Parlor

In a historic building that once housed the Bank of Nova Scotia’s first branch in Saskatoon, Parlor has quietly sown the seeds for one of Canada’s most impressive sustainability programs. Located above St. Tropez Bistro — a family-run institution of 46 years now helmed by Jason Strohan and Cher Diller — this cocktail-forward speakeasy grows a rooftop bounty of herbs, blossoms and botanicals for picking fresh for every pour.

What began with a few pots of basil and hot peppers in 1999 has blossomed into a lush outdoor oasis, replete with greenhouse, vertical wall of beans, heirloom tomatoes and enough biodiversity to attract nesting robins, bees for pollination, ladybugs for pest control and the occasional magpie, which helps keep pigeons in check. At the end of each shift, the well ice is left to melt (never burned with hot water) and later used to water the plants.

Kitchen waste is cleverly repurposed — tofu whey froths up eggless cocktails, and pineapple peels ferment into tepache for a zero-waste tropical sipper called Warapichi. Strohan is researching how to build a walipini — an underground solar-heated greenhouse — to extend the growing season and possibly accommodate tropical plants such as pineapple. Indoors, they’re already overwintering lemongrass and bay trees, using heat from a high-efficiency boiler.

Augmenting the bounty from the rooftop garden are ingredients sourced from an off-grid property southwest of the city, affectionately dubbed Nalu Acres. There, Strohan and Diller forage bushels of chokecherries, saskatoon berries and wild raspberries. Closer to home, their backyard apple tree yields up to 45 kilograms a year. Strohan picks the fruit twice — when small and tart, and then, when fully ripened. Blended, the two juices comprise a vibrant apple cordial used in Doctor’s Orders, a bourbon-forward signature drink mixed with cold-pressed apple reduction, rooftop basil and house-made applewood bitters.

More than garden-to-glass, this is a full ecosystem in a coupe.

—ALEXANDRA GILL