
The Library Bar at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York hotel has developed a reputation for its intricate drinks and hefty price tags – named number six on Canada’s 100 Best Bars list in 2024, with the glowing review highlighting a drink that costs an outrageous $125 a glass. Now the location is leaning into its literary namesake. Beverage director James Grant wanted to take an entirely new approach creating the institution’s latest round of cocktails this October. To kickstart development on the menu, Grant asked staff to join a book club.
Together the bar staff read Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion, taking scenes and characters from the book and trying to interpret what they read through flavour combinations in the drinks. A story first method to creating a cocktail forced Grant’s staff to flex new creative muscles, though getting everyone on board took some buy in.

