Stylish Appetizers With Drinks to Match

Smashed Potato Bites with Braised Bacon & Appenzeller

Topping alternatives for these crispy spuds are seemingly endless. Try hardboiled egg, minced shallot and caviar, or seared steak, enoki and grainy mustard. For brunch, smoked salmon, crème fraîche and everything spice is a terrific option.

Shrimp Toast Rolls with Sweet Chili Sauce

Try a mash-up of shrimp toast and sausage rolls that are spiced up with red curry paste. A dip in homemade sweet chili sauce adds an explosion of flavour.

Versatile Vino

With such a variety of delicious appetizers to choose from, the accompanying wines need to be exceptionally versatile. They should also be crowd-pleasers! Our apps favour white wines—consider a bright, grassy Sauvignon Blanc, a clean unoaked Chardonnay and a Pinot Gris with real character. If you go rosé, find one with plenty of flavour. A lightweight, low-tannin red—a Gamay, perhaps—will also work well with just about everything.

Leyda Reserva Sauvignon Blanc

Inniskillin Unoaked Chardonnay VQA

Huff Estates Just Because Pinot Gris VQA

Trius Rosé VQA

Angels Gate Gamay Noir VQA

Crispy Quinoa Crab Cakes with Old Bay Mayo

While unconventional in crab cakes, quinoa yields an unbelievably crispy crust. Serve this reimagined classic appetizer with Old Bay mayo on the side or dollop it on top and garnish with sprouts for an elegant bite.

Winter Salad Spears

Endive leaves provide the perfect vessel for serving up these salad bites. Try yellow cherry tomatoes and peppers, frisée and basil, or chopped kale, green grapes and pine nuts. You could also go with a classic like Greek or Caesar. Toss the salads right before assembling to ensure bright colours and crunchy textures.

The Brew Crew

Look for food-friendly beers and ciders that are also interesting enough to impress—a drier style of cider, and a wheat beer with its own fruity-spicy personality. A classic sour ale will please more avant-garde tastes and a non-alcohol option is a must.

Ardiel Apple Dry Cider

Side Launch Wheat Beer

Collective Arts Non-Alcoholic Hazy Pale Ale

Rodenbach Classic

Fried Mortadella Sliders with Provolone & Arugula

Anthony Bourdain popularized this sandwich specialty of São Paulo, Brazil. We’ve shrunk them down into slider form and added the spicy bite of arugula.

Cheesy Thumbprints with Tomato Chutney

These savoury thumbprint cookies work brilliantly with a variety of alternate fillings, from pesto and a basil leaf, to melted cheddar and cracked pepper, to onion jam and chives.

Rice Paper Dumpling Twists with Sesame-Soy Dip

Using rice paper discs to wrap dumplings allows you to form twists. Steamed and pan-fried like potstickers, these bites are a yin-yang of crisp and chewy textures.

Teeny 'Tinis

Serving mini cocktails (1 or 2 oz) lets guests try several different drinks without overindulging; also, they’re so darned cute. Choose drier rather than sweeter cocktails (like the ones shown here and listed below) to complement your appetizers, with recipes that work well as chillable, pre-made batches.

The Sidecar

The Spiced Daiquiri

Aviation Cocktail