The Bar Towel

Any of you who ever get out to the wilderness of Brampton might be interested to know that a new beer establishment opened just before Xmas in a plaza at 7700 Hurontario St. (Hwy 10 on the west side of the street, don't know the plaza name but there's a Longo's in it). The concept is quite unique...it's a restaurant, pool hall and self-serve beer hall....as you walk in the establishment, on your right hand side you'll see rows of massive open refrigeration units displaying beers and coolers....they have room for over 1,000 individual products but currently stock about 600 which includes every beer and cooler available in Ontario and every Consignment product we carry as well a number of private imports...as a result, they are today the bar with the largest assortment of bottled beers anywhere in Canada. When you walk in you can mozy on through the cooler maze, pick your product and proceed to the cashier where you pay and get a glass, or not, and then move on to the pool hall or the restaurant or the bar...it's a big place and attractively decorated. I dropped in last Saturday night around midnight so I wasn't eating but the menu seems to have a good variety of pub/roadhouse grub plus some more adventurous stuff including some Indian fare as one of the owner's also owns an Indian restaurant in Brampton.
An interesting concept to say the least and we'll certainly be watching them closely as Brampton has never struck us a hotbed of interest in quality brews but you never know....I would certainly encourage any Bartowellers who are in the area or driving through to stop in...it's well worth a look-see.

Forgot to mention, they do have draft taps but I didn't look to see how many or what they are...you see, I don't sell draft so I was pretty much focused on the beer fridges...

This sounds a bit like a place that I went to in Pittsbugh many years ago called the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern. It was a very unassuming looking place (complete with a banner out front proclaiming "Voted Best Pierogies in Pittsburgh!"), but they had hundreds of different bottled beers available from around the world. Some of the fridges were behind the bar, but a bunch of them were across from the bar and were rigged with flashing lights on top that would go off when someone opened the fridge in order to avoid people scooping them without paying.

They also had a $2.50 import special every night. As luck would have it, the pick on the night we visited was that oh-so-exotic ale - Labatt 50!

Anyway - I vote that we rustle up a couple of designated drivers and head on out to this place in Brampton for a Bar Towel drink-up sometime.

Greg

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: GregClow on 2003-01-03 17:24 ]</font>

For those of you interested, the following Esprit products are available there:
Duvel
Cooper's Sparkling Ale
Chimay Premiere
Chimay White Cap
Chimay Red Cap
Chimay Blue Cap
Westmalle Tripel
Achel 8
Maredsous 6
Maredsous 8
Maredsous 10
Corsendonk Pater
Corsendonk Christmas
Bush Ambree
Bush de Noel
Floreffe Double
Liefmans Glukriek
Verboden Vrucht
Castle Eden Special Ale
Ayinger Ur-Weisse
Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Rogue Brutal Bitter
Rogue Shakespeare Stout
Smuttynose Old Brown Dog
Victory Whirlwind Witbier
Mort Subite Framboise
Mort Subite Peche
Orval
Rochefort 8
La Trappe Dubbel
La Trappe Quadrupel
Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale
Samuel Smith’s India Ale
Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome
Samuel Smith’s Organic Ale
Samuel Smith’s Organic Lager
Samuel Smith’s Pure Brewed Lager
St. Peter's English Ale
St. Peter’s Winter Ale
St. Peter’s Strong Ale
St. Peter's Wheat Beer
Brakspear Bitter
Weltenburger Kloster Asam-Bock
Weltenburger Anno 1050
Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel
Weltenburger Kloster Hefe-Weissebier Hell
Weltenburger Kloster Hefe-Weissebier Dunkel

For those of you interested, the following Rubaiyat products are there:

Pinkus Alt
Floris Ninkeberry Gardenbeer
Floris Passion Gardenbeer
Floris Chocolate
Kasteelbier Dark
Chapeau Kreik Lambic
X.O. Beer
Jenlain Biere de Garde Ambree
Petrus Triple
Petrus Old Brown
Petrus Special
Petrus Winterbeer
Delirium Tremens
Christoffel Blond
Christoffel Robertus
Gulden Draak
Piraat
Breugal Amber Ale
Augustijn Ale
Bornem Dubbel
Bornem Tripel
Burton Porter
St Paul Double
Yersekes Mosselbier

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Rubaiyat on 2003-01-08 12:22 ]</font>

Mosselbier? I hope it's for eating with, not made with. BTW, can I get that in the city? Nothing against Rak N Tap, but Brampton isn't exactly around the corner.

I'll be heading to Rak N Tap this Saturday afternoon. I'll be there at 2pm and should be there till 4 or 5. Any bartowellers that would like to join me are more than welcome. I'll be wearing a denim Black Oak Brewery shirt. To get there from downtown Toronto take the Go Train to Pt. Credit and take Mississauga Transit Rte. 19. It will take about an hour to get to the pub. 7700 Hurontario is Hurontario and County court Blvd.

Mosselbier ... for matching, yes, not made with That's clamato (sort of ...).

On consignment, yes. How many cases would you like ?

Paul

Mosselbier sounds like something that would go perfectly on the menu at the Riverside. You should convince them to stock it, it would give me another excuse to head out to the east end for a long overdue visit.

Greg

Riverside carries a lot of our beers, you should see Mosselbier there soon.

Cheers, Paul

So Publican, what did you think of the place.

I popped in to Rak and Tap,purely research you know. Monster selection of bottled beer heavily weighted in favour of the Belgians.
Draught selection Carlsberg, Rickards (in one colour or another),Blue and a lite of some description.
Worth a visit. Quite a departure for drinking establishments in the 'burbbs'.

I popped in to Rak and Tap,purely research you know. Monster selection of bottled beer heavily weighted in favour of the Belgians.
Draught selection Carlsberg, Rickards (in one colour or another),Blue and a lite of some description.
Worth a visit. Quite a departure for drinking establishments in the 'burbbs'.

I quite enjoyed the place. I think the owner is covering all the bases as this is a upscale pool hall with pub grub as well as some more intresting food and last but not least an incredible beer selection. I did find that the beer was heavily slanted towards Belguim which may be a problem as the other three customers were having Canadian, Blue and god forbid Pabst Blue Ribion. This I think is a good example of the Ontario beer market, one out of four drinkers having a beer with flavour. I think that this is a good place for Ontario micros to be as they are competively priced for the Molson or Labatt drinker. For the record I had: 3 Brakspear Bitter, 1 Samuel Smith's India ale and Weltenberger Hefeweissbier Hell. Next time I'll go it will be in the evening to see if it's any busier


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Publican on 2003-01-14 21:15 ]</font>

OK, so curiousity got the better of me, and I ventured north to check out this place last night.

I'll write up my thoughts later today, but here's some pictures:

<img src="http://www.bartowel.com/pics/rak/rak1.jpg">
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<img src="http://www.bartowel.com/pics/rak/rak2.jpg">
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<img src="http://www.bartowel.com/pics/rak/rak3.jpg">