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A long time coming, the Peacock bar in Montreal's Little Italy neighborhood is enjoying a 'second' grand opening, and they're coming out swinging.
In a part of the city that mostly enjoys calmer wine bar evenings with only a few touches of cheap beer watering holes, Peacock giving the area a dose of blasted 80s and 90s tunes while doing deals like 5 à 7s that peak with 12 oysters and 2 Aperol Spritzes for $36 (plus a dozen more oysters for $12).
The project from Manny Vides Jr (previously from Brossard's Dirty D) and JP Gauthier (Huis Clos, Barraca Rhumerie) has been in the works for almost three years, and now working with Iannick Germain and chef Michel Normand doing a market-driven menu of shared plates, the delays (partly coming from the pandemic) are over and done with.
Now, they're pushing a high-end cocktail menu with "high-level techniques" that put the 'ology' in mixology: Clarification, aging in barrels, putting together beverage in kegs, and beyond with seasonal changes. aged, keg cocktails, etc.) and changes with the seasons, in addition to a natural and organic wine list.
Some folks have deemed this place to be 'tiki', and while there's glassware to point to that, Peacock is not a tiki bar proper—but that doesn't mean that they don't make some mean cocktails.
Their latest creation is a bottled cocktail service, beginning October 1 with five different classics: The iconic Cosmopolitan, a tropical Blue Hawaii, a Gimlet with raspberries, a tasty Tequila Sunrise with fresh OJ, and a Moscow Mule. Suitable for 2 to 4 people, the bottles run for $65 each.
The inspiration, the owner told Time Out, comes from cocktail classics of the 80s and 90s that have fallen out of fashion for being too colourful or fruity; that's why they're circling back and looking to do those recipes justice by putting their own spin on them—and probably why Fridays starting October 8th will see DJs at 9pm spinning 80s and 90s music.
Peacock is now open at 6714 Boulevard Saint-Laurent in Little Italy, Wednesday to Saturday from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.