martini time

Featured: Hypnotic Beach Martini (drink with the sugar rim) and the Gummy Bear Martini

It’s summer.

AKA prime time patio season. After being stuck inside for the last three months, we are finally allowed to have fun again. It may be 6 feet apart, but it beats being inside and alone. All I want to do on my days off is go for drinks and food while socializing with my best friends, or on a date with my man. Two things these both have in common are that I want to be doing this on a patio.

Lucky for me, there are tons of patios.. Almost everywhere. But why waste your money and time on a subpar patio experience? Personally, I love trying new places, especially trendy ones. And if I find out there is a restaurant that serves gummy bears in my martini, or that their nachos are served on a two foot platter… Yeah, you can bet that I’m going there for my next patio experience.

Cause and Effect is a restaurant and bar located in Hamilton.

With their chill, fun atmosphere it’s the perfect place to go either with a group of friends or on a date. If you need a great first date idea, you'd definitely be scoring some extra points by showing up here for your first date. But something good to know is that they currently aren’t taking reservations so it’s first come, first serve. When we went, we went right after 7pm which was the perfect time. Half of their patio was in the shade, and the other half almost all had umbrellas. This was a nice change since almost every other patio I’ve been to I've roasted in the sun, sweating while eating. So disgusting. It didn't take long before our server Yelda came over and helped us start our experience with recommending some of the best drinks I’ve ever consumed.

I’m a red wine girl. With a cup of ice on the side (Sorry to all the winos that literally just cringed reading that.) But when there’s an opportunity to drink a martini that literally has steam coming out of it, I’m a martini girl for the night.

IF YOU LIKE SWEET DRINKS:

The famous Gummy Bear Martini is the drink for you. Not only do you get the delicious martini, but you also get candy in your drink too... It’s a two in one. It tastes so good that this drink can actually be a bit dangerous. You will just have to remind yourself that even though it tastes like juice, there’s actually alcohol in there. The Gummy Bear martini did not last me long. So, after you try the Gummy Bear Martini (because why wouldn’t you??) and you need something to last you a little longer throughout dinner, the Bruce Banner is a great option. It’s another sweet drink mixed with liqueurs but this time topped with Redbull. Order it in a tall glass, and it’ll last you even longer.

For all my vodka lovers out there (who also likes their drinks a bit sweet) my favourite vodka based drink was the Hypnotic Beach Martini. Not only does this drink look incredible with its sugar rim and the steaming smoke coming out of it, but with its mix of pineapple juice and grenadine, it tastes like summer in a cocktail. Considering vodka is my favourite type of liquor, and that Cause and Effect makes this drink with Grey Goose, it’s nothing less than the best. The other vodka based drink I loved was called the Yalda Flower. This drink has such a cool story behind it because we found out that our server, Yalda actually created it. It got so many great reviews that now they will be serving this on tap. (Shout out to our incredible server Yalda for making our dining experience the best!)

IF YOU LIKE STRONG DRINKS:

Rich Hits Wall is the drink for you. Created with gin . If you don’t want it too strong ask for it in a tall glass. This was John’s go-to drink. Considering he loves Gin, strong drinks and soda water, this drink was a perfect combination. Strong and refreshing.

If you follow Cause and Effect on Instagram, @causeandeffectbar (and if you’re not you should be) you’ll quickly notice that smoking martinis and insane drinks aren’t they only thing they serve.

nacho daddy

*Have you ever had a Two Foot Long Nacho Platter?*

food:

After some drinks, we started our dining experience with the “Nacho Daddy” Two Foot Long Nacho Platter. I don’t know who we thought we were ordering a 2 FOOT LONG NACHO PLATTER for two people, but I’m glad we did. After realizing how big it was and thinking that there should be a smaller size, we looked back on the menu to see exactly that. The “Nacho Baby” appetizer which is the exact same but one foot long instead. If you have never had waffle fries and tater tots in your nachos before, this is definitely something you need to experience.

For those of you who personally know me, you know salads are not my thing. In my 24 years of existence, I have never voluntarily ordered a salad. That all changed when I saw that there was a salad with one of the main ingredients being Dorito Chips. Their Dorito Sun Salad was the best salad I have ever eaten. Yalda gave award winning advice to crush the Doritos and mix it all together, so that’s exactly what I did. That mixed with their house made dressing, I was in heaven.

Now, for everyone who personally knows my boyfriend, John. You will know that no matter where we go, no matter how many different options are on a menu, 99% of the time John will order a burger. So plot twist, John ordered the Hickory Styx Burger with sweet potato fries. When his meal came out two things caught my attention: One, the sweet potato fries were waffle fries (they were delicious and I definitely would recommend them) and two, both of our meals have chips in them and WHY IS THIS THE FIRST TIME I’VE EVER SEEN A RESTAURANT DO THIS?! This is probably one of the easiest, yet most creative ingredients I’ve seen a restaurant add to their entrees. You will never see me eating a salad unless it has Doritos mixed into it.

For dessert, I really wanted the Funnel Cake Fries. Topped with ice cream and chocolate sauce (As I am writing this, my mouth is salivating and I am mad at myself for not getting it) it looked delicious. But after having a belly full of drinks, nachos, Doritos and some healthy salad, I simply couldn’t do it.. But I’m not making this mistake again, so I’m already planning when I can go back.

Our overall experience at Cause and Effect was a great one. We had the pleasure of meeting the management Jez and Jake, and they couldn't be more friendly and accommodating.

A few more additional things about Cause and Effect:

You can rent the restaurant and patio out for private events.
The music is fun. Throwbacks, to latest hits, you’ll find yourself dancing to the music in your chair with your boyfriend giving you a terrified look of what the hell you’re doing. (If this doesn’t happen to you, we will pretend it didn’t happen to me.)
They accommodate allergies. I have a severe peanut and nut allergy so after letting Yalda know I had nothing to worry about for the rest of the night.
Our service was great. From the moment we sat down Yalda and the management, Jez and Jake made our experience awesome. Also just a PSA for anyone who needs to hear this: If anyone treats their server like trash you are a bad person. Servers are some of the most hard working, multi-tasking people I’ve ever met. Be patient and be kind. Especially now when it’s a million degrees outside and they’re working their ass off to accommodate you while you’re sipping on cocktails, happy as can be.
You need to experience Cause and Effect. Even if it’s just for their insta worthy and delicious cocktails, you need to do it. Why keep going to the same boring patios you are going to when there’s so much more out there?! It’s summer 2020 baby and after our last four months with Coronavirus we deserve to have some fun!! Now go have it!!