Get me an agent. I’ve got a script to sell. It’s about Moses McIntee, an Ontario farm boy who lands one of the most prestigious bartending jobs in the country.
He learns discipline in the Canadian Forces, then sets off for the West Coast to seek his fortune. There’s booze in them thar hills, and McIntee decides to hitch his wagon to the bottle – only nobody will hire him except the Savoy on the corner of Vancouver’s Main and Hastings. Yup, in the war zone. But he claws his way up from the Downtown Eastside to eventually work beside Colin Turner at CinCin.
He packs his shaker and heads back east to Hogtown. (Did you know it was called that even before Rob Ford?) Soon he’s climbing the T-dot cocktail ladder faster than a teenage macaque up a fig tree: Spoke Club, Nota Bene, Ame, Toronto Temperance Society, Paese.
All the while he’s winning bartending competitions like hot bones at the craps table. And then – ta-da – he’s chosen as head bartender at the new Ritz-Carlton (181 Wellington West, at Simcoe, 416-585-2500), Toronto’s only five-star hotel. And he’s not even 30.
Ritz-Carlton can lay claim to being one of the world’s leading luxury brands, and the action at the TOCA (TOronto CAnada) bar certainly conveys that impression. The contents of the raw bar alone appear to exceed the combined value of every vehicle I’ve ever owned.
Nonetheless, McIntee greets me with the same professional affability he lavishes on every person who pulls up a padded stool. He obviously feels at home at the RC. “Throughout my career I’ve believed in standards of service,” he says. “The Ritz-Carlton is the first company I’ve worked for that backs that up. They just care – to the point of monastic discipline.”
I’m guessing that the robes around here are pretty swell, but we turn our focus to more worldly matters as McIntee throws down a Pickled Prime Minister. It’s an audacious, delicious combination of pickled beets, pickled carrots, lemon juice and 2 ounces of vodka, all shaken and poured into a groovy Jetsons-esque glass.
No, $16 isn’t cheap, but remember, you’re not puttin’ on the Delta Chelsea.
