The Bar Towel

tl;dr summary: Meh.

75 Victoria. Ex Denisons, ex Duggans, ex Brewing Academy.

Open now for lunch and dinner. Extensive renos. Bar, dining area, bottle takeout as well. Brewer ex-Northwinds. Food designed by ex-Grove chef. Was told food is half price for two weeks. Come out you cheapskates.

Beers: cream, irish red, pale, wit, ipa, porter.

16oz pours. Grumble, bitch, bellyache. Flights available.

Ran the table except for wit because reasons. Beers solid though unspectactular. Porter the best. Seasonals better be more interesting.

Food was meh. Devilled smoked eggs with crispy chicken skin. Smoked? Definitely not crispy. Done earlier in the day and refridgerated resulting in chewy not crispy, tsk tsk. Mac & cheese was boring. Fried chicken sandwich was okay. Apparently hot sauce was involved. Fries soaked in vinegar overnight, it's a thing apparently. Fries were tasty at least.

Meh.

I went for lunch the other day and mostly agree. Beer was OK (I had the Irish Red; the APA and Wit were temporarily off), food (steak sandwich, lamb burger) was good, but portions were rather small for the (very much downtown Toronto) prices, the rooms have been very attractively renovated, the staff were very pleasant and helpful. So all in all it was good, but at the same time didn't wow me, somehow. It may be that the in-house beers, so far, are not as interesting as some of the stuff the former Beer Academy was putting out. This may change as they mature.

I've been there recently also. The food was too small and expensive. The beer is good but unfiltered so you may have a headache in the morning.
Bottle prices are ridiculous 7.5 + tax =)

Don't think I will go there again. Also I did wrote review about the "Batch" on https://follow.beer/articles/batch

Follow.Beer wrote:The beer is good but unfiltered so you may have a headache in the morning.

uh.....

matt7215 wrote:

Follow.Beer wrote:The beer is good but unfiltered so you may have a headache in the morning.

uh.....

Ok - I agree... with your emotion... It was my first post here.. My head was not really well after I've tried 3 different kinds of their beer.

But I was happy to play ping pong downstairs and really was enjoying pin-ball

matt7215 wrote:

Follow.Beer wrote:The beer is good but unfiltered so you may have a headache in the morning.

uh.....

I've had people tell me before that they get headaches from unfiltered beer. Usually the same sort who report problems with red wine. I don't know if there's any actual medical basis for it.

Craig wrote:

matt7215 wrote:

Follow.Beer wrote:The beer is good but unfiltered so you may have a headache in the morning.

uh.....

I've had people tell me before that they get headaches from unfiltered beer. Usually the same sort who report problems with red wine. I don't know if there's any actual medical basis for it.

when i was a teenager, Miller Genuine Draft would make me feel disgustingly full after 1 beer. unfiltered!!
few homebrews have ever made me sick, so i think the "unfiltered" thing's not fully accurate. unclean lines? maybe that's more accurate.
yeast will just give you the shits and, on occasion, sneezing fits.
and high finishing gravity beer will definitely make you hung over. all them sugars.

Based on my experience mix of different kinds, high alcohol and PRESERVATIVES (most of imports) is causing headache and so on.

So next time just drink one kind of local fresh beer + a lot of tap water!

Went again recently. IPA is better than the Red or Pale and was enjoyable. Still kinda pricey for a 16 oz pour (agree with OP's grumble).

Craig wrote:I've had people tell me before that they get headaches from unfiltered beer. Usually the same sort who report problems with red wine. I don't know if there's any actual medical basis for it.

People who have problems with red wine are typically having an allergic reaction to histamines. The histamines are present at much higher levels than in white wine. Reaction to unfiltered beer may also be allergic.

Went here last night before a show at Massey Hall. It's close by and they have buck-a-shuck oysters (Wednesday evenings only).

The tap list was limited as they were out of the Milk Stout and Wit. The Mild Ale and IPA were decent, the Pale Ale was not. But the best beer on tap was Creemore Urbock. Oysters were great, the rest of the food was about a 6.5/10.

Interestingly, they carry a bunch of non-Creemore/Batch craft cans, a nice gesture.

beerstodiscover wrote:Went here last night before a show at Massey Hall. It's close by and they have buck-a-shuck oysters (Wednesday evenings only).

The tap list was limited as they were out of the Milk Stout and Wit. The Mild Ale and IPA were decent, the Pale Ale was not. But the best beer on tap was Creemore Urbock. Oysters were great, the rest of the food was about a 6.5/10.

Interestingly, they carry a bunch of non-Creemore/Batch craft cans, a nice gesture.

Heh. I was at the same show last night, and we walked by Batch and my wife said "What's that?". Good to get an updated review.

zane9 wrote:

Craig wrote:I've had people tell me before that they get headaches from unfiltered beer. Usually the same sort who report problems with red wine. I don't know if there's any actual medical basis for it.

People who have problems with red wine are typically having an allergic reaction to histamines. The histamines are present at much higher levels than in white wine. Reaction to unfiltered beer may also be allergic.

Non-matured styles of wine are gross and possibly headachey - Federweisser wine is grape must which is just undergoing the process of fermentation and Beaujolais nouveau is fermented for just a few weeks before being released for sale on the third Thursday of November.

I wonder if these wines are not free of the volatile toxins that are usually released over the wines' maturation. I can't correlate that to beer except when its released too 'green' to really taste good.

Belgian wrote:

zane9 wrote:

Craig wrote:I've had people tell me before that they get headaches from unfiltered beer. Usually the same sort who report problems with red wine. I don't know if there's any actual medical basis for it.

People who have problems with red wine are typically having an allergic reaction to histamines. The histamines are present at much higher levels than in white wine. Reaction to unfiltered beer may also be allergic.

Non-matured styles of wine are gross and possibly headachey - Federweisser wine is grape must which is just undergoing the process of fermentation and Beaujolais nouveau is fermented for just a few weeks before being released for sale on the third Thursday of November.

I wonder if these wines are not free of the volatile toxins that are usually released over the wines' maturation. I can't correlate that to beer except when its released too 'green' to really taste good.

A biologist I knew once proposed the theory to me that many unfermented sugars can increase dehydration. Apparently when the liver gets overwhelmed and these get dumped into the bloodstream the hydroscopic nature of the sugar causes dehydration on local tissues with similar effects as inflammation.

Another factor I have guessed at could be lowering the PH of the blood stream or some sort of acid poisoning. One such example is blamed for gout. Beer and wine have a number of such acids, some of which do get cleaned up in later stages of fermentation and conditioning. Perhaps they are a junk factor in young product.