Welcome to Two For The Bar and thank you for taking the time to visit! This space is my playground to talk about all things cocktails, to share stories of imbibing adventure, and to convey my love for the relationships inevitably forged when we come together over a great beverage.
My name is Talia Kleinplatz. I’m the woman that will strike up a conversation with a complete stranger sitting next to me at the bar. I am a firm believer that a shared cocktail can open windows and doors to chance encounters, poignant stories and lasting friendship. I fell in love with cocktails at the hand of some of my favourite bartenders and thirsted for the dynamic exchange that inevitably happened whenever a I sat at their bars. It was these gifted men and women that inspired curiosity and an earnest hunger to know more about this storied and fascinating industry.
My beautiful, loving, supportive, steady-as-a-rock of a husband puts the “Two” in “Two For The Bar.” He is my favourite drinking buddy and ever-so-gently encouraged me to start this here website.
There is something about a great cocktail served at the right time with the right people that opens up a space and invites us to share deeper and more honest parts of ourselves. It takes an everyday occurrence like drinking and imbues it with possibility for connection and conversation and if we’re truly lucky, even lasting friendship. These random exchanges over a cocktail have inspired me to be a little more brave and re-affirmed a sense of wonder and possibility in the chance encounters of daily life.
Founded in 2013, Two For The Bar is a space dedicated to illustrating the magic of shared experience that can occur in the presence of a great cocktail and a talented bartender. These stories and recipes are meant to highlight what I have come to love about craft cocktail culture and perhaps even inspire readers to go and experience it for themselves. It presents the cocktail as the avenue through which great stories are exchanged, our best jokes are told and our fondest memories are relived. It’s the means to a more connected end.
So here’s to being brave, to taking risks, to being willing to fail, to being willing to succeed. Here’s to leaping. Here’s to creating. Here’s to letting go of
fear and calling upon all of our resources to allow us to dream big and perhaps even believe that those dreams are possible. In the words of the amazing Ze Frank, “There is no need to sharpen my pencils anymore. My pencils are sharp enough. Even the dull ones will make a mark.” Cheers!
