Walk into a bustling bar on a busy night in Calgary and you’ll likely see at least one group of people slurping back creamy coffee cocktails with a collective whoop of enthusiasm. The Shaft has become ubiquitous in Western Canadian bars over the last few years thanks to the drink’s social nature (you’ll rarely see anyone drinking a Shaft alone) and ability to pep people up enough to brave another cocktail or stop on a marathon bar crawl. Quicker and usually cheaper than the more refined espresso martini, The Shaft is a drink for revellers who mean business.
The Shaft undoubtedly has roots in Calgary, but the history of its invention is up for some debate (do not suggest to anyone in Victoria that the drink is a Calgary invention unless you want to be met with a heated argument).
The most generally accepted story is this: while working at the now shuttered Cilantro on 17th Avenue S.W. in the mid-’90s, bartender Mark Smith concocted what was basically a long shot consisting of Kahlúa, chilled espresso and a touch of milk to help keep his co-workers awake through the late shift and post-work partying. He named it after iconic 1970s movie character John Shaft in honour of the drink being “tall, dark and cool.”
Smith and some Cilantro co-workers migrated down the street to the then newly launched restaurant, The Living Room (which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year), and started selling Shafts to customers. While the drink has never been — and still is not — on the official Living Room menu, the restaurant stakes a reasonable claim as the birthplace of The Shaft.
“The idea behind it was that we were always in a bit of a rush as service staff,” says Living Room owner Patrick Hill. “It was designed to be a one-timer, top to bottom. You give it a stir with the straw and slurp the whole thing back.”
The off-menu nature of the original Shaft gave it a “if you know, you know” status with most Calgarians for the better part of two decades, though it managed to become a phenomenon much earlier in both Victoria (where vodka and often Baileys are added to the official Shaft mix) and Banff/Lake Louise. So why has this underground beverage suddenly become a regular sight in Calgary bars? The answer is simple: easier access through pre-mixed, on-tap Shaft products.
“Now, bartenders change a keg and there’s 250 more Shafts on the line. It revolutionized the drink,” says Matthew Hendriks, operations director of byHendo, which sells kegs to more than 100 bars across Western Canada. This new convenience means Shafts are available everywhere from fancy cocktail lounges to Stampede party tents.
There are variations: Proof, for example, has been known to do a handcrafted bourbon and sherry riff in the past, while Brazen in Banff offers a version with Frangelico and maple cream. Most bars take a reverent “if it ain’t broke” approach, which is what this exceedingly simple and surprisingly practical drink deserves.
Canned Shafts
The Shaft may be an unlikely contender for a canned cocktail, but there are two ready-to-drink Shafts on the market: Park Distillery’s Mountain Joe and byHendo’s Shaft, the latter of which also comes in a non-alc version. Hendriks says the cans have brought the Shaft to a new audience — those who would rather nurse their Shafts around a campfire than slam them standing in front of a bar. “It really opened our eyes to a market that we didn’t realize existed,” he says. “People are really just enjoying it as a hard coffee.”