Pubs
Ensemble Tap
Saturday, January 14th, 2012 | Beer, Pubs | No Comments
I’ll admit it, I am a bona fide Food Network geek. I was quite excited to see local chef Dale Mackay take home the coveted Top Chef Canada award earlier this year, ousting Calgary’s Connie DeSousa and Toronto’s Rob Rossi. Just prior to claiming victory to one of our nation’s top culinary prizes, Dale opened Ensemble, his first restaurant. I was eager to visit Ensemble to see for myself how legitimate the judging of this television competition really is.
At Ensemble, Dale has created a unique dinning experience – semi-traditional French cooking meets modern Westcoast dinning. The menu does not flow from first to final course, instead diners are encouraged to order freely from the menu and construct their own meal. Of course the serving staff are more than happy to make recomndations on what might be an appropriate appetizer or main, but in the end the decision remains in the eater’s hands. The food is tasty, well priced and foodie friendly.
Clearly on a role, Dale opened a more casual beer focused eatery in December, Ensemble Tap (eTap). Boasting an impressive bottle and tap selection, I was eager to visit this new creation. The menu is a mix of burgers, sandwiches and hearty entrées. The food displays a level of refinement that a non-traditional fine dinning chef brings to a modern gastropub, I get a sense this menu reflects the food that the chef likes to eat at home.
Although I was a bit disappointed that they chose to cook their burgers through, the food is delicious. Dale is a gifted chef who can seamlessly incorporate spices and global flavours into food he prepares his way. The popcorn prawns with tempura sea asparagus and Thai spice mayo was the highlight of the menu. All of the food pairs well with the long list of local and international craft beer.
It is is exciting to see that eTap has recently announced a number of beer pairing events and paired menus. eTap is a unique contribution to Vancouver’s growing beer culture.
Cheers,
Erik
The Duke of Cambridge Organic Pub
Monday, August 30th, 2010 | Beer, Pubs | 1 Comment
The Duke of Cambridge is quickly becoming my favorite pub in our new neighbourhood of Angel Islington. It’s a bit off the beaten path, but it came highly recommended by both Yelp and Lonely Planet, so we had to check it out. I’m glad we did because I really enjoy it’s cozy atmosphere and tasty treats. It’s a completely organic pub, as in every ingredient in all the food and every drink they serve is 100% organic. I don’t particularly care about the organicness, but I do appreciate the care and attention that goes into their menu. You can taste the love and it is delicious. I’ve noticed that the majority of London pubs will have five generic European Lagers on tap and then three casks of similar not terribly exciting British ales. The Duke of Cambridge breaks the mold by serving interesting beers on tap, cask, and in bottles, with no generic macro brews to speak of. It’s rare to find stout, porter, and even English lager available in pubs here, and so I especially enjoy the Freedom Dark Lager and both the stout and porter from Pitfields. While I respect the organic stance the pub takes, what I really like is the overall quality of the food and drink. Combined with the quieter, relatively hipster free locale and the comfortable and inviting interior, the Duke is my new favorite.
Pitfields Porter at the Duke of Cambridge
Cheers,
Chris
Guinness Tastes Better in Dublin
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 | Beer, Breweries, Pubs | 11 Comments
Our extended stay across the pond was always going to involve a trip to Dublin and a visit to the Guinness Storehouse. I obviously needed to look into the widely speculated rumor/myth/fact that Guinness tastes better in Ireland. Hopefully you’ve already gathered from the title of this post that I did indeed find this to be the case (if not it’s you, not me). I also find Guinness to taste better in London than in Vancouver, and better in Dublin than in London. Why might this be? I think the answer has to be freshness.
Gate to Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, other tourists taking pictures
Beer is like food and the same principles of freshness apply (although Guinness isn’t a meal in a glass; it has the same calorie content as most other beers and it’s the nitrogen bubbles that make you feel full). The differences in flavor I tasted I would describe in terms of freshness and staleness. The Guinness over here has a deeper roasted malt flavor than the Guinness at home and just tastes fresher, where the latter might have something to do with the oils contributed by the hops not yet breaking down. Guinness in Vancouver tastes like a mere shadow of what I tasted in Dublin.
Brew Kettle in the Guinness Storehouse
When you consider that Guinness is brewed in Dublin and is widely consumed in the British Isles (meaning kegs don’t sit around for long), it makes sense that the majority of the Guinness consumed here is fresh as can be. Whereas Guinness in Vancouver has taken a boat trip across the Atlantic, a train trip across Canada, and then sat in a BC Liquor Cartel warehouse or shelf for a while. Had I any foresight whatsoever, I might have brought a can of Guinness over here to consume along side a fresh pint from the Storehouse in direct comparison. In addition to being fresher, Guinness over here is much better taken care of. Bars carrying Guinness have Guinness representatives coming into clean their keg lines quite frequently. Bars are supposed to clean their lines regularly anyway, but most don’t. Dirty lines can sully a good beer, but no Guinness in Ireland is subjected to such shame.
Barrels in the Guinness Storehouse, they show you the whole industrial beer making process
This past year we were contacted by Guinness’ PR firm in Canada and asked to write about why Guinness was so remarkable for it’s 250th birthday. I wasn’t so sure Guinness was that remarkable, from a beer perspective at least. Now, having visited the Guinness Storehouse, I know why Guinness has thrived for 250 years, marketing and branding. The Storehouse itself is all part of the experience and the most impressive piece of beer tourism I’ve ever seen. You are ushered through five floors of Guinness history, from how it’s made to Guinness adverts of ages gone by. And what happens at the end? A free pint of fresh Guinness in the rooftop bar with panorama city views of Dublin. The Guinness Storehouse is a must see for anyone, not just beer lovers. You will surely feel more affection for Guinness having completed the tour, sheer marketing brilliance.
The bar on top of the Guinness Storehouse, pouring Guinness is an art
There’s more to Dublin that just Guinness though, and we made a point of checking out one of Dublin’s microbreweries. We actually ended up at Porterhouse Brewing Company’s Temple Bar location more than once. This maze like pub spanning several floors was packed out on both Friday and Saturday nights. They had the most amazing Guitar player on Friday night too (he put my Guitar Hero dominance on medium to shame). The beer was phenomenal too, way better than Guinness, we’re talking top quality microbrewery stuff. I particularly enjoyed their Oyster Stout and the Temple Brau lager. This is a great pub and another must visit.
Do you remember when lying was okay in advertising? Oh wait, it's still okay.
We also did a Literary Pub Crawl of Dublin. It was really fun, not for the beer, but for the story telling and literary history. Turns out every famous Irish writer was a massive drunk. But we were only in Dublin for two days and did our fair share of drinking, so who are we to judge?
Cheers,
Chris
Pubs that used to be banks
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 | Pubs | 1 Comment
Having lived in London for a few months now I’m getting pretty used to hearing that this or that pub is hundreds of years old and Charles Dickens just happened to go on a bender with William Wallace here. Okay, that’s a bit of stretch, but I have been to pubs that Dickens frequented when he was writing his horribly depressing books (I’m looking you right in the eye Hard Times). Anyway, we had some friends visit recently who wanted to check out some pubs that used to be banks. Rick Steves tipped them off and it’s true, more than a few old bank buildings have turned into pubs. Turns out ATMs and some crisis that recently happened have negated the need for fancy old buildings in the banking industry, but the depressed bankers that remain still need to drink.
We ended up heading to the Counting House, which was built in 1893 as Prescott’s Bank, but is now a Fuller’s pub. They carry the whole Fuller’s line on tap or in bottles and I was pleased to enjoy a delicious Fuller’s London Porter (or five), which is surprisingly not readily available in London. The building itself was quite ornate for a pub, typical of the over the top opulence on display near the Bank tube station. If you’ve never been to London’s financial district, it is impressive. We’re talking fancy cars, everyone in suits, and people running around making deals that actually affect fluctuations in currency and the price of petrol (British for gas). As such, I really enjoy heading to the area in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops. If you enjoy drinking tasty beer in a pub that is a product of the financial industry’s well deserved misfortune, I recommend checking out a pub that used to be a bank.
Conversation over a pint at the Counting House
Cheers,
Chris
Belmont Station in Portland
Saturday, March 13th, 2010 | Beer, Pubs | 4 Comments
I went to beer mecca Portland last weekend. I’d never been there before and I was pretty impressed. I’d liken the city to one big Commercial Drive, at least the places I saw. What impressed me most about Portland was the constant selection of fantastic beer and food. Everywhere we went we had an abundance of local craft selection sold at extremely low prices, as little as $3 per pint. We went to a lot of cool places in Portland, but my favorite place we visited was Belmont Station.
Belmont Station is an epic beer store stocked with an enormous selection of amazing beers from around the world. The closest comparable we have here is Brewery Creek, but our liquor laws and taxes prevent them from competing as well as they’d like to. I was overwhelmed when I walked in to Belmont Station. I wanted to buy everything, but was obviously limited as to what I could bring back across the border after a two day trip. I picked up some Russian River brews I’d never seen anywhere else before. I also bought Aphrodisiaque, a cocoa vanilla bean stout brewed by Quebec’s Dieu du Ciel. I’d never seen this beer in BC before, which I find upsetting. You’d think we’d be able to procure some of Canada’s finest? Another notable purchase was Chatoe Rogue Dirtoir Black Lager, which is made from Rogues home grown barley and hops. There were others, but these were the notables of consumed and enjoyed so far.
If you can believe it, Belmont Station also has an attached beer bar with 22 taps of top notch beer. We all ordered something different and all received something wonderful. For me, it was my first chance to drink the legendary Pliny the Elder. It stands up to it’s reputation as being one of the greatest beers in the world. Erik and I were actually angry at how amazing and affordable Belmont Station is. Why can’t we have something like that here? Any future trips to Portland will involve a visit or two to Belmont Station. If you love beer, you must go.
Cheers,
Chris
Lonely Planet Vancouver features Alibi Room
Sunday, November 8th, 2009 | Pubs | 2 Comments
Alibi Room owner Nigel Springthorpe
I enjoy traveling and am obsessed with the Lonely Planet series of guide books. If you’ve never traveled with one or you have used lesser guide books, then you likely missed out on a few hidden gems. I am particularly fond of the Lonely Planet Encounter series, which each profile a city sectioned into neighborhoods for easy reading. I was at Chapters today and noticed that Lonely Planet very recently published a Vancouver Encounter, likely to cater to Olympic Visitors. I was, of course, curious and flipped through it to see what travel experts recommend to see, eat, and do in Vancouver. I wasn’t surprised at all to find the Alibi Room recommended, but I was surprised to see how much attention they paid to it. Usually restaurants and bars get a two sentence blurb, but the Alibi Room garnered two pictures and an interview with owner Nigel Springthorpe! This attention is warranted in my mind and is a testament to the hard work Nigel has done in building Vancouver’s best beer bar. It pleases me that visitors to Vancouver, if they take the Lonely Planet’s excellent advice, will get to enjoy an establishment of such fine quality, likely giving them a positive impression of our fine city. Although there is one negative, I imagine a seat at the Alibi Room will be an impossible commodity to come by during the Olympics.
The Alibi Room wasn’t the only beer destination recommended in the Vancouver Encounter. Six Acres, The Irish Heather, Dix Brewery, Yaletown Brewing, and Steamworks were also listed.
Cheers,
Chris
Our own Whistler Beer Festival
Monday, June 29th, 2009 | Beer, Pubs | 2 Comments
We heard about the Whistler Beer Festival about a month ago and decided to go, only to find out it would be canceled, but not before we’d booked ourselves in Whistler for the weekend. Long story short, we went to Whistler last weekend to not go to the Whistler Beer Festival. There are definitely worse things in life to contend with than a weekend in Whistler, so we made the best of it and had our own beer festival.
We ended up staying at an awesome complex called Glacier’s Reach, which we booked through the rental-by-owner site alluraDirect.com for a very affordable price. We had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a hot tub on our deck(!), and we were right across from the village. I’d definitely stay there again. Erik and I brought up a bunch of good beer, mostly purchased from Brewery Creek, the best of which (besides Erik’s homebrew) being Coney Island Lager and Coney Island Human Blockhead, two very flavorful lagers. We stayed in the first night to make our own pizza and enjoy our tasty beers. The next day, our attempt at being active consisted of a walk through the village and around lost lake. Then the rains came, signaling it was time to head to the Brewhouse.
The Whistler Brewhouse was very apologetic and immediately refunded our beer festival tickets, a wise move by them because we swiftly gave our money right back. While the wives went shopping (blah), Erik and I sat at the bar, where we were treated to a few complimentary pints and a locals discount on the rest of our bill. The Brewhouse had two seasonal’s, a smoked porter and a Belgian wit. I found the wit a bit dull and the smoked porter a bit too smokey, but their Wolf Creek Bitter and Grizlly Brown Ale were as delicious as ever. The wives later joined us for dinner after, thankfully not having bought too much stuff. In the end, I think I was there for almost five hours. I had a great time because the bar their is as close to heaven on earth as it gets for me. Beer, chicken wings, sports on HDTV…done.
Man Heaven - the bar at Whistler Brewhouse
Holly and her sampler
We may have continued drinking beer that night. We may have drank too much. We may have wandered the village and purchased hotdogs unnecesarily, who can tell these things? Whatever we got up to, it was all in the past by the next morning because we had more work to do. We drove down to Squamish and to the Howe Sound Brewing Company for lunch. Erik and I both ordered the sampler there, but decided not to double down when we saw the size of the first one. Ten generous samples! A bit much considering I still had to navigate the remainder of the Sea to Die Highway. Sadly, we found the beer a bit underwhelming. My personal favorite was the Father Johns winter ale, which reminded me of gingerbread. We also enjoyed the Blonde Ale, the Mettleman Copper Ale, and the Diamond Head Oatmeal Stout. Also, I had the half roast chicken for lunch and it was delicious.
Erik and the epic Howe Sound Sampler
This was indeed a very good weekend. It would have been better if we’d had some more activities to do, but the rain held us at bay. Next Winter, head to the Whistler Brewpub for a warming apres ski pint. On the way home, skip the Tim Horton’s when you get hungry and head to the pub at Howe Sound for a tasty lunch. You won’t regret either decision.
Cheers,
Chris
First Annual Whistler Brewhouse Beer Festival
Friday, May 29th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Events, Pubs | 2 Comments
The Whistler Brewhouse is an establishment that I love. I’ve been going there for many years, long before I’d even fully discovered my love of beer. Some friends and I stumbled upon it during a ski trip one winter and have been going back ever since. We found the fresh beer and food to be excellent and the atmosphere to be delightfully cozy after a day on the slopes. The Whistler Brewhouse was also where I first enjoyed many lesser known beer styles, including a cherry ale, barley wine, and dunkelweizen that I can recall. When I found out that the Whistler Brewhouse would be hosting a beer festival this year, my interest was piqued.
I heard about the festival via the CAMRA Vancouver email newsletter, but haven’t been able to find very many details online besides the image included in this post and a Facebook event. The festival is said to be happening on Saturday June 27th from 12PM to 6PM and over twenty unknown microbreweries will be on hand. Tickets are $25 ($20 for CAMRA members) and are on sale at the Brewhouse and at Dix in Vancouver. Despite the lack of official details, the mere mention of a beer festival at the Whistler Brewhouse is enough for me. Erirk and I will be heading to Whistler that weekend for the wives for what will surely be an excellent time. To all my friends who expressed interest in previous beer festivals and were less than impressed when I didn’t invite them, please feel encouraged to join us at this one. It is going to be fun.
Cheers,
Chris
Mission Springs Brewing Company
Saturday, April 18th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Pubs | No Comments
My search for the perfect pizza and beer combination continued yesterday evening at the Mission Springs Brewing Company in Mission. Mission Springs is home to a large restaurant and pub complete with an outdoor beach volleyball court, but the purpose of this visit was not to play volleyball, it was to see what they can do with their in-house wood fired pizza oven. Yes, you read correct, Mission Springs brewing company serves fresh local craft beer alongside what could potentially be the perfect pizza. Hallelujah!
Getting strait to the point, the pizza was well below average and quite disappointing. The crust was completely dry and tough – offering none of the tender, crispy and chewy quality’s that a good pizza crust should have. Over topping, a common mistake made by many pizza chefs, made for a soggy, greasy pizza experience. However, not all was bad, as shown below the pizza arrived at our table in an oblong shape – this is a good thing. There is no reason for pizza to be perfectly round – a slightly misshapen pizza pie is a clear sign that caring human hands were involved in the pizza making process. An off-round pizza has far more charm and character than a perfectly round, and lifeless, pizza.
The perfect imperfect pizza shape
Aside from the pizza disappointment, my wife and I had a great evening and were able to enjoy some great local beer. Mission Springs’ current seasonal is a Red Ginger Ale (the ginger is actually very mild in this particular beer). The beer was served far too cold and was at first dominated by a spicy earthiness, after reaching a more appropriate ale temperature, a pleasing fruitiness became noticeable making for an enjoyable experience. My wife ordered not one, but two pints of the Bombshell Blonde Ale over the course of the evening, which she kindly allowed me to steal a taste of. Mission Springs’ Blonde Ale is one of my current favourite light craft beers, and is a great introductory beer to those not yet exposed to the craft beer world.
The real highlight of the evening was the gravity defying Black and Tan. Breaking the laws of physics and all things science this exclusive pub-only beer consisted of a rich Oatmeal Stout floating inexplicably atop a bed of well balanced India Pale Ale. The Black and Tan was equally impressive to the eyes as it was to the taste buds and stomach. A proper black and tan is a beer experience worth celebrating.
Black and Tan
This was not my first visit to the Mission Springs Brewing Company,and nor will it be my last. They may not know how to make the perfect pizza, but the unique country-bar atmosphere and simple yet delicious beer offerings help to make up for their erroneous pizza pie.
Erik
A guys trip to Victoria
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Pubs | 3 Comments
This past weekend I traveled to Victoria with twelve guys for my friend Dave’s Bachelor party. We stayed at the historic Swans Hotel, home of the excellent Swans Buckerfields Brewery. Sadly, we were too busy engaging in debauchery to have a proper taste of the great beers available at Swans. We did make our way home laden with a few excellent bottles though. We did get to both The Canoe Club and Spinnakers Brewpub, one each night for dinner and some warmup beers. It wasn’t looking good for us when we showed up to a packed Canoe on Friday night with thirteen guys. Miraculously, we managed to conjure a thirteen man table in less than twenty minutes. We achieved a similar feat at Spinnakers on Saturday, this time in less than five minutes. We are still very proud of ourselves. I really enjoyed the beer and food at Canoe and Spinnakers, but must say I preferred both at Canoe
Needless to say, our weekend was not focused on beer tasting and I have no meaningful beer related tidbits to share, besides that we had a great time at the brewpubs. Our other activities included great rounds of golf at Cordova Bay and Olympic View, neither of which I had played before. Olympic View was particularly beautiful, not to mention challenging. We were a bit rough around the edges on Saturday and were lucky to have chosen a team format for the day’s round. This applied especially to Dave, who actually tossed his club a solid sixty yards on his first full swing, unintentionally. Not fully understanding the Victoria bar scene, we had less luck with our choices in nightlife venues. We had a decent time, but were unlucky to have been involved in an altercation on the first night. Turns out I can take a beer bottle to the head. Although you won’t believe me, no I did not do anything to deserve it. The second night, when Dave went out in his hot dog suit, was much more interesting. I’ll let you guess at what might have happened.
All and all, Victoria was a decent place for a stag. We’ve got another one coming up in Seattle and we’ll need to drink some beer. I’ll keep you posted.
Cheers,
Chris
Some pictures, back to my crappy iPhone camera again:
Dave cannibalizing, you monster!
Kyle and Peter at Canoe, good times.
Jim, Dave, and Tristen at Canoe, good beer.
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