The Bar Towel

I am happy to report that the Sheraton Hotel at Toronto Pearson Airport has decided to sell some terrific beer.
Starting this October look forward to enjoying Rochefort 8,
Chimay Blue or Verboden Vrucht while waiting for your next flight.
What a lovely change from certain mass produced beers who shall remain nameless.
They have also added some Unibroue products, FYI.
I expect these beers to do quite well and feel very excited by their decision to go ahead with specialty beer.
Gail Prosser
Esprit Agencies

This is good news. I've always been embarassed by the beer selection at Pearson, especially in comparison to most major US airports.

At LAX, for example, several terminals have satellite locations of local brewpubs. On my way to San Diego, I had a very tasty marzen at a Gordon Biersch bar that was convieniently located right next to the gate where I was catching my connecting flight. And the Sheraton hotel there has what is supposedly one of the best beer bars in the city - http://www.fourpointslax.com/beer_jazz.asp

Chicago O'Hare also has a few local brewpubs & breweries represented - although when I had a stopover there on my way back from San Diego, I was disappointed to find that the Goose Island location was just a small kiosk with a single Goose Island beer on tap (served in plastic cups!), alongside the typical mainstream bottle selection. If I'd had more time and my carry-on wasn't so heavy, I probably would've explored the other options that I found on the terminal maps.

Hopefully the beer culture up here will someday reach the point that we'll see Mill Street or Black Oak or some other local micro replacing the pathetic Molson pubs at Pearson. Or wouldn't a OCB sponsored pub with a full range of Ontario micros be nice? Just imagine having a pint of Denisons or Tankhouse while you wait for your flight...

Great news! It is indeed rare to find good beer at airports. I've had some good beer at some of the pubs in the Vancouver airport, but I'm not sure if this is still the case.

You want an airport with good beer...Portland, Oregon. Absolutely unbelievalble with only 3 or 4 mainstream beers and another 10 or so Oregon and Washington micros on tap...a beer lovers heaven not to mention that Portland is a gorgeous small city. We were there last year to visit Rogue and we drove to the coast to Newport where Rogue is located. A functioning fishing town with incredible food, beer, wine and coffee. If you ever get a chance, go there. We'd be happy to give you some references and have the Rogue people receive you in style as they love their Canadian devotees.

Digging up an old post here, but it looks like I'll have a 5 hour layover in Toronto on Dec 25. Can anyone suggest a good place to get a pint at Pearson? I'll be in Terminal 1, not sure if 5 hours is enough time to roam elsewhere. I'm hoping the situation has improved since this thread was last active.

Hey Mark.

I always thought Pearson was a wasteland, so I'll be curious to see what other people came up with. With a 5 hour layover I'd suggest leaving the airport for a change of scenery. You could get to Caffe Volo or the Victory Cafe in under an hour from Pearson on transit. Take the 192 bus until its last stop at the subway station (15 minutes) and then grab the train to downtown (25 minutes). The Victory Cafe is closer and practically at Bathurst Station, while Volo is 5 minutes walk from Yonge-Bloor Station. You could definitely fit in an hour and a half of drinking if you tried!

You might have a hard time finding a place open on Dec 25th. If you're flying Air Canada, consider getting yourself lounge access ($25 I think) and you can self-serve all the Guinness you can drink

Cass wrote:You might have a hard time finding a place open on Dec 25th. If you're flying Air Canada, consider getting yourself lounge access ($25 I think) and you can self-serve all the Guinness you can drink

I'm sure I'll be limited due to it being Dec 25th, but I assumed that most of the services in the airport would be open. I am flying Air Canada, so we'll see about the lounge.

esprit wrote:You want an airport with good beer...Portland, Oregon. Absolutely unbelievalble with only 3 or 4 mainstream beers and another 10 or so Oregon and Washington micros on tap...a beer lovers heaven not to mention that Portland is a gorgeous small city. We were there last year to visit Rogue and we drove to the coast to Newport where Rogue is located. A functioning fishing town with incredible food, beer, wine and coffee. If you ever get a chance, go there. We'd be happy to give you some references and have the Rogue people receive you in style as they love their Canadian devotees.

Yes! I once had a five hour layover in that airport that turned out to be a great afternoon. Part of the reason is that their management only allows locally owned vendors/concessions. They even got sued by Starbucks and Mc Donald's, but they won. Some of the restaurants are branches of top Portland restaurants. They use their airport location as marketing. The food is great, beer is great and service is great. This is how you promote a city!

Mr Millar, is anybody reading this to you? Do you get it? Have you had a talk with the GTAA? Hey, here is a simple baby step; stop fighting Porter airlines and work a deal with them to showcase Toronto suppliers on flights out of the island. USE YOUR IMAGINATION - don't spend a fortune on stupid MBAs to try and market Toronto with dumb logos and slogans, show people what we have!

So my layover in Toronto was not a total dissapointment. I wasn't able to get outside of the secure area, so the best to be found was a Molson Pub. They had fresh bottles of Creemore Springs (which I had never tried before) for under $5, so I had a couple of those... the next best option on the menu was a $9 pint of Heineken.

I'm laughing right now because our La Guardia NY stopover was pure extortion - about 18 bucks for a few stuffed pretzels and two iced teas!

They did have Boston Lager and Winter Lager though. Watch fo the Sam Adams booth - it has decent looking sandwiches.

They did have Boston Lager and Winter Lager though. Watch fo the Sam Adams booth - it has decent looking sandwiches.

I've been to that booth and agree - it was a nice find!

I had a pint of Murphy's Stout at the Halifax airport on my last stopover there. $9.95 for a pint of stout!
I asked about local products hoping for a Propeller Porter. No luck. The bartender was a friendly guy and knew about the local beers but said they wouldn't sell well in his location. The guy next to me raised his bottle of Keith's and stated " Alexander Keith's, the best beer in the World!". The bartender probably knows his clients.

I just came back from London through Heathrow Terminal 5. There's a Wetherspoon's pub there. Enjoyed a couple of pints of cask Deuchars IPA ... at £2.59 a pint! At $1.95 Canadian for a pound, that's just pennies over $5.00 a pint. They also had Marston's Pedigree and a house cask for the same price.

The going price these days in Central London is £3 per pint. Probably the first time I had a beer that was cheaper at the airport than in town. And, the beer was fresh and good.

More like $1.70 for a pound - 25 year lows!