Beaches Brewing Company
Beaches Brewing is a brewpub in the heart of the Beach neighbourhood. Here, they brew an eclectic range of beers, and serve a full food menu as well as cocktails, all inspired by beaches around the world.
The space is divided into a lower level with garage doors that open fully to the street and an upper level, with a ramp in between. Beachy decor includes a replica of the Leuty lifeguard station.
The Warm Tuna Salad feels pricey at $23, though most of that presumably goes toward sustainably-farmed yellowfin tuna.
Seared and heavily seasoned, it's plated over a warm salad of green and yellow beans, peas, edamame, summer sausage and pearl onions with a sesame mirin vinaigrette.
It's supposed to be a reference to Hawaiian spam, but I'm not sure the sausage makes sense with everything else, though the bean mix is great.
Beef tartare ($16) is a bar classic that's simple to share with horseradish cream, smoked egg and more signature sea asparagus. It's best to stick to the classics and eat it with bread, as lotus root chips don't provide surface area for scooping.
I'd recommend one of a selection of crowd-pleasing flatbreads under $20, like The Chicama ($18) topped with shrimp, creamy Peruvian purple potato, spinach, grilled asparagus and fontina.
The Beaches Handmade Chuck Burger is the best bang for your buck at $16 for two hearty all-chuck patties with greens, tomato and onion, intended to imitate a California-style burger. Crispy, fluffy fries are hand-cut with a knife rather than smashed, double-blanched then fried.
Sabang Brisket ($24) is named after an Indonesian beach, smoked brisket slow-cooked for twelve hours. The plate pulls in Asian influences with a leek and potato wasabi hash, roasted shiitake and a tempura sea asparagus sake jus.
Beaches Brewing's signature beer is an A-Bay Pale Ale named after Ashbridges Bay, an American Pale Ale that pairs well with much of the food here at a crushable 4.5%, with a slight hoppiness and crisp finish.
A bottle shop area is stocked with A-Bay cans for $2.95, also available in the LCBO.
This area also has merch like glassware: IPA, pint and rocks glasses, and tees.
Cocktails include a Pineapple Jalapeno Margarita ($13) that adds pineapple and jalapeno to the usual mix of tequila, lime and Cointreau for an extra tropical and spicy kick.
The Gincident ($13) is so named because it might cause you to have one, a very boozy combination of Dillon's with a little ruby red grapefruit juice, basil and lime topped up with soda.
Free open WiFi is available throughout the brewpub, owned by brewing vets Dustin Norlund and Carl Pratt.
Fareen Karim