La Taverne Du Sergeant-Recruteur

Here's a place where the lack of atmosphere contributes to a great drinking atmosphere. Sunday night is ''La soirée du compte'' where a teller of tall tales, somewhat like grandpa Simpson talking about the days, takes the stage and rambles on about... .

Myself and Goldorak sat ourselves down near the bar in the hopes that the waitress would get to us more quickly, but to no avail. Fifteen minutes after having arrived, my friend Martin had to make his way to the bar and order a couple of glasses of cask bitter. Not dramatic but not necessary either.

It's always nice to partake in a quality glass of cask conditioned ale, and this one hit the mark. Soft carbonation hits the palate and paves the road for subtle notes of malt and esthery fruits. The beautifully clear brew yielded a very drinkable character with a soft and moderate finish that begs for another... but I was driving.

As we enjoyed our beers and discussed plans to make our way to the extreme beer fest in January, we were confronted by the waitress who made a rare appearance to tell us to be quiet. We were disrupting the story teller, so we grabbed our jackets and headed north to Vice & Versa.

I will be going back soon to sample their other beers and soak up the student body studying for their mid-terms (reminds me of my college days) and marginally artistic atmosphere. Good anonymous brewpub to quaff pints at.

First time I went to Le Sergent recruiteur it was on Victoria's day, hmm I should say patriot day! The crowd wasnt my usual pub crowd so I must admit I felt kind of out of place especially when that frenchwoman with her accordion singing some parisian songs backed by a guy playing a saw!

Beer wise, we had a white, a blonde and a stout the first time, the white was a bit fade. As for the blond she was a great beer, as for the stout it delievered a true stout. I cannot really say the flavour as I tasted them some months ago. But last week I got the ginger beer, this was different!
At first a good strong taste of ale, then the ginger taste took over, it was weird. I dislike ginger in general, but this was something fun to taste. It brought a bit a strong taste to the beer, It would make a great beer to cook tho!

Another excellent brewpub in the latin quarter of Montreal. This brewpub is on St. Laurent street just 2 blocks away from Dieu Du Ciel. The closest metro stop is Laurier, and you can do a nice pub crawl by starting at dieu du ciel, going here, and finally hitting reservoir which is three or four blocks down the road. The atmosphere here is awesome. It is very reminiscent of a British pub, with a cavernous looking basement where Quebecois story tellers perform on certain days. The quality of the beers was very good overall, with one or two being not so good, and the selection of brews was very large, with six house brewed beers on tap [Raconteuse(Blonde), Nuit Blanche (Wheat), Frousse (A red ale brewed with star anise), Criminelle (A hoppy Irish cream ale), Bitter Du Sergeant (A cask bitter), and Tenebreuse (An excellent stout!)], a beer from Quebec City co-op brewery La Barberie, Liefmans Framboise, a local cider, and several other quebec microbrews on tap and in the bottle. The service was excellent as the bartender appreciated the use of French and English. He was attentive, knowledgable, and an all around great bartender. Top marks for that! One of the best brewpubs in Montreal. Probably third or fourth out of the 7 there.

Atmosphere: Even though it's on Montreal's "main street", it's significantly north of the Downtown and Plateau areas. So that's great for motorists because parking is relatively easy to find, but I still feel that public transportation is the way to go. Quite a ways away from the closest Metro (subway) but still very walkable in the summer months. The place has two flours, the smaller upstairs section where you can find the bar and a few tables and downstairs where there's more chairs, a foosball table (bonus points for me) and a small section that can be used as a makeshift stage. Whatever the time, there's always room to sit somewhere, and it's one of the rare brewpubs in town where you can see a show and have a good pint. On sundays they usually have "Raconteurs", which are storytellers who entertain you with tall tales and Québecois folklore. The place seems a lot darker than most other places, strange because the window up front is huge, and the lower floor has a real basement-like feel, with posters and bric-a-brac toilets with a sink they seem to have carved out of old car parts and painted metallic blue/green.

Service is nothing out of the extraordinary, maybe a bit slow at times. A few friends have had bad experiences but nothing of the sort ever happened to me (I guess they don't tip as well as I do)

Selection is good, they have 5 or 6 Beers on-tap, usually consisting of a few cross-over type Beers for the neophytes, a decent Stout and their hand-pulled Bitter is excellent. They also have Liefmans Framboise and cider (so my girlfriend never complains when I take her there) as well as a few Québec bottled microbrews. Also serves a few single-malt scotches.

So even though the general consensus for BA's in the neighbourhood is "Go to Dieu du Ciel first, if too crowded fall back on the Sergent Recruteur", this place is still worth the trip and a great stop for a pub-crawl.

Let's see, it was pretty dark when we arrived, and we went up a set of stairs to the bar. We could see the beer choices on the wall, so David got a House Noire (stout), I got the Liefman's Framboise. Both of these were very good, for the house beer, the stout was very dark, and full of roasted flavor, David liked his a lot. I reviewed the Framboise, so basically: I loved it!

Kind of a young crowd (aka 20 somethings), although the place did start to fill up when we left. We only had one beer, as we hadn't eaten for hours, and wanted more than what they served for food, which was panninis.

Would we go again? Definitely, the two beers we had, one house, one commercial, were excellent.

After a wild montreal pub crawl, I can't guarantee this place matches my review. But it is the only place left on my list and my notes correspond to no other place. So I say close enough! C'est place est tres bien. Tres hip et le pub avez un selection tres pleasant. Many seasonals. Tables are tied to the floor by tire steel, old wood floors, very eclectic loft pub style with outside seating area.

The Sergeant-Recruteur is a cozy little pub at 4650 St-laurent. It has an old barn type of decor with some fancy quirks thrown in. There are some really nice paintings and some small sculptures. Really interesting! They serve three regular beers - bitter, stout, pale and a rotating seasonal. All of the beers I had were very good. They are also one of the only pubs to serve more food than "le hot dog Europeen"! They're open from 11am to 3 pm except for Saturday when they open late at 3 pm.