Toronto’s Civil Works has made a memorable splash on the North American cocktail scene, despite being open for less than a year. Here, the bar team shares the secret sauce behind its award-winning debut menu.
In a city replete with brilliant cocktail bars, how do you open a space that’s unique, memorable and serves substance with style? That was the dilemma faced by the team behind Civil Works, the offshoot of Canadian bar stalwart Civil Liberties.
It’s clear, however, that Civil Works has passed the new bar test with flying colours, storming onto the scene as winner of the Siete Misterios Best Cocktail Menu Award as part of North America’s 50 Best Bars 2025, as well as making its entry in the extended 51-100 ranking in the No.55 spot.
Civil Works founder and self-appointed ‘senior executive bar back’ Nick Kennedy shares the five stages of building a bar and elevating it to cocktail menu stardom.
1) Establish a foundation
Civil Works opened in mid-2024 on the mezzanine floor of Toronto's historic Waterworks building
Toronto’s Waterworks is an iconic building in the city’s history. Built in 1932, the Art Deco factory played a landmark role in the construction of the city’s core infrastructure, producing the pipes that still carry water underneath Toronto to this day. After its decommission in 2013, it reopened its doors in 2024 following an eight-year renovation project that brought the building back to life as a buzzy community hub of apartments and social spaces, including a new food hall and bar area.
“We were approached by the building's developer to look at the space, but we said no initially,” Kennedy says. After further consideration, the Civil team saw the potential of the mezzanine space as a prospective new home for its ready-to-drink cocktail brand Civil Pours. “When we saw the design aesthetic and passion the developer was pouring into the project, we slowly began to imagine Civil Works,” he adds. “We wrote them a madman's list of demands and ideas and, to our shock, they were into most of them.”
2) Find a niche
The bar's debut menu takes inspiration from the surrounding building
Building a memorable menu to fit the new concept was the first hurdle, especially given Civil Liberties' operation as a menu-less bar where each drink is crafted depending on a guest’s tastes and preferences. With a blank canvas to work from, Kennedy and team saw the opportunity to craft something that wasn’t simply a carbon copy of its sibling, but shared the same DNA that earned Civil Liberties its reputation.
Due to its historic location, Kennedy, bar manager Elise Hanson and lead bartender Jorge Rodriguez drew inspiration for the bar from their surroundings. “Nick has a particular knack for storytelling and built out the entire narrative framework, layout and historical context of the menu,” says Hanson.
With the concept honed, Hanson focused on the hyper-local Canadian ingredients combined with a global palate to reflect the multicultural makeup of modern Toronto, while Rodriguez delivered the technical know-how to bring the visions to life. Thus, A Manual for Laying Pipe was born.
3) Pair silliness with seriousness
Civil Liberties and Civil Works founder Nick Kennedy masterminded the menu's narrative
“We wanted to set the tone right away with the menu name. This isn’t a stuffy, self-serious cocktail menu,” says Hanson. Beyond A Manual for Laying Pipe’s not-so-subtle double-entendre moniker lies a host of more covert nods, references and cheeky punchlines that guests are invited to discover throughout. But a peek beneath the surface-level silliness shows a bar that's very serious about its operation. From the immaculately designed bar setup – the first in Canada to use the ergonomic Behind Bars Tayēr system – through to the construction of the drinks themselves, everything is designed to mirror the philosophy of its team. “Cocktails can be excellent and inventive without being pretentious. We’re here to make people feel good, not just impressed,” Hanson explains.
The ramos-style Overhead Tonnage takes its name from the lofty cranes of the old Waterworks building
Within the award-winning menu, cocktails are grouped into sections including an Executive Lunch martini line-up, carbonated Pressure Management list and more. The unmissable attraction, though, comes in the On Laying Pipe section, where each house cocktail is paired to a piece of Waterworks history.
When it came to the ideation and construction of these drinks, interesting flavour profiles and combinations came first, ahead of their assignment to their architectural counterparts. “We matched each drink to a moment, object, or theme in the building’s history that could carry a compelling story, or a good joke,” says Hanson.
Take the Woolnough, for instance, named after the former factory’s architect J.J. Woolnough, and Kennedy’s must-order for any guest. Combining aromatised wines, scotch, locally foraged wild haskap berries and vetiver, its smoky, intriguing and slightly acidic flavour profile felt a fitting reflection of Woolnough’s eccentric character. “It’s the kind of drink that feels both familiar and unexpected, which is very much the ethos of Civil Works,” Kennedy says.
4) Don’t skip the water
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Aside from the forward-thinking techniques behind the creation of its cocktails, one of Civil Works’ most unique offerings comes from its most overlooked elements: water. Going beyond the mere necessity of hydration, the bar offers an extensive water programme, born from Kennedy’s initial misattribution of the building being a former water treatment plan, rather than pipe factory.
“We demineralise Toronto water using a hospital-grade reverse osmosis machine, then inject highly mineralised brines created with titrated salts back into the water to recreate taste profiles from around the world,” Hanson explains. The result? Alkalinic water from Speyside in Scotland, chalky aqua from Bardstown, Kentucky, and more, all available in the heart of Toronto at $4 a bottle.
5) Keep innovating
The Civil Works team collected its award on stage in Vancouver
After almost a year of being open, the team behind Civil Works is already working on its follow-up menu to A Manual for Laying Pipe. Still leaning into its surrounding historical elements, the next iteration will venture beyond the doors of the Waterworks building, but only by a few metres into St. Andrew’s Playground, Toronto’s first public park. “The park still exists today, and it’s been a constant presence through the city’s growth and transformation,” says Hanson. “For us, it’s the perfect backdrop for a menu built entirely around nostalgia.”
The new drinks list will primarily tap into the joy, wonder and memories attached to childhood memories of playing in a park. “We’ll still be working with layered, thoughtful drinks and storytelling, but it’s a chance to reimagine comfort, innocence and surprise through flavour, texture and presentation. We’re calling it St. Andrew’s Playground, and we can’t wait to bring it to life later this summer.”
The self-named Civil Cinematic Universe has also gained another themed sibling in time for the summer: Civil Parks, located in the patio of the Waterworks building. The outdoor space comes with its own bespoke menu, split into five sections inspired by different park elements from playgrounds to the tree canopies, with a selection of signatures from the indoor bar, including the Woolnough, also available.
The list of North America’s 50 Best Bars 2025, sponsored by Perrier, was revealed at a live awards ceremony in Vancouver, Canada, on Tuesday 29 April.
