Snug in a plush chair at Library Bar, the Fairmont Royal York’s consummate cocktail den, I can feel the ghosts of its past swirling around me. Where smartly dressed bartenders now brandish gleaming shakers behind an attractive bar, I picture George Locke — the early 1900s chief librarian of Toronto — poring over the books he once hand-picked for the shelves. Today, he presides from a portrait above the unlit hearth. Where crystal martini glasses now clink, I imagine the hushed conversations of famous former guests like Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett. If walls could talk, Library Bar would spin us a yarn for the ages.
James Grant, the director of beverage at the Fairmont Royal York, is the man behind the menu.
Rick O'Brien
James Grant, the Fairmont Royal York’s director of beverage, is acutely aware of the responsibility that comes with stewardship of the 53-year-old institution. When he joined in 2023, Grant felt the weight immediately, “There was a little bit of nerves,” he admits. “I come from a background in very small [Edmonton] bars … Yeah, it was intimidating.” Altering anything about such a legendary bar, let alone the entire menu, demands a delicate touch. “We try to be really mindful that people have very special memories of this hotel,” Grant explains. Some guests swear the bar hasn’t changed a bit since their last visit decades ago.
But Library Bar has grown with the times to stay comfortably near the top of its class. When crafting the new menu, Grant asked his staff to read the Canadian classic, and one of his favourite novels, In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje, then devise cocktails reflecting the work. Grant’s enthusiasm when explaining the meaning behind each cocktail makes it clear this project was a labour of love. Inspired by Patrick, the novel’s changeable protagonist, The Searcher is a choose-your-own-adventure riff on a negroni or manhattan that invites guests to select the base spirit themselves. The backdrop of amaro nonino, two vermouths and fuji bitters remains the same, but guests will have a unique experience depending on their choice of gin, vodka or agave.
“We picked a novel about Toronto, and a novel written by a Toronto author — but also a novel that is about how the city was built by diverse voices, by immigrants,” Grant explains. “[The book] gave me a sense of connection to the city. It made me fall in love with Toronto before I had even come here for the first time.”
Grant tells me he’d love to serve Ondaatje a drink. “To see his impression of someone’s interpretation of his work would be an enormous pleasure,” he grins. With Grant’s blend of technical mastery, literary reverence and deep affection for Toronto on full display, I suspect the author would raise a glass in approval.
Rick O'Brien
Representing the character Nicholas Temelcoff’s tumultuous voyage from Macedonia to Toronto — and his subsequent description of Union Station as the “belly of a whale” — this cocktail twists a classic Appleton rum tiki by adding Canadian ingredients like seabuckthorn purée and pecan-infused, brown butter-washed Bearface whisky.
Grant likens the ferocious glassware to the lion statues outside of the Fairmont Royal York. “It’s about that connection between our hotel and Union station.” Served over crushed ice, it’s garnished with smoked cinnamon and mint.
Rick O'Brien
A pivotal character near the end of the novel, RC Harris — the Commissioner of Public Works for Toronto in the 1920s — influenced this light apple-and-chocolate number. “For such a forward-looking figure, we based it on the 20th-Century cocktail,” Grant illustrates. “We wanted a more stirred-down version: a stately, elegant cocktail served in this beautiful martini glass.”
Edible… concrete? “It’s a black pepper and olive meringue that we dye with black sesame,” Grant explains delightedly. “It looks like a gray, broken piece of concrete, but it adds this pop of peppery sweetness … It pairs very well with the cocktail.”
Rick O'Brien
Inspired by the real-life disappearance of Toronto millionaire Ambrose Small, this spirit-forward sipper blends single malt scotch, Michter’s bourbon and Lot No. 40 whisky. During the frantic search for Small — and with a handsome reward on offer — strangers were often misidentified using flawed measurement systems, Grant explains. “So, with this cocktail, the idea was to take disparate parts and combine them into something recognizable.”
To marry the whiskies and for an ultra-luscious mouthfeel, Grant fat-washes them with coconut oil. “We want it to appear recognizable as a rob roy or a manhattan,” Grant explains, “but under the hood, it’s totally Frankenstein’ed together.”
Rick O'Brien
One of Toronto’s most iconic cocktails, the prepared-tableside, ice-cold Birdbath Martini will never leave Library Bar’s menu — but Grant put his distinct mark on it when he took over. “It’s a fingerprint cocktail,” he tells me. “Every bartender has a very specific idea of how it should be made.”
Grant worked closely with Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers to create Library Bar’s house Quill Gin, which is “much more like a classic London dry, with very heavy juniper and a little bit of citrus.” The vermouth blend and bitters were crafted with Grant’s input, too.
