The Bar Towel

Kish84 wrote:So very excited about [Arabella]. Their pics on FB/Twitter look great.

One great thing about the KW area right now, pretty much all non-chain restaurants that have opened within the last 2 or so years have really put a focus on local craft beers. That being said, I still find myself only going to the Bent Elbow. This will change once Arabella opens.

I'm 10 minutes away from both places, just in different directions.

I occasionally go to Kitchener and pass by the Bent Elbow, but I've never had (or perhaps I should say made) the opportunity to stop in. It looked liked it had closed down for awhile, but appears to be open again. Yes?

S. St. Jeb wrote:

Kish84 wrote:So very excited about [Arabella]. Their pics on FB/Twitter look great.

One great thing about the KW area right now, pretty much all non-chain restaurants that have opened within the last 2 or so years have really put a focus on local craft beers. That being said, I still find myself only going to the Bent Elbow. This will change once Arabella opens.

I'm 10 minutes away from both places, just in different directions.

I occasionally go to Kitchener and pass by the Bent Elbow, but I've never had (or perhaps I should say made) the opportunity to stop in. It looked liked it had closed down for awhile, but appears to be open again. Yes?

I dont think The Elbow ever closed?

The same owner used to run a bar called the Castle on King and that was closed for awhile before the Elbow got open

The Elbow is a great place! Very solid taplist

S. St. Jeb wrote:

Kish84 wrote:So very excited about [Arabella]. Their pics on FB/Twitter look great.

One great thing about the KW area right now, pretty much all non-chain restaurants that have opened within the last 2 or so years have really put a focus on local craft beers. That being said, I still find myself only going to the Bent Elbow. This will change once Arabella opens.

I'm 10 minutes away from both places, just in different directions.

I occasionally go to Kitchener and pass by the Bent Elbow, but I've never had (or perhaps I should say made) the opportunity to stop in. It looked liked it had closed down for awhile, but appears to be open again. Yes?

It hasn't ever really closed. The owner and his family went to Germany either last year or the year before for Octoberfest, that's the only time I can think of them being closed for any extended period.

However, they open at 3, and are closed Sundays, and generally closed Monday on any long weekend.

Definitely a great place, I'm there most Fridays either before or after my Barncat visit.

Kish84 wrote:

S. St. Jeb wrote:

Kish84 wrote:So very excited about [Arabella]. Their pics on FB/Twitter look great.

One great thing about the KW area right now, pretty much all non-chain restaurants that have opened within the last 2 or so years have really put a focus on local craft beers. That being said, I still find myself only going to the Bent Elbow. This will change once Arabella opens.

I'm 10 minutes away from both places, just in different directions.

I occasionally go to Kitchener and pass by the Bent Elbow, but I've never had (or perhaps I should say made) the opportunity to stop in. It looked liked it had closed down for awhile, but appears to be open again. Yes?

It hasn't ever really closed. The owner and his family went to Germany either last year or the year before for Octoberfest, that's the only time I can think of them being closed for any extended period.

However, they open at 3, and are closed Sundays, and generally closed Monday on any long weekend.

Definitely a great place, I'm there most Fridays either before or after my Barncat visit.

It could be that I just saw it a couple of times on Sundays. I'm going to have to stop in one of these times.

I don't live in K-W either but try to get into The Bent Elbow whenever I can. Very good tap list, nice hearty homemade food and really nice people running it. It looks a bit weird from the outside the first time, perhaps, but it is great.

Was able to stop in the other day. As solid as ever. A somewhat different focus than Arabella, to be sure, but both are great at what they do. No 14 oz "pints" here!

midlife crisis wrote:No 14 oz "pints" here!

There's plenty, just depends what you drink. Lot of the breweries are serving in smaller glasses now. I see a bunch of 300ml pours now, and not just for higher ABV beers.

Kish84 wrote:

midlife crisis wrote:No 14 oz "pints" here!

There's plenty, just depends what you drink. Lot of the breweries are serving in smaller glasses now. I see a bunch of 300ml pours now, and not just for higher ABV beers.

And if they water the beer & serve with too much foam they can make it go even farther!

Belgian wrote:

Kish84 wrote:

midlife crisis wrote:No 14 oz "pints" here!

There's plenty, just depends what you drink. Lot of the breweries are serving in smaller glasses now. I see a bunch of 300ml pours now, and not just for higher ABV beers.

And if they water the beer & serve with too much foam they can make it go even farther!

They have a Coors tap that dispenses water. As far as I know, its free of charge. There's also the Budweiser tap handles to flush the urinals.

Kish84 wrote:

midlife crisis wrote:No 14 oz "pints" here!

There's plenty, just depends what you drink. Lot of the breweries are serving in smaller glasses now. I see a bunch of 300ml pours now, and not just for higher ABV beers.

I suppose; fair enough. No 14 oz pints on the standard abv beers that I've had on recent visits, including the venerable "cask Charlie" (Macleans Pale Ale) that was drinking brilliantly on Saturday from a Nonic pint. It never occurred to me to try anything else.

midlife crisis wrote:No 14 oz pints on the standard abv beers that I've had on recent visits, including the...

Ugh. Used to be a 'half' was 12 oz. Why can't they stop calling 14oz a 'pint' A US pint is still at least 16oz and if you're not in that fricking country, a true Imperial pint is 20 Oz... Even here in Canada it's close to that:

In Canada, if you speak English and order "a pint of beer", servers are legally required to serve you 568 ml of beer... (wikipedia)

That's a 19.2 oz liquid pour (not foam). Like they care about 'legally required' - the numpties than run Ontario barely regulate or enforce consumer interests. So bars will sell you a short pour in an already too-small glass and play dumb if you ask about it.

I'd love if we had legal volume-marked glassware to call out these people out on their theft. It's one thing about control-freaky Europe I do like. Done ranting now.

Belgian wrote:

In Canada, if you speak English and order "a pint of beer", servers are legally required to serve you 568 ml of beer... (wikipedia)

That's a 19.2 oz liquid pour (not foam). Like they care about 'legally required' - the numpties than run Ontario barely regulate or enforce consumer interests. So bars will sell you a short pour in an already too-small glass and play dumb if you ask about it.

I'd love if we had legal volume-marked glassware to call out these people out on their theft. It's one thing about control-freaky Europe I do like. Done ranting now.

True, but the better places I've been recently (including the above, Bar Hop, Arabella, etc) tell you in a book or on a large sign precisely how many ounces you will receive for what price, and it varies from beer to beer. No issue with that, because there is no deception. But for a session bitter I still strongly prefer a pint.

midlife crisis wrote:True, but the better places I've been recently (including the above, Bar Hop, Arabella, etc) tell you in a book or on a large sign precisely how many ounces you will receive for what price, and it varies from beer to beer. No issue with that, because there is no deception. But for a session bitter I still strongly prefer a pint.

Absolutely right. Demonstrate a clear absence of bad faith and I have no beef at all.

And I love session Bitter and simpler styles. Though a pint of session Bitter should preferably not be 7-8 bucks a pint either, a style like that is very low gravity & simple compared to something like an IPA - and water's cheap. It makes me sad that simpler low-ABV styles like ordinary bitters are not made available at at least value-equivalent prices so the styles would hopefully gain popularity.

And of course do have representative pricing beers at the UPPER extreme of ABV / gravity & complexity.

Low-ABV should be a 'healthy' trend promoted by the province & given a break in taxes, if it helped.