Cry Baby Gallery is a locals hangout that really is all about the art of the cocktail

“Locals only” is a phrase invented specifically for places like Toronto’s Cry Baby Gallery. An urban hangout that embodies the metropolitan culture of its city, just far enough from the hustle and bustle that the average tourist is likely not to venture. Here’s a place that has grown from the streets up, like a flower through a crack in the sidewalk. Passersby might think Cry Baby is no more than an art gallery, but tucked behind a curtain in the gallery’s far left is a gritty, dim, yet warmly lit cocktail den with exposed brick and a bar-top long enough to accommodate a sizable chunk of Toronto’s drinking population.

Cry Baby Gallery, which ranks No. 12 on Canada’s 50 Best Bars and, as of April, No. 68 on North America’s 100 Best Bar lists, offers a laid-back and trendy atmosphere catering to a hip youthful crowd. Industry folks are often seen bellying up to the lengthy bar beside artists and general public alike to sip local beers, low-intervention wines or a cheekily named tipple from their ever-rotating cocktail menu. Think cocktails such as the Yada, Yada, Yada, which combines overproof rum with bitter orange, vermouth, chamomile and cinnamon before being lengthened with tonic.

A house staple is the Cry Baby Zombie, a customized classic that includes a classified rum blend and a proprietary sorrel syrup that, itself, boasts north of 50 ingredients. “I was reluctant to put a Zombie on the menu because it’s such a gated tiki drink,” says co-owner Rob Granicolo, “but we stripped it down presentation-wise to fit the bar and decided to keep it on the menu because it was such an iconic drink that wasn’t really being championed in the city yet.”

In the beginning, Cry Baby Gallery wasn’t meant to be a speakeasy, or even a cocktail bar. “I was never one for speakeasies, but it was something that was coming to be [a thing] in Toronto, so we worked it into the design,” says Granicolo. After taking over the space from an independent clothing supplier, the landlord had always wanted to renovate it into an art gallery, but initially had plans to put a café in the back. When Granicolo and his co-founders were called in to run the place, they decided, “We didn’t want to run a café … so let’s do a cocktail bar instead.”

Then began a rather extensive renovation process that would convert the understated clothing shop with covered walls and linoleum flooring into what we know now as a neighbourhood-defining hotspot for social activity and libations. Memories and stories aplenty, relationships short and long have begun and ended while bathed in the rich yellow light within these walls.

A decidedly important facet of the bar is the functioning art gallery in the front, directed by working artist Mony Zakhour (known professionally simply as Mony), which features new artists every couple of weeks to keep the place fresh. The team met Mony serendipitously in the alley behind the bar during construction while he was producing a mural. They commissioned him to do a piece for them in their bathroom. A relationship budded, leading to an art show devoted to Mony’s work and subsequently to his role as art director. “The art gallery allowed us to keep changing our cultural flavours,” says Granicolo, expressing the bar’s aim to keep things progressive and relevant. “Mony is very ingrained in the art community.”

Many folks in the hospitality industry know the past year or so as the “era of the pop-up.” Guest shifts have played a major role in many bars’ ability to bring in extra covers on typically quieter nights earlier in the week, and Cry Baby Gallery is no exception.

In the early days of the pop-up craze, brands focused on bringing in international bartenders, but over time found that proving a return on their investment was difficult. This led the team at Cry Baby Gallery to start plugging the local bartending community with the view that “Toronto is arguably the best city on the continent for bartenders.” This created an opportunity for bartenders to spread their wings and create menus they might not be able to at their normal workplaces—and at the same time find a way to generate excitement and revenue at a time when overall drinking habits have diminished.

“The pop-ups came from general boredom and to generate business as spending habits change,” says Granicolo.

Cry Baby Gallery is at 1468 Dundas Street West, Toronto. @crybaby.gallery

—by Brenton Mowforth