When one of the city’s best known and most highly acclaimed bartenders opens a new joint, everyone sits up and takes notice. In Toronto, that bartender is Frankie Solarik, famously of Bar Chef, Prequel & Co. Apothecary and the Netflix show Drink Masters; the bar is Compton Ave., an ode to all things London, a city that just happens to have one of the best cocktail scenes in the world.

Compton Ave. has a richly clubby vibe inspired by a posh townhouse in one of London’s tonier neighbourhoods. Think tufted leather banquettes, rich brocades, glittering chandeliers, mahogany-hued finishes and 19th-century paintings from Solarik’s personal collection, including the original 1855 “Portrait of a Lady in Black” by Austrian artist Heinrich Hollpein Oh—and don’t forget the polite, waistcoated staff.

As you can imagine, the bartender The New York Times called a “legendary experimentalist” has also crafted a pretty exciting cocktail list. It includes four twists on the Martini, among them a Smoked Olive Martini to delight all the dirty drinkers, plus classics like the London Fog and Mayfair Sour, well-balanced non-alc drinks and a rotating selection of draught cocktails such as the nitro-infused Espresso Martini. Tea appears in several cocktails, too, and the bar also boasts an impressive selection of gins as well as upscale British pub food like the roasted bone marrow with housemade crumpets.

Solarik is known not just for his modern mixology, but for creating immersive experiences, and that’s just what he’s done here once again.

Compton Ave. is located at 1282 Dundas Street West.