After wrapping up dinner at MARKET on Saturday night, my companions and I dashed over in the crisp cold night to the Rosewood Hotel Georgia to continue drinks and chatting. Sadly, the Bel Café had closed and Hawksworth was packed, so we sat ourselves at the bar in the 1927 Lobby Lounge. If you like the look of big ice cubes, you'll get it here with 8 cubic inch cubes.
If you've never walked through the hotel after it's revitalization, definitely go! I mentioned it briefly after a glimpse when I went to the Bel Café for dessert, but it deserves a good look in the late evening when all is quiet. In addition to period decor and some interesting flower arrangements, there's a collection of fine art right in the lobby. On the hotel main web page is a link to a PDF summarizing this art collection.
The bar in the 1927 Lobby Lounge is very tight in the narrow but deep lounge. If you find it a bit busy, you are free to sit elsewhere in the hotel's long and spacious lobby, where small bites and drinks menus are available at each table. Having just finished a lovely light dinner at MARKET, I was in the mood for a dessert to share, but the Warm Soft Pretzels with Sea Salt and Ravens Cream Ale Mustard ($6) caught my eye as a novelty I hadn't had before.
From the description I had expected several individual soft pretzels dusted with crystals of sea salt baked on. Even my companions, who had apparently had the same in Europe, were pretty sure of this. What was served was quite different and disappointing.
The warm "pretzel" (which I think can only be properly called a pretzel if it has the distinctive pretzel twist) looked like a mini loaf of french bread about six inches long and pre-sliced. It was the proper brown colour and had the usual chewy and slightly sweet pretzel-bread composition, but it was not a "pretzel" per se.
No visible sea salt on it, but there were flakes of salt that crumbled off the bread, so that was barely in evidence with each bite.
And the mustard was slimy and grainy, and basically tasted like mustard.
Bread with mustard. $6. Hmm... Easy to share, to be sure. But honestly, skip this.
The drinks were a bit more interesting at least to watch.
The "Cavalier" (Hennessy v.s. Cognac, fresh apple cider, lemon, rosemary maple syrup, jerry) includes a sprig of rosemary set afire over a glass. The fire puts itself out once the natural oils have burnt off, and the cocktail is poured right over this sprig and into the glass. Then the rosemary is used to stir the drink before it is sent off.
The bartender Derek here was an attentive but stoic guy. It didn't look it, but he was listening and if you wondered about this and that at the bar, he'd bring it over unbidden and mention an informative thing or two. However, he'll not engage you as much as other bartenders, especially on the busy Dine Out Vancouver night we were there, so if you're looking for a more chatty time even in a busy bar, try Hawksworth in the same hotel. If you want to be left to your own companions, or are not going to sit at the bar anyway, then you'll have a more private time at the 1927 Lobby Lounge or just elsewhere in the lobby.
P.S. If you do go to the bar at Hawksworth, have a close look at the bar. There's a strip where they prep the drinks, and there are round holes with what looks like a propeller. Do NOT press this. Trust me.
went twice over this last weekend. Enjoyed the food, cocktails and service - well done all at the Georgia.
ReplyDeleteVisiting from Victoria but will drop in at our next visit