My Night with Grand Marnier in the Cordon Rouge Room

When the invite came to RSVP for a night with Grand Marnier, I was excited. When I read that it would be a speakeasy in true 1920s style, I was fully in and ready to go. Who can go wrong with those two things?! I wasn't told the location of the party and the password to get in until two days prior. Getting glammed up for a night out and speaking a password to gain entrance to a secret party was pretty cool. But it is the experience inside that was breathtaking. Grand Marnier immersed its party-goers into what felt like an honest-to-goodness speakeasy. You'd think Al Capone might have shown up any moment or that I was in a scene from Bugsy Malone!

Let me take you through my evening! Honestly, I hope someone reading this gets some ideas because it would make an awesome Halloween party. And ummm, invite me, please?

 Keep reading to hear more about this fun event and Grand Marnier!

We left a little early to make the trek into downtown Toronto. We don't live far, but the level of traffic is unpredictable and there is ALWAYS traffic. If you're unfamiliar with the Toronto skyline, that tall building is the CN Tower. You can go up it for amazing views and stand on a glass floor. I personally wouldn't know, as my fear of heights makes me more than happy to keep my feet on the ground. Maybe one day I'll make it up...

We made our way to where the event was. Despite always parking in the area for events, I don't think I'd actually walked this section of the street. I've been here for almost 13 years (on Oct. 10th!) and there are still loads of the city that I haven't seen! I walked up and gave the password and we were in to be welcomed with a cocktail before being lead to our seats.

The cocktail was their Grand Sidecar. I'm extremely sensitive to citrus, so I sipped mine slowly during the night. We're not really big drinkers, but we enjoyed this. My husband loves citrus anything and if he is going to drink alcohol of any kind, he prefers it to be fruity or citrusy, so this whole night was right up his alley. There were books on the table to take home that have drink recipes inside. When I'm done reading mine, I'm sending it along to my mom. She was a bartender back in the day and can still mix a mean drink!

The staff were costumed in full flapper style. I even tried to go down that road, putting on my layered sequin dress. They did it better, of course. Our waitress was lovely. We had the same one all night and she stopped by frequently to see how we were doing. When we first sat down, she took our drink order and asked if we'd like on of the desserts offered. I saw macarons on the menu and knew that is what I had to have, while my husband never turns down a good chocolate lava cake. Pure bliss.

As she came back around, she brought along a dried orange peel and told us to smell it. It smelled faintly of orange. She then had us crack it open and it became very fragrant and those are what is used in the formula. After all, Grand Marnier's Cordon Rouge is an orange-flavored liqueur. After that fascinating tidbit of knowledge, we were serenaded with some jazz and swing classics from a live band.

We had a great time in the Cordon Rouge Room. Grand Marnier made us feel fancy and let us escape to another time period for an one-of-a-kind date night. It was hard leaving the 1920s and coming back out to 2017!

After leaving the venue, we realized we were passing the new dog fountain at Berczy Park. It's so adorable! There are a bunch of dogs spitting water up at a bone and on one side of the fountain is a cat. Just for good measure. It really brightens up the corner and worth seeing in person!

And because we were still feeling incredibly fancy, we stopped at McDonald's on the way home for burgers and ice cream. Très chic! Haha! After that, we came home to this fur face who gave us the guilt trip of a lifetime for having dared leave him. We were only forgiven after a big treat and lots of petting. I'd say it was a successful date night! Thank you, Grand Marnier!