Zero Bar Lifting Local Spirits: How This Toronto Woman Is Creating A Conversation and a Community

It was a hot and sticky evening, but the Regent Park cultural bazaar was in full-swing as it has been every Friday this month, nestled in the looming shadow of a brand new condominium. This downtown Toronto neighbourhood is an interesting mix of revitalization and racially diverse, underserved households that stayed put despite the recent displacement efforts by corporate developers. 

Holding her own at a corner spot is Gail Lynch, the proprietor of Zero Bar, which might just be the first alcohol-free pop-up bar in Toronto. Surrounded both by bottles and buzzing wasps, Lynch singularly juggles our conversation while making two zero-proof cocktails for guests seated in her bar chairs. We’re immediately attracted to her infectious energy and the joy for life that has made her a familiar face in the community. 

The alcohol-free industry is predominantly led by white men, so it’s a delight and a relief to find a BIPOC female entrepreneur making waves in the space. Lynch serves the two drinks she’s making and then takes a few minutes to talk about how Zero Bar came about. 

“I’m not a drinker, but I like to entertain,” she said. “When the pandemic began, I built an outdoor bar on my terrace from wooden 2x4s and a counter top, and my friends would come over for drinks,” she explained, pointing to her condo terrace just across the busy intersection. “I would mix them drinks and they would say ‘Gail this is so good!’ and ‘Gail this tastes amazing!’ but I couldn’t taste them. I realized that I wanted something to drink for myself!”

Thus began a quest for her that will be familiar to many - finding alcohol-free drinks that are a step above club soda and tonic water. She eventually discovered the growing bounty of well-made alcohol-free spirits, and as the year progressed put a plan into action to bring this new approach to her community. 

“By my account, Regent Park is about 80% alcohol-free,” she explains. “And that’s because of cultural or religious reasons, and because of all the young families. It’s a great place to do this!” 

In addition to the Regent Park pop-up, Zero Bar also provides mobile catering with its non-alcoholic bar, for weddings, parties, or any other kind of celebration. The experiences Lynch offers are much more personalized than a client selecting from a list of drinks. 

“Initially we do a consultation to understand your flavour profile preferences, your fruit preferences, colours, themes, and together we craft an experience for you,” she says. And the experience includes more than drinks, such as food that is in season, or building the client a bar in their backyard. 

“A different experience is the tagline chosen because when you come into a bar space, we’re gathering,” Lynch says. “We have conversations, we each create our own unique experience.” Zero Bar facilitates these kinds of unique experiences, by giving them an inclusive environment to flourish.  

“We top that off with a beautiful cocktail,” she says. 

Lynch has an artist's mind when it comes to crafting her cocktails, and a chef’s intuition. “I have a signature drink that I make,” she says. “It’s a Spicy Ginger. It includes ginger and chilli peppers. No matter where I’m going, people want me to bring that cocktail.”

“I haven’t been a drinker for a very long time,” Lynch says. “Back when I was younger, we would go to the club, and I would get some pressure to drink, but generally didn’t. I would have my club soda or water.” Now she’s adamant that just because a person doesn’t drink alcohol, doesn’t mean they need to have a “crappy drink.”

“Social healing [is from] having conversations with people, the art in the space, which is entertainment,” she says. “All of that is part of social healing.”

“We're providing you with that beautiful drink that has everything that a cocktail would have minus the ethanol,” she says. Even the gin isn’t “fake gin,” she says. “Gin is made with juniper, with cardamom, with a few other spices. These botanicals are what make gin. And then you add ethanol in it.” The gin Lynch uses makes use of the various botanicals whose nuance she knows how to leverage in a drink, just without the addition of alcohol.   

One of Lynch’s long-term goals with Zero Bar is a brick and mortar spot. Currently, she’s in the midst of planning an event that is centred around healing, physical and social. The physical healing comes from the food and drink that Lynch will curate. But the truly unique and idiosyncratic element is the aspect centred around social healing.

“Social healing [is from] having conversations with people, the art in the space, which is entertainment,” she says. “All of that is part of social healing.” And it’s especially needed after almost two years of atomised living. 

She hopes to have a flagship space in Regent Park, so she can supply the bustling community a gathering spot. She also hopes to have a greenhouse in this space, so that she can grow the ingredients she needs. 

“Currently I am growing mint, so all the mint I use in my cocktails are from my garden,” she says. She also wants games to be available for each table in her future brick and mortar space. 

This detailed vision is so vivid for Lynch because of how committed she is to creating good experiences that serve to gel people together, to create community, regardless of where a person lives. Lynch also wants to support other Canadian women entrepreneurs in her space, such as SolBru and Sexy AF, showcasing and utilising their products in her cocktails.

Back at the cultural bazaar, Lynch is eager for us to sample her specialty ginger drink, the Spicy Ginger, expertly pulling out a blow torch to singe the rosemary branch which is both decorative and functional. 

She tells me it’s an African recipe of ginger and hot pepper and upon tasting it, it’s spicy, pungent and probably good for the belly. The effect makes us sweat. The sun begins to slip behind the alabaster towers around us, and just as we’re saying goodbye, Liberal MP Marci Ian swings by the bazaar and eagerly reviews the menu. Lynch’s star is rising and her role in the small community here, is a sign of how she will surely impact the larger community across Canada.