You have to love a restaurant that takes cocktails so seriously that the drinks menu is pages long.

Bring your reading glasses to Lucid Cocktail Kitchen,  because you’ll want to consider your choice carefully among the multiple sour, sweet savoury and bitter options laid out for each liquor. The "Boulevard Sour" ($14), a beyond-smooth concoction of bourbon, Campari and sweet vermouth blended with lime and egg white and topped with Angostura bitters was a fine starter for my meal of pumpkin and goat cheese stuffed pasta garnished with pea shoots ($19) and expertly sautéed winter greens ($5).

My dining partner enjoyed two starters—game tartar ($14) and a spinach herb salad with blue cheese ($9)—and we somehow polished off fresh-baked bread and butter on top of that.

I can't remember the last time I cleaned my plate so thoroughly.  —Kat Tancock

Lucid Cocktail and Kitchen, 571 Queen St. W., Toronto, 416-361-6154, www.lucidck.com

A good cocktail is worth its weight in premium tequila.

Making one? A skill we should all have in our repertoire, so BYOB Cocktail Emporium on Queen West has joined with entertaining mixologist Trevor Burnett to offer workshops to turn us all into experts.

At Tiki Cocktail night, I joined about 20 other enthusiasts to sample and learn to make Mai Tais, Zombies, Scorpion Bowls and Painkillers; the latter were a hit at a friend’s lei-themed party a few weeks later.

Want in? Upcoming evenings ($55) include “Gin and Bitters” (March 8) and “Rum Revolution” (March 22).

Just make sure to book a designated driver. —Kat Tancock

BYOB, 972 Queen St. W., Toronto, 416-858-2932, www.byobto.com

When cocktail hour calls for something special, we like to add a splash of syrup to our Gin Fizz.

Husband-and-wife team Emily Butters and Forrest Butler handcraft the most splendid syrups using hard-to-find spices and certified-organic, fair-trade ingredients. The Royal Rose repertoire includes cardamom clove, autumn plum, tamarind and lavender lemon. Have a look at some sample recipes here.

The syrups are made with cocktails in mind, but are equally scrumptious in teas or drizzled on berries and ice cream. —Athena Tsavliris

www.royalroseny.com

In honour of Halloween, we’re hosting a dinner party for our worst witches. And to ensure everyone’s behaviour is wildly inappropriate we’re serving some ghoulish libations, including cocktails from Frankie Solarik, Toronto’s premier molecular mixologist

The Black Currant Mousse

1oz cassis
1oz vodka
1.5oz red grapefruit juice
1 egg white
.5oz maple syrup

Place all ingredients in shaker tin, shake for approximately 10 seconds, add ice and shake again for approximately 10 seconds, strain into glass, garnish with freshly ground star anise on top.

—Athena Tsavliris

Last week one of our favourite Dundas West spots quietly reopened: the Black Hoof. Famous for bringing nose-to-tail eating to Toronto, it's doing nose-to-cocktails now, too. Across from the restaurant, where a brunch spot used to be, is a excellent watering hole.

The menu, concocted by Jen Agg, features over a dozen modern mixes and classic recipes organized by liquors white (gin, rum…) or brown (bourbon, tequila…). The Violet Bourbon Sour, with homemade violet simple syrup, is just sour-sweet enough, and a fresh flower garnish floats delicately on its frothy head. Here, cocktails really are an art: we watch a bartender paint the inside of our glass with absinthe for the Corpse Reviver #2. It leaves the perfect trace of anise to mix with gin, Cointreau and Lillet. A cheese plate is available if you’re feeling peckish, but you’ll have to cross the street for charcuterie. Even without the food, we suspect Thursday nights will be just as crowded as Sunday brunches once were.

It won't be quiet for long. —Paige Dzenis

Black Hoof, 923 Dundas St. W., Toronto, www.theblackhoof.com, open Thursday to Monday, 5:30pm until last call.

A new, completely unprofessional and thus way more fun cocktail club—Lowbrow Highball—meets every month to stir, mix and shake up trouble.

The club meets next on July 13; see their site for details. 'Til then, enjoy this summer-perfect recipe from one of the lovely founders, and our friend, Beth Palmer.

The Sargeant Pepper:
3 parts grapefruit juice
2 parts gin with muddled arugula, strained
2 parts soda
1 part simple syrup (boil 1 part water, 1 part sugar)
Salt and pepper
Arugula (for garnish)

Shake the grapefruit juice, gin, syrup, and salt and pepper together over ice
Add to the soda
Garnish with arugula
Rinse glass, repeat.

—Sarah Nicole Prickett

http://lowbrowhighball.tumblr.com

There’s only one cocktail I drink and that’s champagne and fresh raspberry juice. It reminds me of a great night at The Newton Bar in Berlin.

I’ve since added a little fresh mint and limejuice to the mix, and I prefer to sip from a champagne coupe. They’re chicer and more fun than flutes. Queen West’s new cocktail emporium, BYOB has some great '60s and '70s picks (from $12 a glass).

It’s such a lovely summer cocktail. Served with great friends and German electro-punk, I’m back in Berlin. —Athena Tsavliris

BYOB, 972 Queen Street W., Toronto, 1-877-989-8980.

“Not that I intend to die, but when I do, I don't want to go to heaven, I want to go to Claridge's,” Spencer Tracy once said. The art deco London gem is where Kate Moss hosted her now infamous The Beautiful and the Damned 30th birthday party and remains a mainstay with regulars like Erin O’Conner, Jude Law and Mick Jagger.

Capture the essence of Claridge's red leather-lined cocktail bar by serving its signature drink at your next soiree.

The Mayfair Flapper

25ml crème de cassis
3 strawberries
100ml champagne

Blend the sliced strawberries and crème de cassis in a blender. Pour into a champagne flute, and top with champagne.

Whiskey’s the word at Emmet Ray. With a list as long as the River Shannon, even an Irishman would be impressed.

From a staple Jack Daniel’s to a sweet Glenmorangie Lasanta to a 16-year-old Lagavulin, there’s a malt for every mood at this cozy Little Portugal watering hole.

Worried whiskey might put hair on your chest? There’s a wine and beer list too, plus plenty of tasty nibbles. Check out the calendar for nightly jazz/folk/funk gigs.

That’s what we call a neat night out.

Emmet Ray, 924 College St., Toronto, 416-792-4497, www.theemmetray.com

Decorating the house for Halloween needn’t be a headache. Just put your heads together.

A couple of Crystal Heads that is. The premium vodka brand owned by Dan Aykroyd and made in Newfoundland multitasks. The super smooth spirit within spikes the punch and the skull-shaped glass bottle you’re left with displays your candy corn in a goth way.

It’s a graveyard smash.

$54.99, find retailers here.