The Bar Towel

Come celebrate with Milos, Adil, and crew as they launch London's official craft beer emporium. The bar is retaining the "Gigs" banner for the time being, but will soon have a new name. Doors open at 4:30pm. Feel free to invite all of your friends. Cheers!




(You can sign up for either Facebook event, they're both the same thing)

cratez wrote:Come celebrate with Milos, Adil, and crew as they launch London's official craft beer emporium. The bar is retaining the "Gigs" banner for the time being, but will soon have a new name. Doors open at 4:30pm. Feel free to invite all of your friends. Cheers!




(You can sign up for either Facebook event, they're both the same thing)

I hear the draught list is going to be excellent. I will be there!!

Cheers,
Paul

MasterChiefP wrote: I hear the draught list is going to be excellent. I will be there!!

From what I understand (and w/o revealing any details), it will be the largest and best tap lineup this city has ever seen. Milos is coming back with a bang!

We came back from "a round trip" yesterday with a cargo van overloaded with kegs. As soon as we finalize the list, we will post it here.
All I can say, there will be LOTS of goodies for everybody, including beers making first appearance outside T.O.

So there was the big day and.....................no one posts a single thing.......


Leaves the question.......

i guess it shows how London isnt the same without you and Mike

SteelbackGuy wrote:So there was the big day and...no one posts a single thing...Leaves the question...

Answer: so much drinking and celebrating that all of us were too hung over to post anything. Now that I've recovered I can finally share a few thoughts.

First, the tap list is top notch with excellent style variation and representation from across the province. There's 24 in total, all craft. The ones that I recall include:

Bellwoods Witchshark Imperial IPA
Great Lakes Lake Effect IPA
Black Oak 10 Bitter Years
Black Oak Summer Saison
Great Lakes Robust Porter
Beau's Festivale Altbier
Flying Monkeys Smash Bomb IPA
Flying Monkeys Hoptical Illusion APA
Neustadt This Sour Kraut
Cheshire Valley Irish Red Ale
St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout
St. Ambroise Framboise
Grand River Galt Knife Lager

Milos re-hired nearly all of the Gambrinus staff so the crew is basically the same as before. Great to see everyone back.

In terms of the setup, the bar has an open tap room layout that works quite well IMO. The draught lineup is displayed on a big projector so you can see what's available no matter where you're sitting. Bottles are limited to Belgian selections right now but I'm sure that will expand after they pay a few bills. The two-sided patio seats about 40 people and seemed to be very popular once the weather cleared up.

The bar was packed all night and there was a small lineup to get in at 4:30. Virtually every former Chaucer's & Gambrinus patron that I know of showed up to give their support and congratulations to Milos. The fact that his emporium is located right between these two places could certainly be considered sweet revenge. I couldn't help but smirk when I saw the sign out front proudly proclaiming that "Milos is BAAACK."

Finally, it was nice to have some beers with cannondale and herrorara, who came down from Barrie and Bayfield, respectively. I'm told I have a Spalticus waiting for me at the bar (thanks Nigel!) but I still have to see if it's been quaffed already. A huge congrats to Milos, Adil, and staff for getting things up and running so quickly and without any catastrophes. Gigs has an incredibly bright future ahead of it with these guys at the helm. Cheers!

matt7215 wrote: i guess it shows how London isnt the same without you and Mike

Matt - I've got another free weekend this week. The three of us should go party at Gigs!

EDIT - these are the other draughts that are currently available:

Sawdust City Ol' Woody Alt
Flying Monkeys Stereovision
Neustadt Texas Tea Stout
Great Lakes Crazy Canuck APA
Flying Monkeys Netherworld CDA
Mill Street Cobblestone Stout
Kensington Brewing Augusta Ale
Beau's LugTread Lagered Ale
Czechvar Pilsener

I think it's fair to say that they have one of the top 3 tap lineups in the province, second only to Volo and perhaps Bar Hop when it opens. Absolute craziness!

Tried to go Saturday but couldn't get in the door, so made it down tonight for a couple. Glad they are open, miss the faces and the great tap lineup. Like the space also, it doesnt feel so isolated if you can't sit by the bar.

Plus it doesn't feel like the washrooms are one town over

Milos posted a photo of the display. I haven't had time to go yet

ErkLR wrote:Milos posted a photo of the display. I haven't had time to go yet

Looks great!

Thanks for the info Mike!!

I will be in London this weekend, and may swing by. What is the food like now at the new gigs location? I will be with a group of very particular birders, but I may be able to coax them go to go gigs.

That's a good tap list!

As an aside - is there any way we can clean up some of the stickies in here? All the posts on page 1 save for 1 are a sticky of some sorts.

sprague11 wrote:As an aside - is there any way we can clean up some of the stickies in here? All the posts on page 1 save for 1 are a sticky of some sorts.

I understand the frustration, but the point of the sticky posts is to keep upcoming events on the front page so they get the most attention and don't get lost in the forum churn.

Things will clear up a bit in the next couple of weeks after OCB Week and a couple of other events have passed.