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Food & Drink

Eat. Drink. Party.

Having a party? You’d better have the basics handled: drinks, food and music. That’s where NOW’s Holiday Food And Drink Guide comes in. Find out how to stock your bar for just $200 – including mixes – and check out some great gear guaranteed to enhance your prep. Sip back the best winter beers and a selection of great wines under $15. Try drink recipes by two of T.O.’s hottest mixologists. Our survey of gourmet food stores tips you to the tastiest snacks at decent prices. And we’ve asked local celebs to tell us their favourite drinks. Don’t forget the tunes. We’ve got a playlist of cutting-edge underground tracks – downloadable at nowtoronto.com/playlist – guaranteed to get your guests off their butts and onto the dance floor. So let’s get the party started.

The Booze

Building the essential home bar: Value pack | The deluxe | Essential gear

The Mixes: Unless your guests like to drink everything straight up, you need some basic mixes to complete your bar.

Mix masters: Two of T.O.’s top mixologists share secret holiday cocktail recipes you can make at home to impress the guests

Get ’em while they’re hot: Gather round the festive bowl and have ye a loving cup of hot booze. But keepest it on a simmering tip. Boiled alcohol is evaporated alcohol.

Wine deals: Here are some easy-on-the-wallet vintages for your grape-loving guests

Cold-weather suds: Beer is definitely not just a summer sip. In fact, local breweries love their seasonal suds, creating tasty winter releases over the next few months. Here are our picks of the pack.

For those who don’t drink: Be nice to the designated driver. Have some non-alcoholic stuff around.

The Gear

Raise the bar: If you’re going to splurge on swanky booze, your drinking accessories better be more impressive than a dollar store corkscrew and a stack of plastic cups. Here’s how to look like you really know what you’re doing behind the bar.

The book: Looking for tips on how to make that fancy-schmancy cocktail?

The app: Need a cocktail app?

The playlist: A well-stocked bar is really only half the equation. The other half is a banging soundtrack.

The Grub

Instant party: The gang’s coming over for a round of festive cocktails. What do you do if there’s nothing in the larder but a bag of stale no-name potato chips, a tub of expired sour cream and a dollar-store packet of instant onion soup mix?

What I drink: Q&A with Todd Van Allen, Kristen Voisey, Davy Love and Emily Schultz

Make it at home: Dinah Koo’s veggie piggies | Jamie Kennedy’s devilled organic eggs | Fabarnak’s truffled edamame crostini

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