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Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 21, 2005 13:37:39 GMT -5
Still waiting for the Church summary of the beers of Ottawa and the best pub we have found......
still waiting ....
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Church
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Post by Church on Jul 21, 2005 17:31:36 GMT -5
Still waiting for the Church summary of the beers of Ottawa and the best pub we have found...... still waiting .... Soon. Me + midnights = mushy brain.
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Church
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Post by Church on Jul 21, 2005 17:33:25 GMT -5
Btw, when I first saw the title of this thread I thought it would be a post about waiting for service at the Lieutenant's Pump
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 22, 2005 8:24:28 GMT -5
It could have been but I don't think that is a pain we need to share with others.
Summary - Lieutenants Pump, aka Lieutenants Rump waited like 45 mins to be asked what we want, another 15 for that, 5 mins asked if we like it and a suggestion made, hour and a half later find watress again and order, wait about 15 mins, never see watress again. Have to ask other waitstaff to find her. Get bill can't find anyone to pay, decide to use Visa so it would be quicker, wait another half hour... not a fun night.
Beer was alright though Griffon Extra Pale which tasted very similar to McAuslan's other Pale ale and that Brown ale. They weren't bad, better then most macrobrews.
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Church
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Post by Church on Jul 29, 2005 18:23:28 GMT -5
Ok, to bring some closure to this thread, well after the fact... Ottawa was a fun place to visit. Nice old buildings, interesting monuments and museums, and an ok beer scene. Just ok you say...? Well, Ottawa has more than it's share of bars and irish/british/scottish themed pubs. Some do it better than others. the ones that do it well are Pub Italia. If you're even minorly interested in drinking good beer, go here. Their regular beer menu is extensive. It's called the Beer Bible. It's served in proper glassware, which beergeeks love. Awesome atmosphere. Interior is a mix of mideval meets european pub, complete with bar signage. It's actually 4 distinct entities. Firstly there's a large covered patio, which comes in handy for those who enjoy the occasional tabacco stick with their beer (Ottawa is smoke free except for patios). It gets a bit crowded but it was nice to drink world famous and rare beers under the stars, even though it was humid as hell and pushing the upper 30s at night! Secondy is the dining room, has a few hidden nooks and crannies and booths. Third is a bar section connected to the dining room, that I must admit, didn't pay too much attention to. Fourth is the real treat, an attached bar called the Abbey. this section sports their own beer listing on a wall chalk board, quantities are limited, and some beers are rare, especially to Canada. (some beers were Rogue Brutal Bitter, Cantillon Gueuze, Cantillon Rose De Gambrinus, several la Choulette and Maredsous ales, St Bernadous Abt 12 and more that I would have tried if we had more time and I had more sobriety)
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Church
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Post by Church on Jul 29, 2005 18:39:06 GMT -5
If you can't make it to Pub Italia, I'd half-heartedly reccomend Vinyards. Here's why - we'd been to Pub Italia the night before. really, after going there, you're going to be disappointed with all the other beer joints in the city. Vinyards did have a good selection, and had some stuff Pub Italia didn't have. Their prices were 2-3 dollars higher on most stuff, and the food wasn't that hot and was way too expensive for what we got. Props to the server though, he did check their cellar to fetch me the last bottle of Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre. ;D
Ottawa has a brewpub named Clocktower. Unfortuantely it didn't live up to my expectations. They only had 3 of their own beers available, and lots of guest taps. Why a brewpub would sell other brewer's beers is beyond me... but Gilvan said it happened in Montreal as well. Out of the 4 brewpubs I've been to it's the only one who did this. Service was average. Took forever to get a patio seat. The beer was decent however, so if you want a decent pint of British styled ale, check it out. Food was really good and came quickly, always a plus.
Another place we went to was a pub called the Manx, that was supposed to be amazing. Had a decent selection of Ontario micros, but of course, the one beer I wanted was out. Did have 2 pints of St Ambroise Pale Ale, which makes it worthy of a stop alone. Food was a bit 'artsy", vegetarian slant to it. lots of student/alternative types. Very loud music (I don't mind Dub music, but when sitting in a tiny basement pub UNDER the speaker, it gets on the nerves after a bit.)
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Church
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Post by Church on Jul 29, 2005 18:54:39 GMT -5
Beer shooping in Ottawa is pretty cool, mainly for the single fact that you're close to Gatineau Quebec. Looked up 3 recommended beer retailers online, one was a variety store which sold beer, our first stop - Depanne Plus. At first I almost missed their beer section altogether! Walking to the back of the store you see a large cooler, looking in you see aprox. 4 shelves of beer. Not good thought I, until I was reading a label and noticed shelves of beer with signs behind the cooler. Eventually we figured out that was the beer store and found a good selection fo Quebec stuff (St Ambroise, Unibroue, RJ, Bieres De Nouvelle France and a few Belgian imports) cool store!
From there, our next beer shop came in the form of a cheese shop. It's no secret that beer and cheese pair exceptionaly well. If you haven't tried it yet, do so. Ask me for recommendations. Anyways this was a small store, featuring any cheese you could imagine, sauces, beer mustards, and other gourmet stuff. The beer section was great. They had 6 packs from Bieropholie, Trois Mousketieres, Unibroue 750s, a few odds and ends singles and a few great glasses. Also cider!
The thrid beer stop was the SAQ, Quebec's answer to the LCBO. Tiny beer section. Almost not worht the stoip, but I did get 3 singles I'd not rated, and an awesome La Trappe (Konigshoeven) gift set featuring 1 bottle of each of the following - Blond, Dubbel, Tripple, Quadruple. And a nice trappist chalice!
So those were some hgihlights... a lowlight was when we went to the Lieutenant's Pump, which looked like a nice British styled pub. Had a huge multi layered patio. It actually turned out to be a maze of 3 basement bars joined together. Tap selection wasn't great but we all found something to drink... now... if we could only find our server... hmm my pint was done 30mins ago, I'd really like another... can we get served please...? No..? No. Service was terrible. Might have averaged a pint an hour. Avoid this place.
So in conclusion, Ottawa's beer scene is ok, you just have to know where to look. Skip the places with the Rickard's umbrellas, the Lieutenant's Rump, pseudo Irish pubs, and you should be fine. Had a great time in a great city with great freinds and great beer...
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 1, 2005 9:34:28 GMT -5
Doubt I will be as verbose as Church by maybe (once I get typing its hard to stop). First of all Church great summary. I will be using his posts as an outline. First note though - the trip was less of a success due to the weather. We actually hit the hottest day on record for Ontario at least (if not a larger area) it was 45o (celcius!). That put a huge damper on the trip. Days we planned to walk downtowns turned into run into a couple shops, nearly pass out and get back to the Car for AC. It pretty much sucked and wasted a day. Combine that with stores just not being there (they were on the net and in the phonebook but you drive for 45mins in that weather to find nothing and it pisses you off) and rain and certain parts of the trip were not what they should have been. Toss in the biggest bluesfest in Canada and street closures due to it and there was more then enough frustration to go around. Okay onto the good stuff then .....
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 1, 2005 9:38:01 GMT -5
Pub Itallia - this is seriously enough reason to go to Ottawa on it's own. Church summed it up well, I would just like to add that this is the best place I have ever been to drink a beer. Been to some great places in Montreal and Toronto but this still wins out. Also not noted in Church's description was Service - good and fairly knowledgable staff. Not perfect knowledge but a good general knowledge (when you have over 200 beers and some that come in randomly it would be hard to know about all of them). Very quick on the serve and always there when needed (great contrast to 'the rump). Last note - they close at 1AM - wish we had known that. Ordering a 12% Amber and having Church and Pandora Bring me a 12% Tripple (or was it quadruple) 15 minutes before close was not fun.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 1, 2005 9:47:13 GMT -5
The other places:
The Manx - not impressed. A glorified Phog or Eclectic cafe. Beer was good but most was avaliable everywhere in Ottawa (like getting Walkerville here). Music was grating, patrons seemed snobish, menu was disgusting... not a happy place.
Vinyards - actually really liked this place. Nice quiet dark set up, amazing selection, cool concept (actually a wine tasting bar; you go up to the bar to order everything and a proper bartender serves appropriately). The one big issue as Church mentioned was price. This was the 'high end' place the rich people place, however you want to put it. Have to admit we went in with jeans and Tshirts and had no issue which was nice.
Clocktower - it was a restaruant that happened to make beer. Beer was good, food was good, but I wouldn't go there to drink, but to eat and have a pint. If you want that kind of atmosphere I would recommend Lion Brewery in Waterloo over this.
Beer shopping: the Depannier impressed me greatly. Selection like that in a convenience store was amazing. Only wish they had more indidual bottles. I wanted new things to try not 6 of a new thing to try.
The Cheeze Trap was awesome. Good selection of beer that was damn good, but moreso had some of the best cheeze I have ever eaten in my life. Still to this day wondering why we didn't head back when we had finished all the cheese curds before getting to our next destination.
SAQ - skip it. There have to be better places to go and two are mentioned above. LCBO logistics senter in Ottawa was better.
Overall - go to ottawa, just not when its that damn hot. Call places you want to shop at before trying to find them. Do not miss pub itallia, but you may want to do it last as it will spoil every other place you go.
Other notes: See the Canadian Museum of History - it was awesome, hit the Byward Market (when not raining hopefully), Stop by a Suggar Mountain, and hit Fandom II if you are a gamer (great gaming store with more stock in once place and support for every game ever that I have ever seen).
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Church
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Post by Church on Aug 1, 2005 10:26:54 GMT -5
. Beer shopping: the Depannier impressed me greatly. Selection like that in a convenience store was amazing. Only wish they had more indidual bottles. I wanted new things to try not 6 of a new thing to try. The (un)availablity of singles was kind of a bummer, I saw tons of stuff I wanted, but 99% of it was in the 6 pack format. there simply wasn't enough room in the car to grab everything Some US bottleshops have the right idea, mix and match any 6 (12oz) bottles you want. The Beer Store should re-adopt this poilcy. They used to have the Mix-Six thing quite a few years back, though I never took advantage of it. I was usually buying a 12 pack to share with someone else. It'd make me immensly happy. There's probably 50 or so brands I haven't had that I would like to try, but probably won't because buying 12 potentially bad beers isn't a good thing (eg: Labatt Genuine Honey )
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 1, 2005 14:18:53 GMT -5
Agreed. Mix and match would be very nice. Also great for rating all those beers you know are bad but you really should rate anyway... aka Labbat Genuine Honey
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Church
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Post by Church on Aug 1, 2005 19:39:10 GMT -5
Agreed. Mix and match would be very nice. Also great for rating all those beers you know are bad but you really should rate anyway... aka Labbat Genuine Honey Exactly, I might know something is bad, but that's not going to stop me from rating it. The way I look at it is this... you have to try everything. How do you know what's really good if you haven't had what's really bad? Also I'm a bit of a completeist. Loving being able to say I've tried every product from a brewery.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 2, 2005 7:34:50 GMT -5
New marketing scheme:
Do it like bubble gum cards - toss a checklist in every case.
I would actually like that for some of the Micro's.
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Church
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Post by Church on Aug 2, 2005 14:43:38 GMT -5
New marketing scheme: Do it like bubble gum cards - toss a checklist in every case. I would actually like that for some of the Micro's. Just look them up on www.ratebeer.com
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 3, 2005 6:31:55 GMT -5
That's not the same. I want an honest to god checklist, with little boxes you check off.
Could make it part of a promotion, have the card have spots for UPC codes or stickers or something, fill the card and get a rare seasonal or free Xpack.
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Post by PandoraGreen on Aug 5, 2005 11:43:42 GMT -5
Ha! See, GB is just a die-hard collector at heart.
I'm thinking mail-away-offer-only rare beer, and I'm visualizing a bottle with a picture of The Fridge (mail-away GI Joe figure) on it.
;D
Small correction to GB's rant on Ottawa, it was 42 degrees out, not 45, which was too darn bloody hot as it was. Recording breaking highs and all that.
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Church
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Post by Church on Aug 5, 2005 15:33:07 GMT -5
Did you happen to see the Frdige picture of you guys?
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 6, 2005 8:15:14 GMT -5
Yes, yes I did.
I never did get the Fridge when I was a kid... go the hodded Cobra Commander and the Wave Board, and the belt/buckle and dog tags but never the Fridge. Oh wait that's pretty much when G.I. Joe jumped the shark wasn't it.
Vague memory, they made a Rocky figured didn't they, I think I had it... hmmm.
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