If you aren’t looking out for Charlotte Ottawa, you can easily miss it. The mid-century inspired lounge only has a small sign outside, that I admit I walked past several times before noticing. Charlotte is located above Pure Kitchen on Elgin Street. To enter Charlotte, you actually enter the doors of Pure Kitchen then head up the stairs.
A visit to Charlotte Ottawa will make you feel as though you are in a friend’s living room instead of a bar. The reason is that Charlotte has been designed to have distinct areas to promote social interaction. Here you’ll find clusters of mid-century sofas and armchairs clustered together divided from the next lounge space. As such it is a great place to go with a group of friends as you can easily accommodate everyone.
Inside the lounge, you’ll find plenty of tropical island references from the neon aloha sign, to plenty of tropical plants and tiki drinks. On Thursday night it is their Tiki Thursdays night where you’ll find tiki-inspired cocktail menu as the featured drinks, and tropical beats playing. Yet, even when I last visited on a Saturday night, there was still plenty of tiki drinks to pick from, and I opted for the Wai-Kiki do you love me? Gosling’s Black Seal, Four Roses Bourbon, Grenade, Lemon, Pineapple, Orange and Demerara.
Being situated above a vegan hotspot, Pure Kitchen nearly everything on the menu at Charlotte comes from the restaurant downstairs making this lounge extremely vegan or vegetarian-friendly. Meanwhile, you’ll find Charlotte also offers an impressive wine cellar managed by their in-house sommelier.
Charlotte is the perfect spot to go for drinks when you are looking for a trendy place to enjoy cocktails and talk with friends. Open Tuesday to Sunday, it is located at 340 Elgin Street.