Bellwoods

Went to the Bellwoods brewery yesterday on Ossington. Beer was pretty well bulletproof, between my group we thoroughly made the rounds of the offerings. The "White Picket Fence" shows far more skill than its light taste would let on, with something that gentle any mistakes/impurities become immediately obvious. My favourite of the night was the Bier de Garde that they have on now, very nicely well rounded with some flavours that you don't taste very often in beer... I'm hesitant to call it winey but that's about the only descriptor that comes to mind. Really nice.

Negatives for the visit: The food. I see what they're trying to do but it's misguided. What would have changed my perception of it would have been a good meat, cheese and bread plate like what you see in the Netherlands. It doesn't have to be fancy, there's a bakery on the other side of the corner and a good helping of local cheese and dried sausage would have done wonders. They do have a bread and cheese plate but I have to be honest, it looked chintzy. There were maybe 5 small slices of bread and 4 smallish pieces of cheese. One of the cheese selections tasted fishy (the brie), probably a more extreme example of the style but misguided given the target audience. Good cheese? Yes, but still small and in no way worth the $18 or so that they were charging for it... Not when you can go someplace else and get a whole meal for that much. Also, I ordered a vegetable dish and found some pulled pork in it. I'm not vegetarian but I was eating with someone that was, she laid it on pretty thick that if I was vegetarian (and there was no indication that there would be pork along with these fava beans) I should be really really offended.

All I'm saying is that they need to pay more attention to it. There's still space for the duck hearts etc, but there needs to be a reliable something else there for more conventional tastes. Seriously, go out and get a few packs of Jarlsberg Swiss cheese, some dried salami and some Portuguese buns from down the road. Charge $10 for it and be generous.