The Bar Towel

Hamilton Brian, your wife may really like the Distillery District.

It is a worthwhile little detour, and on a fine day you can easily walk there from the St. Lawrence Market going directly East along the Esplanade (and straight throught the parkette towards the new condos, it is right ahead almost.) Hard to miss it.

Have a nice time.

The pub's open as of today. They've not got the entire prospective lineup on tap yet, but it should be all there by the end of November. According to the draught list at the pub, there will be 12 - the standard four plus ESB, Kriek, IPA, Stout, Barley Wine, Wit, Pilsner, and Oktoberfest. It's a beautiful room, the menu is quite enticing, and all in all it's a very promising beer spot.

Steve Spong wrote: and all in all it's a very promising beer spot.

You can say that again. Mill St. definitely is ambitious (from a business and beer perspective), and while someone mentioned in another thread that it may take some time for a Canadian version of Rogue or Dogfish Head to start in Canada, look no further (though I suppose they need more off the wall beer names). Keep up the good work! I can't wait to try all of their new beers.

Yep, the pub opened yesterday. Excellent space, they've done a very good job with the old brewery.

As Steve mentioned, not everything is on tap yet, but the lineup is fantastic: Tankhouse, Stock, Coffee Porter, Organic Lager, Oktoberfest, Barley Wine '04, IPA, Wit, Cobblestone Stout, Kriek, ESB and Helles Bock. Everything except the IPA, Kriek, ESB and Bock were available last night.

I don't think I need to encourage too hard for everyone to go down and check it out. It's been so long since a new brewpub has opened in Toronto! Keep an eye out for the custom Golden Tap Award plaques they created for display at the pub!

Anyone know what time it's open until on Sunday, or have the phone number for the brew pub (not the corporate number that's on the website)?

It is open on Sundays. There's actually brunch from 10:30, I believe. I don't know the number, but I remember the menu stating that it's 7 days a week.

went down last night for supper. Food was excellent, i had a great 1/2 lbs burger was delicious! Very fairly priced also. I had their wheat beer, very nice, beautiful cloudy color, nice citrucy falvour, on par with Blanche de chambly. Tried the oktoberfest, didn't impress me very much, i found it tasting very very similar to the tankhouse. Now my favorite was the Cobblestone stout! Looked, and felt exactly like a pint of guinness. Nice dense creamy head, and next to no carbonation. but the flavour was so nice, lots of chocolate, and coffeeish flavours, subtle sweetness also. i would say it tasted very much like the st-ambroise, just without the carbonation. all in all, and excellent stout, one of my new favorites!

Forgot to mention we are open from 11-12am Sun-Wed, and 11-2am Thurs-Sat.

the website is almost ready, just waiting for the pictures!

How about that beautiful copper and brass draft tower on the bar. wow !!!!!!

Went for lunch today... What a beautiful space! outstanding! Had the IPA and the Wit, both amazing, had the Steak & Stilton Pot Pie... OMFG, delicious! Mad props to Mill St.... This is a massive enhancement to the Toronto beer scene...

We had dinner there last night. I am posting about it in a bit so will park a link here later. [later: ...link.] One of the best looking bars I have been in. Food was great. Service was very pleasant and, while a few things will fall into place better, worked hard to please. Had my first Mill Street stout which I wish they would bottle. I was told many of the non-bottled brews were not on tap so I missed out on the wit and kriek. Definitely will go back.

Is there still a retail store on site as well? If so, I wonder if they will do limited bottlings or growlers of these beers. I suppose it depends on what sort of license they have for the facility.

Yes there is still a retail store. I saw it on my way out. There are bottles available for purchase. I don't recall if it's just the four original brews or if the new ones are included.

when i was there last weekend, all i saw in the retail store were the big 4 (coffee, tankhouse, organic, and stock) BUT they have a few 2005 barley wines up there! i think ill grab a few next time i'm there.

With respect to the growlers, I have heard that they will be doing them, which is great news for mixing it up a bit here and there.