Sure, we lost Kawhi. But, after decades of being on the losing end of the “brain drain,” Toronto is clearly starting to attract global talent. The latest example? International bar stars Kelsey Ramage and Iain Griffiths, who moved here last year and will soon open Supernova Ballroom, a disco-themed, inclusive, sustainability-minded, high-volume cocktail bar, all housed in a dramatic, semi-hidden space at Bay and Adelaide.

A new bar opening might sound kind of trivial compared with, say, Google’s interest in building a digital city within a city, but to the spirits community, it’s a big deal because Ramage and Griffiths are high-profile folks with a rep for executing creative concepts. Before settling here in Toronto in the spring of 2018, they were better-known as the Trash Tiki couple—which was a zero-waste cocktail pop-up that went to 30-something cities on five continents over 18 months. Prior to that, Ramage was head bartender at Dandelyan, a swanky and super-stylish South Bank London (England) hotel bar that took the top spot in the World’s Best 50 Bars list for 2018. Griffiths was a co-founder of Dandelyan and, despite having a thriving business in the U.K. and offers in New York and Los Angeles, it was Toronto that won them over.

“I was a complete stranger to Canada before meeting Kelsey and going on tour,” says Griffiths, who grew up in a remote and rural part of Australia and met Ramage (originally from Salmon Arm, B.C.) in London. “But when we were here, everything was so lovely and we could see that Toronto was about to explode, so we definitely wanted to be a part of that.”

Prior to that—and Trump’s election in 2016—the couple had been seriously considering the United States. Griffiths recalls Ramage texting him the night of the election saying something to the effect that their American prospects had suddenly become a lot less attractive. Because of Ramage’s B.C. roots, they considered Vancouver, but were charmed by Toronto when they came here with Trash Tiki in the summer of 2017. They signed a lease for an apartment in Parkdale the following spring and, a year after that, started negotiations for a space for Supernova Ballroom, tentatively opening Monday.

Anyone expecting the new bar to be an extension of the punk-themed Trash Tiki (whose tagline was “Drink Like You Give a F—k”), will be surprised, however. Nor is it Dandelyan, Part Two. Instead, Supernova is pure escapism. It’s a nostalgic, sparkly 1970s disco party, where the core mission statement is about bubbles—#fortheloveoffizz. They haven’t given up on the environment, though, they’re just tackling it from a different angle.

“We wanted to depart a little bit from Trash Tiki,” says Ramage, “So what we’re doing is trying to use as many local ingredients as possible and we kind of went down this rabbit hole of what grows in Ontario. Since it’s such a short growing season, we also had to figure out how to make that last and still make it exciting for your average drinker.”

Ramage bought up all the local peaches, pears and berries she could get her hands on at the end of summer and started preparing them for their bottled house-fermented cocktail program. She’s hoping they made enough Niagara Peach Bellinis (bright and delicious, incidentally) and Saskatoon Berry Kirs (even better) to get them through the first three months of service. And the sweeteners are made from things most bartenders would consider waste—fruit rinds and husks. So they do still give a f—k. It’s just that, this time, it’s wrapped in a gold satin sash and bedazzled in disco glitter all served up with a glass of fizz.

To them, disco was an antidote to the “seriousness of cocktail bars,” that they’d grown tired of. Judging from the excitement thus far, they were reading the room correctly. The soft “friends and family” opening drew a big industry crowd and, even before they were open, they had three holiday parties booked. There’s even a sense that this opening could represent a turning point for Toronto’s bars, which often have trouble getting international attention. For example, no Toronto bar has ever cracked the World’s Best 50 Bars (although Bar Raval is in this year’s 51-100 list), despite our having plenty of great ones. It’s part economies of scale and part foot traffic, since World’s Best judges, most of whom are in the spirits industry, spend more time in London, Paris and New York than Toronto. And you can’t vote for a bar you haven’t been to. (Disclosure: I’ve been a judge for The World’s 50 Best Bars since 2016, but it’s still too soon to tell what my vote will be this year.)

“These days, many bartenders travel the globe giving talks and act, in a way, as brand ambassadors for their bars,” says Camper English, a San Francisco writer who has covered the international bar and cocktail scene for years, explaining a bit of the back-end dynamics of voting. “This inspires a lot of people to try to visit those bars afterward. With Kelsey and Iain’s world travels, you can be sure there’ll be a lot of people interested in seeing what they have going on back in Toronto.”

None of this is to say that Supernova Ballroom can, itself, crack the top 50 lists—or that this is even necessarily a goal Ramage and Griffiths have in mind for this not-terribly-serious cocktail bar. Instead, the point is that, since Supernova Ballroom will be able to draw some international attention, it might also shine a light on the existing great local scene here—the one that inspired the pair to move here in the first place.

“Even since we first got here, so much stuff has been opening up in all these little pockets like Dundas West and Bloor Street and the Junction,” says Ramage. “So, I really hope this might bring even more international attention.”

Okay so maybe it doesn’t quite make up for Kawhi. But it’s a step in the right direction. And drinking fizzy cocktails to a Donna Summer soundtrack just might help ease the pain.

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