Cardinal Spirits

“Great food, fantastic drinks, and even better service. The atmosphere is perfect for brunch with friends, or a dinner date night. I get a consistent, and quality experience every time I visit! I would recommend getting reservations as tables do fill very quickly.”

“Intimate setting with great food and fabulous drinks. They distill their own booze so the drinks are carefully crafted. They have a great happy hour deal for drinks and fun events like bingo, movie nights, and live music each week. I had the espresso martini and it was delicious, not too sweet. The OMG fries were a hit at the table. For brunch, the chicken biscuit and BLT are both excellent options. We will definitely be back!”

“Textbook 4 star experience (focus is on the food not the drinks). Excellent service and care (did a great job with Gluten free restrictions). We ordered meatball sandwich and steak + fries and a sprite. Sandwich: Excellent, Gluten Free Bread is great, the meatballs and cheese were sublime, and the sauce was good but a little subtle. Still a 5/5 Sprite: Room temperature and somewhat watered down. 2/5 Steak: Ordered Medium Rare, came out medium well and then was cut open too early (died on the counter) and was basically well done by the time we got it and not even warm :(. The cut of meat was great though albeit small. Loved the chimmichurri. 3/5. Fries were what you'd expect. Pretty solid. Did NOT vibe with the 20% gratuity + additional tip. I don't mind paying 20% but asking for tips on top of that is absurd. Just mark up your prices. Kind of insane how far we've let tipping culture get. Might come back might not, we shall see. Still was a pleasant time though!”

“Pretty impressed! Decided to come here for Saturday lunch with my family and made a reservation online at the last minute, but we would have been able to get in without. Without the patio open though, I can see it filling up easily. The atmosphere is fun (board games!) and bright but somewhat industrial with the distillery next door. The staff was friendly and very enthusiastic but just a little overbearing for me. The samples they brought around of two of their spirits (a gin and amaro) were very good and much appreciated. As appealing as the cocktails sounded, I didn't feel like drinking, so I got the Last Call mocktail. I couldn't pick up much 5 spice, but it was still a pleasant and refreshing light drink. I had a sip of my parents' old fashioned and Smokin' in the Girls' Room, and those were both really good - I was really into the lapsang souchong tea-infused rum in the Smokin' in the Girls' Room and would've ordered it for myself if I'd been drinking. To eat, I had a mushroom melt (the veganized version with vegan cheese) with the OMG fries. I really liked the sandwich; I loved the giardiniera and the jus, and you usually can't get that sort of thing in a vegetarian or vegan sandwich, so I was really happy to have it here and thought it was done well. The OMG fries were also really good. I don't like fries if they're plain, but these were heavily seasoned with a delicious spice blend. The vegan version of the fries omits the truffle aioli that they normally come with, but they were plenty flavorful with just ketchup. We shared a Thai tea creme brulee for dessert. I am crazy about Thai tea so I expected to like this, and it was everything I hoped for. The tea flavour was nice and strong, and the tapioca pearls were a nice little enhancement. They do an auto-gratuity of 20% no matter the party size, which I'm not completely opposed to, but I think if you're doing that you at least need to have a note on the menu rather than have the waiter tell you as they're giving you the bill, or better (in my opinion) to just raise the prices by 20% and sell yourself as a no-tipping restaurant. But it wasn't a huge deal in this situation; our waitress was good and we would've left a good tip anyway.”

“Been going here on and off for Wednesday trivia for at least a year. Two primary problems. First, the liquors they make are just not very good. There are a few cocktails that are ok, but mostly because the mix-ins cover up the poor quality of the liquors. Second, the service is consistently subpar. Have had to wait to sit multiple times even with a reservation. The food (which is nothing special) takes way to long to come. Last visit included the server never bringing part of our order. When we pointed it out they claimed we never ordered it in the first place. Plenty of better places to go in Btown.”