Neil Young Pilgrimage!

Clembo:

sign up to bartowel.ca and you'll get up-to-date info of Toronto events. Lots going on and some good local bars to hit (Volo, Barhop, The Only Cafe are the most known)

i'm sure Hoser will fill you in on Calgary.

Winnipeg: not much to say. no great bars for beer selection. Just stick to drinking the local microbrewery, Half Pints, and you'll be doing fine.

 

Winnipeg: Yeah. Good luck. Luxelune has a bunch of imports that you can find at the MLCC. Seems like the most recent hipster hangout with decent beers (and now a patio) is the Lo Pub. King's Head is an Irish-Style bar and The Yellow Dog is a kinda cool place that hosts specialty casks. That said, everything is tap or bottle here. There is not a single bar in town that has a regular (or even monthly) cask. Sigh.

Expect to find a few Half Pints taps and maybe a Russell / Fort Garry specialty tap. After that, good luck. The rest of the beers will be "imports" and "micros" distributed by the Big 3. Sometimes I see Okanagan Spring taps, but...

That said, I have come to believe that the city has an awesome food scene will a billion different ethnicities cooking different stuff. Also you have to visit his house & Kelvin High School if you are making a true pilgrimage.

 

That is a lot of time on the road. If you are coming to Calgary beermail me and I will give you the up to the minute on what the what. If you are here around 23rd of November there will be a pretty cool take over the taps event but more on this later.

 

For Winnipeg, the King's Head usually has all the Half Pints beers. As silly as it is, my preferred choice is Original Joe's at Kenaston and Grant, they've got all (usually?) the Half Pints beers without all the damn children ordering Standard Lager that the King's Head has.

...Yeah, I'm not bitter.

 

My issue is that OJ's doesn't have the actual kids... With a 9 month old, I can't go there for dinner, sigh. Does OJ's get special releases (Phil's Pils, Hum Lud, etc...)?

 

Well in Saskatoon you can get a good rest from all your travel, there is only one place worth going to and it is called Winston's. Saying worth going to may be a little kind but occasionally there is interesting stuff there.

 

I highly doubt it. I haven't lived in Winnipeg in a few years, but whenever I'm home for Christmas they seem to have all the standard Half Pints beers.

Hrrrrrm - the website PDF says they only have Little Scrapper IPA and St. James Pale Ale. I take it back - the King's Head (possibly for lunch?) is probably still the best choice.

 

be nice to the poor lad. he doesn't need to hang out at bars that smell like old carpet and sad toilets.

go to Segovia for dinner. you can drink Half Pints there and get some good food. for lunch, forgo the beer, get down and dirty and eat a Winnipeg burger (SUPERBOYS!!).

 

Holy crap you're so right. Segovia's food is fantastic. I'm going to be in Winnipeg in August, I think that's an appropriate dinner.

Last time I was there, they had trout tartare and it was incredibly good. They seem to have beef tartare on the menu right now, and I suspect it's also good.

 

You can also check out Earl Gray Junior High along with Kelvin where Neil went also, it's sort of in the same neighborhood.

As for the beer, well it's tough, but what has been said has been said. enjoy the pilgrimage

 

Bistro 7 1/4 now has some HP on tap ( and they get the irregulars like Queer Beer & Phil's Pils. Great food. Of you're in town for a couple of days, maybe try to do a meet-up at Yellow Dog or Lo Pub and maybe meet a few BAs.