There’s a new elegant restaurant – and a secret cocktail lounge – coming to St. Lawrence this summer.
Brothers Graham and Dan Hnatiw are opening Eloise — an elegant new restaurant — and Bar Cart, the hidden cocktail lounge tucked just behind it, in phases: Bar Cart opens July 30, while Eloise follows the week of August 18.
“Eloise and Bar Cart are the result of us finally having the freedom to design, to iterate, and to dream without constraint,” says Dan. “These are places that celebrate timeless hospitality and the art of gathering.”
Bar Cart is an intimate, speakeasy-inspired cocktail lounge. The 60-seat space boasts a vibe that pays homage to the space, housing vintage railcars and old-world cocktail culture surrounded by velvet banquettes, moody lighting and curated playlists.
The cockail menu is equally as luxurious. “Bar Cart’s menu starts with the bones of the classics—drinks whose proportions and flavor archetypes are etched into every bartender’s muscle memory,” says Andrew Whibley, owner of Cloakroom Bar, Bar Dominion and a partner at Le 9e in Montreal and Beverage Consultant for Bar Cart. “I took those familiar, boldly defined profiles (bittersweet aperitivos, spirit‑forward sippers, bright citrus sours) and reinterpreted them: clarified juices, rapid infusions, fat‑washing, saline and acid adjustments and low-temp extraction.”
As for Eloise, the 85-seat restaurant promised to be timeless yet modern, offering a room carefully designed with curves, compartments and hidden nooks, patterns and texture, bold art, burl walnut and silk. The menu is thoughtful, too, combining nostalgia from the brothers’ deep-rooted experience in hospitality that dates back to the 1970s with unique, trend-forward dishes.
The two concepts are designed to compliment each other, operating as two unique but related concepts. They are both housed at 42 The Esplanade, and Bar Cart’s entrance is, in true speakeasy style, discreet.
“We didn’t want to just open another bar,” says Graham. ‘We wanted to create a conversation piece.”
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