Melissa Elwood—the bar-lounge manager at Ki, one of Bay Street’s hottest watering holes—doesn’t sling booze: she crafts cocktails. Take her twist on the classic vodka martini, infused with house-made rosemary syrup and garnished with blue cheese–stuffed olives on a rosemary twig. Or her Asian Fall cocktail, which is spiked with Sochu (a smooth Korean vodka), coriander syrup, pineapple juice and fresh ginger. In the competition for high-rolling customers, bars are upping the ante with the drink equivalent of haute cuisine. The result is anything but your average paint-by-numbers vodka-cran. Elwood’s mise en place includes only the finest ingredients: fresh juices, exotic fruit purées and unexpected garnishes such as Thai basil, kumquat, mandarin orange and lemon grass (each drink will set you back $10 to $12). The trend, new to Toronto, has already achieved critical mass in New York, where bartenders have acquired cult-like followings for their ingenuity—part Cocktail-era Tom Cruise, part Iron Chef Morimoto. In a scene overrun with boxed juice, fountain-gun cola and withered lime wedges, that’s a refreshing turn.

Haute Cocktail Hot Spots

Ki, 181 Bay St., 416-308-5888
Club V, 88 Yorkville Ave., 416-975-4397
Doku 15, 8 Colborne St., 416-368-3658