Did Someone Say a Severed Toe Shot?
I love Dawson city. Its old charm will take you back to the bustling times of the Gold Rush during the late 1800s. It was once a big booming town in 1898 during the famous Klondike Gold Rush and now remains a time capsuled tiny town of 2,000 people.
You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe!
We spotted some people we met when we were in Kluane National Park and decided to do the infamous sourtoe shot located at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City with them. The Downtown Hotel is on a corner and easy to find. So what is the sourtoe shot you ask? Well, it’s the strangest shot you’ll ever try! It’s a man’s severed toe preserved in a salty solution. You put the toe in a shot glass mixed with your drink of choice. Yes that’s right a mans TOE and a shot of alcohol. People recommend choosing whiskey as the drink of choice. I don’t know why, it enhances the flavour or something?!?! Once you do the shot you are then honoured into the Sourtoe Cocktail Club and awarded a certificate. It costed us $5 to join the Sourtoe Cocktail Club and the cost of the drink of choice. You can even get a hefty $2,500 fine if you bite or eat the toe. Ewww who would want too anyways?! People in the past have eaten the toe by accident and on purpose!
Fun fact: Sourdough is a nickname for a true Yukoner and dates back to the Klondike Gold Rush. Sourtoe seems to be a play on words of this.
We went on a Monday in late July and the bar was pretty busy with people lined up inside to do the sourtoe shot. It starts at 9pm, so I suggest going a bit early before it starts. Before taking the shot, I kept thinking this is borderline Cannibalism. Almost, but not quite. They record how many people do the shot and when we did it, it stood at 82,167 people!
So how was the actual shot?….. It was salty.
When in Rome, take a shot with a severed toe.Alyssa
Would you do the shot? Let us know below!
