The Bar Towel

Garthicus wrote:It's a great place. Badly needed in the neighborhood. Solid line up, cask too, great menu. I'd like to see it open earlier than 5pm as I'd most likely go a lot for lunch but that's a minor quibble.

Welcome to the hood !!

It's a great place - only stayed for a quickie glass of bourbon aged GLB porter, but the menu seemed great and really nice looking space...

Also reasonable are the prices - serving sizes range from 12-20oz and are priced accordingly, but I paid 6.25 for my 16oz of porter - bottle prices look good too...

...now not as good as the 20oz of GLB porter for 5.75 (below retail cost!) that I had at the Rhino, but it's a much, um, different place than the Rhino...

I would like to report that the fries are delicious. Go eat them.

Stopped in at Barhop yesterday. Had a great chat with Rob, who is happy with how things are going after just 3 weeks.

Enjoyed the Black Oak "Simianus", which reveals its flavour and complexity as it approaches room temp.

Barhop is a welcome addition to the neighbourhood and I hope people who live or work in the area will become patrons.

I was in yesterday too...still haven't had anything to eat. Maybe I'll wait until I have the family with me for that.


Edit: Went on Friday and had some apps - The fries are pretty delicious, as were the chicken strips - breaded with panko, lots of black pepper in the coating and that a sweet thin rum dipping sauce which was nice.

The best thing I ate, though, were the (hop poppers?) panko breaded meatballs (sounds weird but it worked) with marinara/parm sauce. Awesome.

I'm told the speghettini and the mac and cheese are also good, but it seemed a little hot for that.

For beers - Bl. Oak - Monkey Beer, the last little swallow of the GLB porter, and they had just tapped a 20l Ginja Ninja which they had already sold approx half of in under two hours. Great saison, that!

anyone been there for their $1 oyster Tuesdays?

atomeyes wrote:anyone been there for their $1 oyster Tuesdays?

No, but I will now!

I was in the area yesterday about 4:20, and thought I would try them out. Their door was locked. The guy behind the bar looked at me blankly through the window and then continued talking to others stading at the bar, totally ignoring a potential customer. Their website says they open at 4 p.m. Not a good way to do business, especially for a bar that has only opened recently. I won't be back.

MattB wrote:I was in the area yesterday about 4:20, and thought I would try them out. Their door was locked. The guy behind the bar looked at me blankly through the window and then continued talking to others stading at the bar, totally ignoring a potential customer. Their website says they open at 4 p.m. Not a good way to do business, especially for a bar that has only opened recently. I won't be back.

In fairness, they've been hiring new staff - I was also there last night, and there were people there for whom, I'm pretty sure, last night was their first...he may not have had instructions to open the door or something...

I think once you get in, you'll find the service much more pleasant.

JeffPorter wrote:

MattB wrote:I was in the area yesterday about 4:20, and thought I would try them out. Their door was locked. The guy behind the bar looked at me blankly through the window and then continued talking to others stading at the bar, totally ignoring a potential customer. Their website says they open at 4 p.m. Not a good way to do business, especially for a bar that has only opened recently. I won't be back.

In fairness, they've been hiring new staff - I was also there last night, and there were people there for whom, I'm pretty sure, last night was their first...he may not have had instructions to open the door or something...

I think once you get in, you'll find the service much more pleasant.

i was there last night. we got there at 7:30.

The positives:

-bar's pretty nice looking. the front's more attractive than the back, but its all good
-24 or so beer on tap. hey, its Ontario, so we're going to see the usual suspects and few surprises. but its nice to see La Trappe on tap somewhere. not a lot of crazy Ontario one-offs, which is a shame.
-bottle list is pretty decent as well
-$1 oyster nights. the oysters were small, but very tasty (very neutral - not overly briny or salty). we went kind of insane and ordered close to 30 for 3 of us.
-the have Colville Bay oysters as well - one of my favourite for size, value and flavour

The negatives:

-things were kind of disorganized. took 15+ minutes to get our oysters. staff was seen literally running to the kitchen. that's something that, as a patron, i never ever want to see
-food's a bit pricey. $15 for a grilled cheese sandwich. i kid not.
-staff means well. they're all nice. but yeah, product knowledge isn't quite there yet.

Barhop's not going to be a destination of choice for us. but for $1 oyster night, hell, i'd hit it again. but i can't see there being a reason for an east ender like me to choose it over some of my other favourite Toronto bars

atomeyes wrote:-$1 oyster nights. the oysters were small, but very tasty (very neutral - not overly briny or salty). we went kind of insane and ordered close to 30 for 3 of us.

You consider 10 or so oysters per person to be "insane"?

Pshaw. Lightweight.

Come out with the wife and I to a buck-a-shuck night sometime, and we'll show you how a couple of east coasters do it up...

GregClow wrote:

atomeyes wrote:-$1 oyster nights. the oysters were small, but very tasty (very neutral - not overly briny or salty). we went kind of insane and ordered close to 30 for 3 of us.

You consider 10 or so oysters per person to be "insane"?

Pshaw. Lightweight.

Come out with the wife and I to a buck-a-shuck night sometime, and we'll show you how a couple of east coasters do it up...

considering that i am a piscophobe and only started eating oysters 18 months ago, having a dozen oysters for dinner is pretty nuts for me

AND i was going to order mussels on top of that (wife won't eat them due to their uncanny resemblance to a certain female body part. don't ask).

15 mins at a bar/restaurant for 30 freshly shucked oysters doesn't seem like a long time...

Garthicus wrote:15 mins at a bar/restaurant for 30 freshly shucked oysters doesn't seem like a long time...

no...but 15-20 minutes for the 6 that my friend ordered, or our forgotten fries order. or giving us 12 oysters instead of the 8 we initially ordered (but comping us for their error)..those are mistakes.

we didn't order all 30 at once. that would be kind of disgusting.

their service needs some serious polishing. i don't think it was insanely busy. there were 2 servers and/or a bartender/server for approx 20 tables. things were chaotic. lots of running, lots of delays. lots of people asking how things were/if we were okay for drinks/food when orders were placed.

Going here for the first time after work today. Looking forward to it. If anyone is around stop by and say hi!

I was there last night too! Liked just about everything about the place.

Careful with those lager and jerk mussels, though. That's one spicy mollusk.