GETTING IN THE SPIRIT
All the dirt on a twisted version of Canada’s signature cocktail Rush Lane’s Bloody Caesar,
As Canada’s signature cocktail, the Bloody Caesar will never need cultural protection.
It’s cherished as a brunch companion, cottage staple and Canada Day must-have. If foreigners think drinking spicy tomato-clam juice in the morning is strange, that’s their problem.
And judging from the creative twists found in Toronto bars, we’re owning this distinctive beverage and even upping the exotic factor, adding everything from wasabi and tequila to garnishes including an entire Peking duck.
At $100, Rush Lane’s Spirit of Canada is Toronto’s most expensive Bloody Caesar. It might even be the priciest cocktail in the city.
But, given that it’s made with soilinfused vodka, cilantro juice and, uh, a Peking duck, it’s practically a bargain.
Simon Hooper, part-owner of the Queen St. W. bar, came up with the concoction for his entry in a nationwide Bloody Caesar competition staged last fall by Mott’s Clamato. An Australian who moved here from Sydney seven years ago (after a three-year stopover in British Co- lumbia), Hooper says the Spirit of Canada Caesar was partially inspired by his bar’s proximity to Chinatown but also “just by the fact that Canada’s such a melting pot.”
Of course, Hooper was also in it to win it (which he did) and in planning his strategy, he predicted the contest would be marked by crazy garnishes (it was), and he set about trying to out-crazy the competitors (he did). There were lobster rolls, hamburgers, crab claws and more, but none could compare with Hooper’s whole Peking duck.
The winningest garnish, in and of itself, wouldn’t have secured Hooper the win.
But, with cilantro, Sriracha, fresh ginger and hoisin, it is an incredibly tasty drink with one more unique, house-made ingredient — soil-infused vodka.
He says it gives the drink an “earthy taste,” an element found in Asian food.
He collected soil from across the country — Newfoundland, Vancouver, Yukon and Toronto’s High Park — mixed it all together, baked it to remove pathogens, then put it in the bar’s rotovap, a rotary evaporator used for flavour extraction in modernist cooking.
“I have friends everywhere in Canada, so I called them all and asked them to send me a bag of dirt,” Hooper recalls. Which they did.
And so, for $100 — plus a day’s notice — it’s available at Rush Lane.
For those who don’t want to shell out a c-note, there’s a $14 duck-free version (made with Ontario soil-infused vodka) that’s every bit as tasty. But not nearly as much fun to post on Instagram.