I'm going to Toronto next week and looking for a good brew pub or brewery near Ryerson University. Anyone have a favorite place with a good variety of beer styles? I'm not into sours.
Not a lot very near Ryerson. The newly reopened Bar Volo is reasonably short walk up Yonge street. Arguably the best craft beer bar in the city. Check their hours before going. https://barvolo.com/ If you are willing to walk further, take an Uber or a cab, Bar Hop is another great craft beer bar. Downtown. The King or Peter street locations are not that far from you if you hop in an Uber. http://www.barhopbar.com/ Bellwoods is, by most accounts, the best brewery in the city. It is a little further away from you, but worth the trip. While they do a lot of sours, they also do all other styles about as well as you find in the region. https://www.bellwoodsbrewery.com/ If you are willing to travel around town a bit more, there are a tonne if other good spots I can link for you. Cheers and enjoy your trip.
I'll be keeping an eye on this. I'll be in Toronto next month, and I'm not at all familiar with the beer scene.
When I have some time this afternoon I’ll post a long list of breweries and bars worth visiting, both in the area and a little further afield, considering the length of your stay. Cheers.
Apologies for the delay @TheNightwatchman In terms of good craft beer bars, the three Bar Hop locations and the now two Volo locations are certainly at the top of the food chain. Bar Hop gives you a nice assortment of mainly good local offerings, while Volo often has taps dedicated to beers from far afield and the best lambic selection in the city. http://www.barhopbar.com/ https://www.birreriavolo.com/ https://barvolo.com/ The best brewery in the city is still Bellwoods. They are adept at IPAs, sour beers, stouts and increasingly, lagers. If you can only visit one brewery in the city, this is the one. https://www.bellwoodsbrewery.com/ Other breweries in the city that I think are quite good and worth a visit: Godspeed. This is a Japanese themed brewery with a good deal of focus on traditional German styles. The brewer/owner is the former original brewer at Dieu du Ciel! It’s a nice spot a little east of downtown. https://godspeedbrewery.com/ Burdock is an interesting brewery. They tend to focus on mixed fermentation beers and do a lot of beers with grapes. They make some very good and sought after beer/wine hybrids. If you like sour beer, this is certainly a place to check out. The restaurant is nice with some interesting food too. https://burdockto.com/ I’m the west end, there is what has become a bit of a brewery district with several breweries within decent walking or very short taxi distance. Indie Ale House is a nice family friendly spot with good beer. People’s Pint is an interesting spot that allows several small scale brewers without breweries to use its system. Rainhard is a nice spot, with the best beer in the area. In the same building as Rainhard is a Belgian focused brewery called Shacklands. Junction is probably the least interesting beer wise, but has a nice location in a former public incinerator building. https://indiealehouse.com/ https://peoplespint.com/ https://rainhardbrewing.com/ http://www.shacklands.com/ https://www.junctioncraft.com/ If these weren’t all so close together, I’d probably only recommend Indie and Rainhard, but the other three aren’t bad at all. Left Field is a good baseball themed brewery with a nice taproom and good beer. https://www.leftfieldbrewery.ca/ Blood Brothers is nice spot with increasingly good to excellent beer. http://www.bloodbrothersbrewing.com/ There are many other breweries in the city now as well. Some are pretty good (Halo, Folly) others not so much (Bandit, The 6ix, East Bound, Common Good). If there are any places you have in mind that I didn’t mention, I’m happy to comment, for what it is worth. Similarly with restaurants, although my twin toddlers have kept me from eating out as much as I used to. I hope you have a great time while here. Cheers.
Thanks for the info. I'll look into all of those and see which ones I'll have time to visit. I'm in town for work, so I won't have as much free time as I'd like.
Any recommendations for taprooms/pubs out in Mississauga area? Staying at 100 Traders Blvd (Hilton Garden Inn), and not sure I want to drive into Toronto, but if I do I'll probably go to Bar Hop ... so anything like Bar Hop? Thanks
Looking for suggestions for dinner with good beer in Toronto (staying downtown near Union Station / cnetral business area). I plan to go to one of the two Bar Hop locations on the one night but was wondering on food in that area. I've eaten at Bar Hop a couple years back and it was fine and would do the trick. Looking for something different.
Mississauga is a bit of a wasteland, in all respects! I think there used to be a Bier Market but it isn’t showing on the website. I’ll ask on a local forum, I almost never have reason to go out there. I can say that there wouldn’t be any thing like BarHop. You are close to the 401, depending on the time of day, Bellwoods Hafis location isn’t too far from the highway. They only have a limited draft selection there, with a few bottle pours available to, but no food. Any time near rush hour and you will be sitting in traffic forever.
How formal? Any preferences regarding type of restaurant? in the general area with a good beer focus are: https://www.wvrst.com/ http://www.beerbistro.com/. Haven’t been in years and the beer menu doesn’t look as as good as years past. https://cestwhat.com/ Pub. You could also go a little further to on of the breweries with good food option. Bellwoods and Burdock fit this bill. If a beer focus isn’t necessary, I could suggest other options depending on your tastes.
Thanks. I ended up heading dt to Bar Hop King St, and enjoyed a burger and Hill Farmstead Florence. Sorry I didn't have time to try any Canadian beers; when I saw Florence I had to get it since I've never had a HF beer. Did have good conversation with bartender on some breweries to try Godspeed & Durham. In future I may just stay in a more beer friendly area and drive out to Miss. for my meetings
I'm thinking now that I could go to the WVRST in the train station on my secod night as I have a late flight and was planning on taking the train to Pearson. That a decent option? Regarding "the how formal on dinner" ... just looking for good food that either has decent beer selection or is fairly close to somewhere I could go after for a beer. I'm out of town but will be with two locals one of whom takes the train so assume he doesn't want to venture too far from where our office is (i.e. near the train). Open to most any style of food.
Sorry I didn’t see this sooner. King street BarBop is a favourite of mine. Godspeed is excellent. Great German and Czech style beers as well as some innovative stuff and excellent Japanese food. Durham makes classic English beers and they usually have a cask on at BarBop. Good beer. The less time spent in Mississauga the better in my opinion!!
I haven’t been to the Union Wvrst but assume it is as good as the original (if you like sausage), and excellent for your train needs. I’ll try to think of a couple other spots near the station and get back to you.
