Brock Shepherd, owner of Kensington Brewing Company, announced today that his small craft brewery will finally be getting its own space in the Market. Shepherd previously had the company’s beers brewed under contract in Etobicoke and then Guelph, and operated KBCo out of Burger Bar, which he sold in December. In addition to dispensing the brand’s flagship brews and one-offs, the new bar, at 299 Augusta Avenue, will also serve a few dishes made by Kensington Market vendors and house a bottle and growler shop. Shepherd has engaged former Mill St. brewer Dave Lee as his head brewer, and plans to launch the bar by the end of the year. [KBCo]
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Introducing: Northwood, a new Christie Pits café and cocktail bar
Name: Northwood Read the rest of this entry »
Neighbourhood: Christie Pits
Contact info: 815 Bloor St. W., Facebook page, @NorthwoodBloor
Owners: Richard Pope (co-owner of Mr. Pong’s) and Andrea Reynolds
Toronto Life Cookbook: 10 delicious tequila cocktails from the Reposado team
Owners Sandy and Catherine MacFadyen and bartender Jan Ollner make up Reposado’s stellar tequila team. Here, a slate of cocktails mixed from the 100-plus varieties at their Ossington hot spot
Bartender Moses McIntee is leaving Museum Tavern
Moses McIntee at Lucid (Image: Meaghan Binstock)
After helping launch Museum Tavern last summer, peripatetic bartender Moses McIntee (Ame, Paese, Lucid) has accepted a gig as beverage director at L-Eat Catering. The company also owns the two Paese restaurants, where McIntee plans to introduce cask aging and table-side preparation to the cocktail menu. His last service at the Bloor Street brasserie is Friday.
Nine fortified wines to warm your core during the last, life force–sucking month of cold
Single malts and cognacs are great, but for cozying up by the fire with a book on a cold March evening, I prefer winter wines—that is, heady ports, sherries, tokays, vin santos and vins doux naturels lightly fortified up to 20 per cent. They’ve fallen out of fashion in this fast-paced, calorie-counting age. We scarcely have time to eat dinner at the table, let alone savour a smooth glass of port afterward. Happily, the lack of buzz is keeping their prices ridiculously low for the quality. Many are classic, complex wines, aged for years (even decades) in barrels or bottles—a process that adds greatly to the cost of production. Seriously, I don’t understand how some producers are making money on them, and perhaps they aren’t, which is why fortified wines like marsala are teetering on extinction. Stock up on the bottles below before they disappear from LCBO shelves.
Mill St. Brewery is opening a new Distillery District pub called The Beer Hall
Mill St. Brewery is launching a new venue in the Distillery District this April which is dubbed The Beer Hall. The bar and restaurant will serve a rotating selection of Mill St. beers, as well as bierschnaps, a traditional Bavarian liquor that will be distilled on-site from beer piped over from the brewpub next door. Former Frank sous-chef (and Top Chef Canada contestant) Elizabeth Rivasplata has been pegged as executive chef, and her menu, still in development, will be designed primarily for sharing—and, of course, pairing with Mill St.’s beers.
Best Wines: five versatile bottles to pair with just about any kind of food
Castellare di Castellina 2010 Chianti Classico
$18 | Tuscany | 89 points
A supple, refined yet exuberant young Chianti that you can serve with veal parm, roasts or pizza. Expect aromas of pure redcurrant and cherry, plus roses and a touch of salami. LCBO 267260
$18 | Tuscany | 89 points
A supple, refined yet exuberant young Chianti that you can serve with veal parm, roasts or pizza. Expect aromas of pure redcurrant and cherry, plus roses and a touch of salami. LCBO 267260
Best Wines: five beautiful bottles for less than 15 bucks
Castillo de Monséran 2011 Garnacha
$10 | Cariñena | 87 points
A simple, unoaked and exuberantly fruity old-vine garnacha with hot raspberry and blackberry pie. It’s very rich and smooth, with sweetness, soft tannin and controlled alcohol (only 12.5 per cent). It offers oodles of fruit, without tipping into excess. LCBO 73395
$10 | Cariñena | 87 points
A simple, unoaked and exuberantly fruity old-vine garnacha with hot raspberry and blackberry pie. It’s very rich and smooth, with sweetness, soft tannin and controlled alcohol (only 12.5 per cent). It offers oodles of fruit, without tipping into excess. LCBO 73395
Monday Must-Try: Bellwoods Brewery’s bitter and boozy Witchshark IIPA
Putting back a bottle of Bellwoods Brewery’s Witchshark Imperial India Pale Ale is a heady experience. Since the buzzing Ossington brewpub launched last year, the city’s growing class of beer geeks have flocked there for the changing raft of inventive craft brews, and the powerful, hoppy Witchshark is one of the most fervently sought-after creations. With nine per cent alcohol and 80-plus international bitterness units (Molson Canadian has closer to 20), the first sip is a shock to the palate. The second sip settles on the tongue to reveal citrus and pine flavours, and by the third, the beer’s malty caramel and peppery notes take over. Soon a pleasant, boozy haze descends, interrupted only by a mounting desire to hasten back to the brewery’s new bottle shop to pick up another round. $8.
Bellwoods Brewery, 124 Ossington Ave., 416-535-4586, bellwoodsbrewery.com, @bellwoodsbeer
Introducing: Hitch, a cozy new Leslieville bar named for an irascible literary gadfly
Name: Hitch (yes, after writer and noted drinker Christopher Hitchens)
Neighborhood: Leslieville
Contact info: 1216 Queen St. E., 647-351-7781, facebook.com/HitchLimited, @hitchlimited
Owner: Douglas Tiller, co-owner of Mercury Espresso
The drinks: A small selection of classic cocktails, like old fashioneds ($11.50) and manhattans, ($11.50), as well as craft beer (Duggan’s, Beau’s, Mill St.), wine and a wide range of bourbon.
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The 10 best new craft beers appearing on LCBO shelves now
The LCBO’s releases of seasonal craft beers have traditionally been the best chance to pick up unique and interesting brews that usually require a trip to the U.S. to procure. But with the growth of the Ontario market for craft beers, the provincial liquor monopoly has started to buy better beers year-round. Below, ten exciting new bottles that are showing up on LCBO shelves now.
Chimay Grande Réserve Read the rest of this entry »
$10 | 750 mL | 9%
While Chimay’s Premiere and White Cap have long been mainstays on LCBO shelves, this strong dark ale is the most sought-after brew from the Belgian Trappist monastery. Look for notes of dried figs and raisins, a peppery spice and toasted bread. The fine balance of hoppy bitterness and malty sweetness hides this beer’s nine per cent alcohol well. Coming soon to the general listings.
Best Wines: Five special-occasion bottles to impress even the most discerning host
Masi 2008 Costasera Amarone
$40 | Venetia | 92 points
A classic host gift full of freshness and poise, with a perfume that’s quite different from the usually thick and raisiny amarone. Expect lovely mulberry fruit, spice and marzipan flavours. It’s full-bodied, dense and warm, with terrific tautness. LCBO 317057
$40 | Venetia | 92 points
A classic host gift full of freshness and poise, with a perfume that’s quite different from the usually thick and raisiny amarone. Expect lovely mulberry fruit, spice and marzipan flavours. It’s full-bodied, dense and warm, with terrific tautness. LCBO 317057
Nine excellent bargains from the wine world’s most undervalued regions
Like championing an indie band before it goes mainstream, discovering a little-known wine region before the market catches on can earn you instant cred. Anyone can show up at a dinner party with a big bordeaux or supertuscan (the oenophile equivalent of Coldplay and U2), but only an insider can pick out a great Macedonian xinomavro. Increasingly, the LCBO is bringing in bottles from nooks and crannies on the periphery of the wine world: Puglia in Italy, Calatayud in Spain, and Swartland in South Africa. The winemaking practices in some of these emerging regions are every bit as advanced as those of the big guns, so the quality is high. However, the prices remain low because the up-and-comers don’t yet have the clout of, say, Napa or Burgundy. Here, my picks from obscurity.
Five romantic Toronto bars for cocktails, conversation and hardcore canoodling
1. Cocktail Bar
At Dundas West’s jazz-humming speakeasy, cocktails by owner-bartender Jen Agg—an eye-glazing barrel-aged manhattan ($17) or a frothy Lavender Pisco Sour ($11)—do double-duty, functioning as both conversation pieces and social lubricants. 923 Dundas St. W., 416-792-7511. Read the rest of this entry »
Five spicy, soul-warming Toronto cocktails to lure you out of hibernation
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These Toronto cocktails, loaded with spices, fruits and syrups, are perfectly calibrated to take the edge off a cold, dreary February.
