The Bar Towel

Had another enjoyable evening at Volo last night. Apparently Wednesdays are not typically busy there: the atmosphere was relaxed and the service was great. The Raffaele bread and the pork pie special of the day were fine, but nothing special. Tried a few items off the chalkboard and was not disappoi...

This is an idea that I've toyed with as an experiment, and someone else possibly on this forum brought up the idea that what you really need in order to be able to pull this off is a centralized depot for the Ontario Craft Brewers. Think about the logistical planning involved in opening one OCB ret...

A post on the private stores in Nova Scotia by Bobbyok, http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic.php?p=69105#69105, reminded me of an idea I had months ago. Now bear with me guys, you're the experts and I'm the newbie. You know the ins and outs of the business. But I'm puzzled why the Ontario Craft B...

...Micro brewers would be foolish to dismiss the sites as the mindless prattle or geeky beer knobs with no training. Like the results or not this is what marketers call a market wedge, or a key demographic (in T.V. parlance). These guys (and they are mostly guys) are a really great bellweather for ...

This story confirms my intuition about the healthy state of the microbrewery/local beer business. I know that one has to be careful about jumping to conclusions based on a sample size of one (Picaroons), but I'll go for it! The stars are aligning for this niche portion of the food and beverage indus...

on purpose: Grand River Church Key Better Bitters by accident: Trafagar Heritage Thanks Matt! I looked at Grand River's site, but it's kind of stale. I'm in Kitchener frequently, so I'll drop by the brewery. I assume Better Bitters is the company with the Nickel Brook brand? They are close to me, i...

I tuned into CBC Radio Toronto's drive-home show yesterday, and Mirella Amato was midway into her "beer column". She was discussing new trends for microbrewed products, including sour beer. She did point out that sour beer production is not new in Quebec or BC, but just starting in Ontario...

Actually, the nanobrewing is good for everyone, especially with like... 200 graduates coming out of Niagara college in the next ten years... This is terrific. The bar continues to be raised. My young son is an apprentice chef, who splits his time between George Brown chef school and an excellent re...

You can request that any available product be delivered to your store for you to purchase. The store may not list the product or put it on the slelf, but they will certainly bring in a case or two for you to buy. Thanks! I'll be having a chat with my local store. A small anecdote: the largest store...

...just listed, the product is in the warehouse Life is short, and the beer learning curve is a little long,...so guys please indulge me: Do LCBO stores have some freedom to order in product, in response to customer requests? One of the stores in my area seems to have a decent selection: I am makin...

Is this product actually available? I did the product search, without finding a single store with it.

Really enjoyed my first time at the GLB event! My faves were the two casks from Great Lakes. It was fun to meet people and share impressions of what was on offer.

For what it's worth, the CSA did recently vote to change their structure as DeVos discusses here , but it will take a long time to see if this makes any impact... You're quite correct. There are some changes at the governance level. I fear that is only re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. C...

... With the WC happening right now it seems like such a ridiculous long shot for Canada to make it into the Cup in the future. -) Having been a youth soccer team manager for a few years, I got a small glimpse into the organization and infrastructure of soccer in Canada. Trust me, the chances of us...

...The Greece - Nigeria game is a gem. I found the 1st round a bit of a dud, but this world cup has started to come alive! Darn! I can't watch it! Looks like things are finally starting to gel at the WC. Argentina showed who's boss this morning, vs. Korea. I know we'll see other matches going forwa...