Charly's Brew Pub & Grill

Others have already described the atmosphere at Charly's very accurately. If you enjoy sports and games at your brewpub, this place is for you. My preferences don't lie in this direction though. There were several bars/serving stations, probably for the dance crowd that (I'm assuming) shows up some nights of the week. It was pretty dead when I visited, but it was the middle of the day during the week. They serve a single house beer, which was a mediocre lager. The bottle list was much more extensive than I expected, in the neighborhood of 100 brands. It had its share of macro lagers, but also quite a few eastern block lagers, some english and german beers - pretty much anything that's been listed at the LCBO in the past couple of years. Our server did a good job and quickly grabbed the bottle list when she realized we weren't part of the regular crowd. Not sure about the food, since we didn't have any during our visit. Prices were very low, at least during the day. $20 got us a pitcher of house brew, 2 soft drinks, an import bottle and included a generous tip.

My first Canadian Brew-Pub and I was not dissapointed in the place itself. The one beer they make is a pale lager and it is ok, but mostly this place brags to have 100 different bottles from around the world. The do have a rather large collection of beers from all over the place, but wheter there are 100 is not quite clear. They have an around the world club with who can drink all 100 beers and the times it takes them to complete the journey. But they have zero glassware to match the beer, nothing but oddly shaped pint and 10oz glasses.
The decor is half redneck: nascar, WWF, hockey stuff all over the wall; half sports bar with aboot 50 TV's in ever nook and cranny; half Applebee's with stuff random stuff all over the walls. The bar has wood everwhere and seems like someone's ideal den. The main bar is a horseshoe with 3 other periphrial bars including the one outside. There are video games, 4-5 pool table, and batting cages out back. A decent size raised dance floor and rather nice bathrooms.
The food is mainly standard bar fare with breakfast served all day. The prices for food and drink is reasonable. They seemed excited to hear that we came from the US and had heard of their brew-pub. Overall for a early Saturday day visit this place had plenty of regulars sitting around, but the all said that at night it becomes a real young hip crowd. I will have to make it back over here when its a packed house.

Cheers-a

Now, this was a brewpub! It was an immense, huge place with a back patio, batting cages (!) in the far rear parking lot, a kitchen just to the right of the front door, lots of restaurant seating to the left, and proceeding aft, the bar with “Charly’s World of Premium and Imported Beers”, which sat at about the centerline. It was the bar, a semi-circular affair, which divided the place in half. More precisely, the bar divides the place east/west and there was a wall with several pillars that divided the place north/south, as if a wall between two adjoining buildings had been partially removed.

Beyond the bar, to the right, was a small (seven) game arcade and even further right was a billiards room with three tables. On the opposite side of the place from the bar area, the copper-jacketed brewhouse sat in the far left corner, behind glass. In the middle of this side was a dance floor, surrounded by restaurant tables and chairs. To the extreme left were two more pool tables, and beyond that, the entrance to the patio. At the front, still on the left side, was an auxiliary bar, labeled “Thirst Aid Station”. The place reminded me of an old haunt of mine, Sam’s Saloon in Oxnard, California, just expanded and with a brewhouse. The décor was unfinished pine, brick and rough-hewn wood. They featured lots of monitors with satellite sports programming and the walls were festooned with sports memorabilia.

My waitperson told me that everyone involved in brewing also has another job at this establishment. For instance, the bottler is also the bouncer. At that point, the owner came over and sat with me for a while. His father founded the place in 1951 and he and his brother have now taken it over. They only brew one beer, a lager, which they started doing in 1981 and it has two names: a) Time-Out Beer on draft and b) Buck-Off Beer in bottles. The bar has over one hundred bottled beers and they keep about ten taps going between the bar and the restaurant.