The award-winning North Vancouver distillery has a morbid menu of blood-curdling cocktails
One local distillery is putting the “boo!” in booze.
Throughout the month of October, Sons of Vancouver is dead set on giving guests chills up their spines, with a cocktail menu so morbid it would make a wicked witch cackle.
The North Vancouver craft distillery has brought back its “haunted bar” for a third year, transforming the tasting room into a Halloween-themed bar.
It pays homage to Vancouver’s long-lost The Dark Manor Inn, which was briefly opened by the same owners of The Shameful Tiki Room. Included in Sons of Vancouver’s décor are bloody skeletons, creepy photographs and a nine-foot coffin table resurrected from the now-defunct bar.
Betwixt a festive fog, candlelight and cobwebs, staff will be dressed as slashers and spellcasters to serve a new cocktail list that features the distillery’s artisan spirits.
An Old Fashioned, featuring a pumpkin-spice infused whisky and amaretto, will be whimsically served in a jack-o-lantern, says bartender Amanda MacMullin, dressed as Lydia from Tim Burton’s 1988 classic Beetlejuice.
A Tootsie Roll Sour is made with a vodka infused with the chocolate-taffy treat. There’s also a riff on a Blazer, which will involve some pyrotechnics behind the bar.
“It’s got some apple brandy and it’s got some of our amaretto,” MacMullin said. “We light it on fire and pour it back and forth.
“It’s showy. It makes the drink warm, so on a cold night it’s really nice to have,” she added. “It’s a spirit-forward drink as well.”
The signature drink of this year’s Halloween pop up is the Plasma Punch, a blood-red tropical beverage served tableside from an IV bag.
For those who prefer their spirits sans-alcohol, Sons of Vancouver offers a raspberry-infused Vampire’s Kiss and a frozen lemon-almond drink, The Ice Witch.
As staff will be dressed up each day, guests are encouraged to come in costume too, MacMullin said.
Known for producing smashing spirits, the distillery took top prize at the Canadian Whisky Awards in January.
—by Nick Laba
