One of Toronto's most famous cocktail bars is opening a sister location
After nearly half a decade of success twisting, shaking, and stirring up cocktails on Dundas Street West, Project Gigglewater is now in the process of their first expansion.
Rather than opening a second location, though, the team is instead opting to start from fresh.
The new cocktail house will be a sister bar to Gigglewater, but will stand on its own two feet with a new name, new menu, and a new vision for flashy drinks and tasty shareables.
Set to open under the name Overpressure Club, the new bar was subtly announced in the bio of Project Gigglewater's Instagram page.
Appearing simply as a link to a new account, the exciting but vague words "coming soon" were added for context, but beyond that, the details were kept minimal — a choice that doesn’t come across as accidental.
While the new account's nine posts don't provide much information about what to expect from the new bar, the bio offers some insights.
"Modern draft cocktail bar serving Izakaya food," it reads. "Coming late summer/early autumn 2023. Located on Bloor St W."
The concept of draft cocktails immediately sparks interest, suggesting that the bar will serve a selection of drinks that are crafted in large batches and served, like draft beer, from the tap.
Serving this way offers a few key advantages. Most importantly, it saves bartenders a lot of time, allowing them to simply pour drinks, rather than having to make each one from scratch.
It also ensures consistency and is often considered to be more sustainable, because less ingredients are wasted in the making of each drink.
The promise of Izakaya food is also an intriguing one. Originating in Japan, the term refers to a specific type of bar that serves a variety of small plate offerings to go with their booze, not unlike a Spanish tapas bar.
The traditional Izakaya menu often features items like edamame, fried chicken bites, meat and vegetable skewers, and sashimi.
While the owner of Project Gigglewater was unable to provide more information on where the new bar will be located and what will populate the menu, he did inform blogTO that a PR night would be on the horizon.
In the meantime, if you find yourself on Bloor West, keep an eye out for Overpressure Club.
Targeting late summer to early fall for their grand opening, they could be up and running sooner than you think.
Hector Vasquez
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