Casie Stewart Goes Boardwalk Empire With Canadian Club
With the help of Canadian Club whiskey, Casie Stewart paid homage to the hit HBO series Boardwalk Empire and hosted an authentic Prohibition Era speakeasy at Abode nightclub in Toronto on the evening of November 3rd 2011.
Casie was in her element as a sexy flapper girl with a fur shawl and many feathered accessories. Like a gracious host she met the first guests out on the street and welcomed everyone inside to what turned out to be a remarkably original rye whiskey tasting event full of interesting people. It was a recipe for success - Casie’s personality plus free alcohol great music, friends and cool information about smuggling and the art of bartending.
Two bouncers wearing depression era costumes were stationed between the front door and model T ford parked out front of the venue. They told me the secret password because I had forgotten it entirely. They were checking folks in line to see who had printed invitations and also who knew the secret password was ‘real mccoy’.
A Real McCoy was either a drink, or the name of a brand of whisky that was distilled and marketing by Wisers in the Canadian marketplace during the American prohibition of the 1930s. Or possibly Real Mccoy was the codename for Canadian whisky? Do you know?
Once inside Abode nightclub we were given free drinks all made with Canadian Club whiskey of course, and trays filled with thick blocks of pungent cheese and bread made from organic ingredients were circulated by attractive staff members all wearing Depression Era period costumes. The bartenders were excellent. 
Both mixologists were juggling bottles and shakers and making flavourful concoctions with a seemingly endless supply of energy. And they were having a good time doing it, making jokes as they served up the sponsor’s whiskey.
Several museum quality displays inside the venue made apparent the profit margins and production planning required to organize all elements of the supply chain to execute the full scale smuggling operation that kept Canadian distillers busy making the nectar so necessary to the American black market. Having the best Canadian whiskey at your Speakeasy was the mark of a professionally run operation in Boardwalk Empire Atlantic City, and in Al Capone’s Chicago and probably New York City too.
Abode nightclub doubled for all of those places and was always a luxurious establishment. I learned from a Toronto mortgage broker who negotiated loans for several downtown properties that this address used to contain clubs called Turbo, and Fluid and now as Abode it offers multiple environments for patrons and plenty of room for PraxisPR to get creative. Good job Casie Stewart and Andrew F Stewart.
