Prequel & Co. Apothecary

Frankie Solarik’s Prequel & Co. Apothecary is the Queen West room that looks like an 1890–1910 Paris pharmacy until a door in the herb wall opens. Official site barprequel.com: 1036 Queen Street West; Sunday–Wednesday 6 p.m.–1 a.m.; Thursday 5 p.m.–2 a.m.; Friday–Saturday 4 p.m.–2 a.m. Bartenders grind spices and botanicals à la minute — they call it Méthode Classique — with drinks by Solarik and Gianluca Passuello and food by Lionel Duke and Joshua Algas. This is the hidden-door sibling of BarChef’s cocktail theatre, not a replacement for it. Reserve on the site; the apothecary shelves are the show before you even sit. Kyoto Foret (Toki, vermouth, herbs) is the frequently cited first pour. Queen streetcar, west of Trinity Bellwoods.