CALGARY: Happy St. Patrick's Day

Some of you may be heading out for a raucous pub and green beer today/this weekend, but for those of us who seek quieter climes (yeah, I’m old), try my favourite place to relax with a few drinks, Milk Tiger Lounge.

I blogged about Milk Tiger when it first opened. They make drinks here the old-fashioned way: strong.

This is not a place for $1 shooters or dried-out nachos. Milk Tiger is where you sip on an Old-Fashioned or savour a Gimlet.

My lady friends and I favour the champagne cocktails ($9.29), like the French 75 (champagne, gin, lemon juice) or the Fellini (champagne, triple sec, limoncello, orange juice). With 4 oz. of champagne and 1 oz. of spirits, they will have you feeling like a young Elizabeth Taylor in no time. (Let’s hope more Cat on a Hot Tin Roof than Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? )

The bartenders and drinks are still fabulous as before, but they’ve tweaked their food menu a bit, adding a few bigger items.

The Caprese salad has gone full-sized ($8) with a balsamic reduction, served with a side baguette. And there are now two baguette sandwiches ($10): genoa salami with cucumber, tomato, balsamic reduction, and a ridiculously addictive garlic chili lime aioli; and a brie and apple sammich with grape honey mustard.

Milk Tiger’s tiny kitchen still serves petites bouchées, or little bites (4 for $7, 6 for $11, 10 for $18). The spaghetti and meatball on a stick is still there, thank goodness. But some new bites are worth munching on: flank steak wrapped in bacon; honey garlic sausage on crostini with smoked cheddar, apple, orange; beet salad with maple walnuts, goat cheese and balsalmic on a rice cracker.

These are, of course, all for munching on between drinks but if you’re still hungry, you must sink your teeth into their fresh, hot waffles ($18) with vanilla ice cream and maple syrup.

Milk Tiger Lounge, 1410-4th St. SW, Calgary, (403) 261-5009. Open 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Closed Mondays. Food menu until 11 p.m.