There’s no shortage of phenomenal watering holes in Montreal, each one having its own specific set of qualities to the city’s booze scene. But two Montreal bars have come out on top.
In fact, two of them have ranked among the best bars on the continent, courtesy of the annual North America’s 50 Best Bars ranking.
The list is an annual ranking by the UK-based publication headed by William Reed, the group behind The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
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The list’s top four entries are from New York City and Mexico City but two Montreal spots aren’t too far down on the list.
The Old Port’s El Pequeño Bar nabbed the continent’s 29th-best bar and downtown’s Cloakroom Bar snatched the ranking’s 45th spot.
“Be transported as you duck in from the centuries-old cobbled streets and Gothic Revival stone buildings of Old Montreal to the retro-glam vibes of Old Havana,” says the ranking. “From iconic cocktail classics of the era (Mojito, Daiquiri, El President, and Cuba Libre) to the pressed Cubano sandwiches, each note of this bar’s offering rings as true as the clarion call of a jazzy trumpet riff.”
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With an interior of only 150 sq ft, El Pequeño Bar is proof that size doesn’t matter. With room for only 10 (nine standing patrons and a bartender), the Old Port’s Cuban cocktail bar was once a tiny gift shop.
Transformed by the team behind nearby underground speakeasy Coldroom, El Pequeño is a quieter and “more rarefied kind of experience,” says the 50 Best Bars.
El Pequeño (“the small” in Spanish), pays “tribute to Havana’s storied past,” says the bar’s website. The bar boasts a beautiful ornate glass chandelier, marble countertops, and a bunch of Caribbean rum and Cubano sandwiches.
If you have your sights set on some booze inside a 1920s-inspired spot, chug back some hooch at one of the continent’s coolest spots.
Near the downtown core, Cloakroom is like a sophisticated “clandestine set from the Kingsman films come to life,” says the ranking.
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“There’s the requisite amount of cloak-and-daggery to the experience, as a host emerges from an innocuous wood-panelled area next to the tailor shop to welcome in-the-know imbibers,” continues the publication. “Befitting a bar that seats perhaps two dozen, this a no-reservations, no-menu, bespoke concept: after a few deft questions and a chat with your bartender, cocktails are on the way.”
The two Montreal bars were the only Quebec watering holes to make the list.
The highest-ranked Canadian spot belongs to Toronto’s Civil Liberties, at number 10. Vancouver’s The Keefer Bar took home the 25th overall spot in North America and Toronto’s Mother (38th), Bar Raval (41st), Bar Mordecai (47th), and Halifax’s Bar Kismet (49th) rounded out the list.
El Pequeño Bar (401 rue Saint-Vincent) is open every day from 6 pm to 1 am. Cloakroom (2175 rue de la Montagne) is open from 4 pm to 1 am from Sunday to Thursday and until 3 am on Friday and Saturday.
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