outstanding, though, are the masala butternut squash (crispy and sweet with the spice blend) and the bourbon jalapeno pickled eggs.
If you’re shy of heat, try the devilled eggs, the bacon jam taking the cake over the blue cheese and mild curry iterations. Without hesitation, a guest announced the vegan nachos were the best she’d had. Organic, non-GMO corn tortillas are topped with sriracha roasted chickpeas and pineapple to start a frenzy of flavour while black olives — forever misunderstood on nachos, suddenly indispensable with a meaty hit — and avocado supply nutty umami under a fiery five-chili salsa. If vegetarian doesn’t tickle your fancy, then flip the switch and order the cassoulet nachos rich with gruyere and a luscious, unctuous pulled pork, navy beans and wild mushrooms.
Then grab a glass of San Lorenzo Umani Ronchi and relax with the comfort in knowing these girls got your back. They’re leading the charge for women in this city and won’t be confined to bakeshops. Knives up ladies: who’s next?
.mike 