Stockade Tavern — Restaurant in City of Kingston

I live a half hour away from this bar and this is still the place I go when I want to have some drinks with friends.

This is a true cocktail bar in the pre-prohibition style, with a fantastic cocktail menu and a knowledgable and skilled staff who can take your requests and run with it.

I asked for a stirred genevere cocktail and got something beautiful and balanced where the funk was tamed without being overwhelmed.

I asked for a shaken cocktail with Ardbeg and got something that slowly evolved in each sip that made the intense peaty scotch work its way through a sweet medicinal first impression that turned into a long smokey finish.

One warning I will give is that you should probably have at least a light meal before coming. They have some fantastic food, but they are appropriately bar sized portions, things to be nibbled on as you sip your drink, and not stuff meant to fill you up.

Really, this place is a great experience, from the moment you sit down and are given a tumbler and glass bottle full of water, to when the bartender wishes you a good night as you head...

Stockade Tavern is one of the best bars in Kingston, thanks to the level of creativity and craftsmanship from the owners to the incredible and personable bartenders that work here. The drinks are thoughtfully crafted even down to the type of ice used. Every drink is well balanced and delicious. No showy, flashy drinks required when you have the level of craftsmanship that the folks at Stockade have. I would like to give Lia and Sasha a shout out for their hospitality and great conversation. Watching Sasha make drinks, for example...the seamless way Sasha shakes the shaker is mesmerizing to watch. The atmosphere is lively without being too crowded or obnoxious. Stockade Tavern really knows how to draw in and retain their customers. I cannot say enough wonderful things about Stockade. I'm thankful to have found such a comfortable and fun environment to have a drink and...

We're hanging out at the dive bar down the road and the bartender there recommended we come here for some good drinks. And my oh my were they good. I never believed in the science of mixology or that a mixologist was a skilled tradesmen. But the old man who made our drinks must have been the Gordon Ramsey of Bartending. Your average bartender is a frycook by comparison. I had a few of their signature cocktails as well as a Manhatten and an old fashioned; my go-to drink so I've had a lot of them from a lot of different places, and never in my decades of life have I tasted such a perfectly mixed old fashioned. It was sublime and I doubt I'll taste its equal again in this lifetime unless I find myself in Kingston again and this man happens to be behind the bar once more. He also whipped up some scratch-made eggnog with alcohol and it...