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Suite 115
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Jacky Ha, co-owner of Suite 115, Toronto’s newest, funkiest and friendliest speakeasy, is a nice guy.
How nice?
Well, back when he was working back-of-house at Suite 114, Suite 115’s precursor on Dundas and Bay, he accidentally spilled a glass of very red wine on a customer in a very light blue shirt. He was so mortified that, having noted the (original) colour and brand of the wine-soaked shirt, he ran off to the nearby Eaton Centre and purchased three new ones (he wasn’t sure of the size) to present to the customer (who assured him not to worry; he was a sucker for tie-dye).
To this day, Ha harbours lingering embarrassment about the episode. But he also refers to it as a “war story,” one that changed his life. Some time later, when Suite 114’s bar manager, Oliver Leung, heard the tale, his reaction was, “I want that guy on my team.”
Under Leung’s tutelage, Ha began slinging cocktails. Their partnership felt so right that, when Suite 114 closed shop in 2020, with the owners’ blessing, the pair decided to strike out on their own and create a more elevated, but no less secretive next-generation iteration of the cult speakeasy, this time on College West.
In person, Ha is indeed a nice guy. However, don’t mistakenly think this means he’ll give you the secret code required enter Suite 115. You’ll have to figure it out on your own (and since there’s no phone, you can’t call and beg for it).
Justifying his tough love stance, Ha explains that “speakeasies offer a private experience where you get to feel like a rock star in an exclusive club,” he explains. “If you can’t figure out the code, I promise you we’ll never let you in!”
When pressed, Ha relents a little, promising to open the door for first-timers.” But after that, you’re on your own,” he warns. (Don’t worry, it’s not that difficult.).
Those who do crack the code are rewarded with a plunge into a long dim cavern, unexpectedly more warm and romantic than cool and sexy. Seating – at tables and along the marble bar that runs the length of the room - is plush grey velvet. Soft light emanates from golden table lamps and cascades from a milky beam of light that glows along the entire ceiling, bifurcating the room into mirror images of itself.
Anchoring the space is the bar, backed by a rosy-red wall (the same shade of red used at Suite 114) where floor-to-ceiling shelves showcase the glittering bottles of spirits used to make Suite 115’s raison d’être: cocktails.
Leung designed the drinks menu. Although there are a select handful of wines, beer and ciders, pride of place is given to a dozen wildly creative cocktails, some of them Asian-influenced, all of them telling a complex story guaranteed to draw you in and potentially rev you up or mellow you out.
As Ha notes, Suite 115 isn’t the kind of bar where you sit in a corner, nursing a rum and Coke (his own personal fave back in the day) and scrolling through your feed. “Hospitality is a big thing here. It isn't just getting your cutlery on time or having your water filled. It’s about make a human connection. We are here to have a connection with you, over alcohol, which is the easiest way to break down your guardrails.”
Although Ha promises he’ll leave you to your own devices if that’s what you want, most customers – including a slew of loyal Suite 114 regulars, known as “alumni” – thrive on the convivial atmosphere. If around happy hour the vibe can seem chill and loungey (with a playlist to match), as the night heats up, things take a turn for the more party-esque.
While acknowledging that some people saunter into a speakeasy and immediately know what they want, others – from the uninitiated to the adventurous – count on the Suite 115 crew to tap into their libational libidos and lead them to the Promised Glass.
In ascertaining what such a drink might look (and taste) like, Ha and staff engage with customers, gauging contexts (a first date, a sullen countenance) as well as asking questions – “What’s your favourite colour?” -- eliciting keywords with which they create a mood board of flavours, accents and notes.
If you choose to go freestyle, bartenders will happily give full creative rein to their inner drink nerd. But before going off any wild tangents, you could do worse than sipping your way through Suite 115’s signature cocktails.
The Indonesian-inspired Southeast Jungle starts with a solid, sultry foundation of rum then adds layers of bright, citrusy tropicalness in the form of lemongrass, lime leaf, aloe, calamansi, passionfruit and coconut. Hovering on top, a cloud of aerated celery provides an unexpected air of umami. An extra dollop on the side can, as Ha suggests, be savoured on its own, added to your glass – or “thrown across the room.”
The Old Man is already an old favourite. This clever and complex riff on Honk Kong milk tea entails a four-day process of fermentation and dilution to get the infusion, flavours and sweetness scientifically, and deliciously, correct. Both bracing and embracing, the drink is accompanied by chou pastries modeled after Hong Kong pineapple buns. Biting into one reveals a luscious surprise: a centre of black tea custard. And yes, you can dip your chou in your tea.
Breaking with the Asian theme, Heart of Normandy was inspired by a trip Leung made to the namesake French region, during which he fell head-over-heels with local Calvados. This clarified cocktail features top-of-the-line Boulard, its dark oaky richness shot through with harmonizing fruity notes of apple, pear and apricot and tempered by an ice wine foam crowned by an edible (salted) sakura leaf.
Leung is such a sucker for Calvados that he couldn’t resist adding some to The Orchardist, a play on a classic New Orleans Vieux Carré, which traditionally features straight rye. Also incorporating red vermouth, Benedectine, chai syrup and peach bitters, this drink was a favourite at Suite 114.
The last drink to make it onto the menu is certainly not the least – especially when it comes to its ingredients. “We got adventurous with this one,” says Ha of Hidden in Plain Sight, which he finds impossible to describe other than “It’s good.” An amalgamation of seemingly incongruous flavours – sweet, spicy, bitter and all-out funky – it’s an unruly mashup of mezcal, amaro, cachaça, madeira, chili liqueur, pu-erh tea and clarified tomato juice. If it makes no sense on paper, it makes absolute sense on your palate.
By definition and tradition, speakeasies are all about the drinks. But at Suite 115, bar snacks are no mere afterthought with a half-dozen items, many of them Asian-inspired, on the menu that was dreamed up by Ha.
A big bowl of taro and lotus chips is as mesmerizing to gaze upon as it is satisfying to crunch upon. Although Ha cops to the fact that you can get taro chips anywhere (albeit for a hefty price), a happy food memory of his mother frying up crisp lotus roots inspired him to add paper-thin slices of deep-fried lotus to the mix, along with a dusting of furikake for additional kick.
Another fond family food memory inspired Suite 115’s take on bar nuts, which references Ha’s Vietnamese father’s custom of unwinding after work with a beer and bowl of cashews. Ha ramped up the flavour quotient of his cashews by shellacking them in a glossy Vietnamese-style coating of sticky, almost caramelized fish sauce infused with a pungent mixture of shallots, Thai basil, coriander and cumin.
Ha’s mother hails from China and growing up, he would regularly be put to work helping her fold and stuff dumplings. The menu’s Mom’s Dumplings provide satisfying proof that all those years of apprenticeship paid off. Delicately crisp on the outside, the perfectly pleated dumplings burst open upon initial prodding with a fork, exposing a juicy interior of pork and a verdant thicket of chives (“that’s where all the flavour comes from!”) that, once released, swim happily in a dark, salty sea of soy gastrique spiked with house chili oil.
Although Ha is a fan of corn, his girlfriend can’t live without it so he added it to the menu in the form of Charred Scallion Corncheese. Drawing on the classic Korean dish and Mexican elote. Suite 115’s corn comes slathered in charred scallion-infused butter, and finished with shredded mozzarella, togarashi and a small snowstorm of freshly grated Parm. Sweet, salty, creamy, crunchy, smoky, umami-y… it’s no wonder that it sells out before Ha can bring leftovers home to his girlfriend, reportedly a source of conjugal conflict.
Although Leung grew up in Hong Kong, it was Ha who first happened upon the traditional snack, known in English as “shrimp toast,” during a six-month restaurant stage and never got over it. Ridiculously simple, Suite 115’s Shrimp Toasty is nothing more than shrimp mousse layered between two slices of toasted brioche. But the mousse is fluffy and shot through with shrimp-iness while the toast is buttery, sweet and reassuringly crisp. Drizzled mayo and a dusting of green onions and Japanese shichimi make it all pop.
The meatiest offering on the menu, the Indo Short Ribs, made the cut after Leung idly bragged about his mother-in-law being the best Indonesian cook in the GTA. To prove his point, he had his MIL invite both partners over for a day-long cooking session, which yielded the idea – and recipe – for the these succulent AAA pork ribs, cooked sous-vide for 14 hours in a heady Indonesian spice mix that includes shallots, coriander, galangal, ginger, garlic and coconut milk. Although you’ll be licking every last piquant morsel from your fingers, there’s also a reserve of naan to mop up any overlooked drips or smears.
So far, Suite 115’s culinary aspirations veer more towards snack-ability than outright dining. But Ha and Leung encourage each other and their young staff to tap into their creative juices, whether in the form of new drinks or new dishes. In time, customers will be able to sample these experimental items by scanning a QR code and successfully solving a puzzle, after which they’ll be rewarded with access to a secret menu.
That something as basic as accessing a menu – not to mention accessing the bar itself – is such a fun experience underscores Suite 115’s essential ethos.
“It’s a very fun industry because you’re just connecting all the time.” resumes Ha. “On any given night, cocktails are flying left, right and centre. Regrettably – but not regrettably at all; I say this because my liver is probably screaming – we take a lot of fun party shots with everybody. But that’s our job – we’re connectors. When the energy is really high, we just want to keep it going.”
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