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Ottawa and area help

Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 9:26 am
by JeffPorter
Been a long while since I've been to Ottawa and we're heading there for Canada day - Some recos on pubs would be appreciated - also, where should I go on the Quebec side to bring home some good bottles?

Thanks

Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 10:02 am
by JeffPorter
Sorry - just found this for the bottles

http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic ... 64&start=0

Any pub restaurant recommendations for would still be helpful, though - preferably on the "family friendly" side.

Also - anything interesting at the SAQ right now, or should I just stick with Brou Ha Ha

Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 10:13 am
by cfrancis
Downtown is starting to get more interesting.

This place just opened.

http://www.brothersbeerbistro.ca/

There is Vineyards under the Fish Market which has a pretty good bottle list.

http://www.vineyards.ca/

Others would be The Black Tomato, Chez Lucien in the downtown/market area.

Pub Italia if you want to travel a bit has a good tap and bottle list including Westy

http://www.pubitalia.ca/

There is also the Mill Street Pub at the west end of downtown but you can get that in TO.

Might I suggest a trip to Brassuers du Temps in Gatineau

www.brasseursdutemps.com

Food is above average, beers are probably the best in town.

The other good place is deep in the Glebe (not terribly close to downtown) Arrow and Loon.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 10:14 am
by Zuma
Rochefort 8 and 12 are available at the SAQ.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 11:58 am
by Ceecee
I second Pub Italia and BDT.

If you feel like a bit of a drive, L'Autre Oeil is great. Haven't been there in ages but what a beer list!

http://www.lautreoeil.com

The SAQ has a fair bit of Belgian stuff...
Houblon Chouffe
McChouffe
Chimay Bleue (330mL/750mL)
Duchesse de Bourgogne
Karmeliet Tripel
Delirium Tremens
Orval
They just added Dubuisson Scaldis and Scotch Silly.
The SAQ website updates their inventory frequently so it's a good tool to see what's where.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 11:59 am
by jayB
If you can get out to Aylmer, L'Autre Oeil (http://www.lautreoeil.com/) has by far the best selection in the area. Lots from Quebec and Belgium (including a pretty good stock of Cantillon usually). Highly, highly recommended. (Food selection is a little light, but I enjoy what they have.)

Aside from that, cfrancis and your other linked thread covered the highlights. And as for the SAQ, as Zuma says, Rochefort is there (8 and 10), but I was also pleased to find Schneider Edel-Weisse there. It's been a staple of a couple of LCBO releases the last few years, and one of my faves. (Hopfen-Weisse is also around, but it's at the LCBO too of course)

Have fun.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 12:20 pm
by rejtable
Just chiming in to echo the comments so far. My only real addition would be that I just never seem to have any luck with food at Pub Italia, and I've been probably a dozen times. I was downright insulted by the mussels there, for example.

The tap list is decent, and the place is neat inside, but I can't forgive the number of very underwhelming, and the few flat out terrible, meals I've had there. If a group is going, I won't squawk about it, but if I had my choice I'd rather go somewhere else.

One omission above was the Arrow & Loon, and while I'll be the first to complain about the staff there, they do have a decent tap list and the food is solid for pub food.

Clocktower is also local brewpub with generally "meh" beer, but pretty decent food.

On Elgin, the Manx is a great place to enjoy a pint. Tap list is only ok, but really neat place with good atmosphere.

If I had to pick one beer+food place in this area, with a kid in tow, it would be Brasseurs du temps without even a second to think about it. Best combo of food+atmosphere+beer+price in this area for sure. Also, since all the Ottawa-side places will carry a lot of taps you would already know, Brasseurs gives you something you can't get anywhere else that you would normally frequent. One small point about kids there, they have certain seating areas they won't allow kids on past 8pm (patio, for example, has to be kid-less after 8pm).

For flat out beer, L'autre-oeuil, but it's pretty tiny so not sure how kid friendly it would be.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 12:21 pm
by iguenard
Zuma wrote:Rochefort 8 and 12 are available at the SAQ.
12?

Scotch Silly and Scaldis Amber are now regulars at the SAQ.

Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 12:25 pm
by Zuma
iguenard wrote:
Zuma wrote:Rochefort 8 and 12 are available at the SAQ.
12?

Scotch Silly and Scaldis Amber are now regulars at the SAQ.
Whoops. I had the St. Bernardus 12 in there as well, but there is not stock anywhere.

So yes, Rochefort 8 and 10, in case anyone was puzzled.

Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 3:23 pm
by Brews Phillips
Assuming you are brining a car, you could combine a tour of the Deifenbunker with lunch at the Cheshire Cat.

The Deifenbunker is, IMHO, one of the cooler tours in town.

http://www.diefenbunker.ca/

Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 4:27 pm
by cfrancis
I'll second the Bunker. Pretty cool. I went a long time ago, before they turned it into a museum and they were planning on closing it permanently and just opened it for a short period of time. The response was such that they decided to turn it into a full museum.

Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 7:51 pm
by Brews Phillips
We should rent the war room for a tasting!

BTW, I'd recommend reservations for the tour. I've seen people get turned away.
cfrancis wrote:I'll second the Bunker. Pretty cool. I went a long time ago, before they turned it into a museum and they were planning on closing it permanently and just opened it for a short period of time. The response was such that they decided to turn it into a full museum.

Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 8:05 pm
by iguenard
If you want a nice museum, Zuma's wardrobe is a nice flashback to the 80's casual business wear. :)

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:42 pm
by cratez
Given the city's size and the fact that your beer scene is exploding, it'd be nice if someone could write a local guide for the Ottawa area similar to what you see on BA. List everything under categories (bar, brewpub, homebrew), sort the listings by BA/RB rankings, include the Gatineau and metro spots, and let people debate about whether the ratings are accurate.

I plan to visit Ottawa in the fall and a guide of this sort would be very helpful. The ranking by combined BA/RB score - now that they both use numeric ratings - provides an objective meta-score to go by, which is great because the discussion here indicates that there's far from unanimous agreement on which bar has the best tap lineup, bottle selection, etc. Despite all the good recos, I still don't know which bars constitute the Top 3 beer spots in Ottawa/Gatineau.

Now, I'll venture that a guide has yet to surface because up until this year many people probably thought the city was a beer wasteland (and perhaps some still think that), but in the Ontario context I think such a tool merely satisfies the notion that you should be able to grab a solid pint in the province's largest centres and know WHERE you're most likely to get one. I wrote a list for London not because it's a micro mecca (it absolutely isn't), but because there's several bars where decent craft beer can be had and anyone visiting the city should be able to know where to find it. Same should apply for the Ottawa area.

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:28 pm
by iguenard
BDT, Autre Oeil, and Pub Italia

/thread

;)... if you come over, PM me and I'll bring you to the hotspots myself.