The Cloakroom

In the decade and a half since Attaboy pioneered the menu-less bar setup, the idea has certainly gotten around. Not to the point of schtick, but it’s certainly not the guarantee of avant guard mixology it may have once been.

The Cloakroom, of Montreal’s Golden Square Mile neighborhood, is an interesting investigation of the format. The conversation we were led down to order a drink felt very “on rails”; a fixed set of three questions felt a little more like mad libs than a casual conversation with a bartender. The resulting drinks were good, and perfectly reasonable interpretations of our preferences. However, over the five we tried, it seemed as though in many the sharp edges had been sanded down on what otherwise might’ve been more interesting tipples.

There are a couple gotchas with menu-less bars, and The Cloakroom poses utilitarian answers. Ordering and making a drink off menu is hard and takes time; so follow a script. There’s a real chance a patron won’t like whatever extemporaneous tipple is whipped up for them; so err on the side of hyper-palatability. The Cloakroom has figured out a way of making an experience that is both bespoke and efficient, and there’s something I can respect about that. But I did walk away wondering if the drinks could’ve benefitted from a little more risk taking.