Restaurants
Duggan's Brewery
Duggan's Brewery is the brand new brew pub project by Toronto-based brewmaster Mike Duggan. He's been involved in some high profile beer projects in the area; he co-founded Mill St. (and developed several of their most popular beers), has contributed at Robert Simpson (now Flying Monkeys), and is currently in charge of brewing for Cool Brewery. When a man with a resume like that decides to open a brew pub to give himself complete creative freedom, there is cause for excitement.
Duggan's Brewery occupies a large space on Victoria Street (the former home of Denison's Brewpub, which closed in 2003). Copper kettles and bags of grain given pride of place in the front window, and ll of the bar's rotating selection is brewed on-site, with select varieties also available for take-out purchase.
The food draws heavily from brew pub standards - sandwiches, fries, mussels and oysters feature prominently. And chef Rene Chauvin has crafted a menu that features thoughtful preparation and local ingredients without overshadowing the beer.
The pot pie ($16) changes daily, and was curried pork during our visit. The pie itself was light and flaky, filled with flavourful pork and vegetables and accompanied by fluffy mashed potatoes with green onions and gravy.
The pulled pork sandwich ($12) was smoky, sweet and very tasty, though the accompanying salad seemed like a bit of an afterthought.
Pan-seared pickerel with a buttery chardonnay sauce ($22) was perfectly cooked, though as the most expensive and least sizable dish we tried, it is not for those with large appetites.
The poutine on offer ($11) featured real cheese curds and a light gravy, and was topped with duck confit. If cooking was the Olympics, duck confit would be a banned substance due to the fact that it can make anything awesome. This poutine was no exception.
And the beer? Oh, the beer! The current seasonal selections include what Mike Duggan refers to as "winter warmers" - beers with hefty alcohol percentages skilfully hidden behind tasty, full-bodied facades. The #11 "Fest Beer" is a big, bold German-style beer that packs a 6.7% ABV (alcohol by volume) punch in a surprisingly refreshing package, and the #10 "Belgian Tripple" is a devious traditional Trappist-style ale that sneaks a monstrous 9.9% ABV into a spicy, complex package. Do not turn your back on this beer. It cannot be trusted.
The award-winning and exceptionally delicious #9 IPA brings some serious hops to the table, but avoids "novelty beer" territory by balancing things out with big, round malts, and a solid 6.2% ABV. I asked Mr. Duggan if it was possible to get a direct tap line run to my apartment, but apparently they're not set up for that just yet.
Other current selections include a porter, stout, weissbeer and German pilsner. I tried really hard to find a bad beer among them, but I failed miserably. Did I mention the fact that pints are an almost criminally reasonable $5.22 each?
Duggan emphasized that the brew pub is only in its soft opening phase, and they're still fine-tuning for their grand opening in January. The staff deserves props for handling the chaos of the opening weeks (and our big, rowdy group) with good humour and excellent customer service. If the current state of affairs is any indication, beer-loving Torontonians can look forward to some very exciting things from Mr. Duggan and crew.
Discussion
52 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
also:I believe he's gonna sell the beer to take away soon too....
I am excited to try Duggan's....
may have to round up the boys for a pub night.....
you know educational reasons...wink...wink
explain to be how the #9 isn't an IPA in the most traditional sense of the beer (high ABV with a deep amber colour and a strong hoppy finish)?
troll, brewer, long resume. rico you may be the biggest lieing sad sack of fat i have encountered online in a long time. i could go into how the west coast ipa's have revived the style but of course you would know that.......cause your a brewer.
hahhahahahahaha
Would you argue whether or not you're Canadian based on how far back your ancestry goes. I'm MORE Canadian than you! NO, I AM! wah wah... have a pint enjoy, smile, share a story, be Canadian, not a moron.
As for Duggan's, I'll be there soon with some friends to enjoy that imposter IPA :) And no, I'm not a brewer and I know Jack Squat about brewing... but I sure love to drink.
I anxiously await your response. After all the golden rule of trolldom is always get the last word.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying Duggan's. Since i won't dare commenting on the beer to spare everyone from another rant, the food sounds and looks delicious.
I had the duck confit poutine to eat and thought it was okay. The gravy was appropriately poultry based but I prefer a beef gravy. Also the curds were too cold so the cheese didn't melt well. Again this took quite a while to come out of the kitchen (about 40 minutes) so they obviously have some kinks to work out.
I found the atmosphere a bit cold. We were in the bar area and the walls were relatively bare on one side with the floor to ceiling windows surrounding the two corner walls. They could use some warmer colours and maybe some blinds or curtains to tighten up the room a bit.
In any case I'll try it again in a few months hopefully with better results.
I'd be curious as to what Rico thinks of traditional brewers bending stylistic conventions. An example that immediately comes to mind is the delicious Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse, a hopped up weizenbock that came out of the collaboration between G Schneider & Sohn of Germany and Brooklyn Brewery. Each brewery made essentially the same beer, the only variation being that Schneider hopped their beer using traditional German hop varieties and Brooklyn hopped their version with American varieties. The hop flavour was quite a bit more intense than any traditional weissbier I've had; a very intense, grassy sort of hop flavour. Like a weizenbock crossed with a German Pils.
I wonder what Rico thinks of Schneider & Sohn collaboration on a hopped up weizenbock with Brooklyn Brewery. Something a little untraditional from a very traditional and long established brewer.
It's called American IPA because, as you said, it's an IPA that's been changed. Changed by the Americans.
Please enlighten me, what would be a better name for IPA the way American brewers have bastardized it?
I mean bastardized in a good way, just so we're clear. I like American-style "IPA."
I went this weekend. The stout was amazing; smooth and dry and very much a session kind of beer. I still like the American IPA and I also enjoyed the Belgian and the Pilsner.
The Wheat tasted like watered-down banana liqueur.
The duck confit poutine was delicious and a good size for sharing but the calamari was a joke; way too small and not worth the price.
I at no point insulted you, and you still feel the need to insult me personally.
Have fun making people look like the "fools" they are. You might want to try switching to wine - your snobbery might be better appreciated.
Without going overboard, here's the nutshell:
We're Canadian and we love our beer. Great.
Some more than others - hell, some even get passionate about it in these "discussions" Great.
But to insult others beacause their subjective taste differs from your own?...c'mon! That's weaker than my girlfriend drinking Coors lite.
Rico, you just need to have a beer man and relaxolate. Why do some people get so obsessed with the taxonomy of things? It's a blah blah, not a blah blah blah. Taste it, describe your experience, describe the flavour using plain language, and try not to be a snob. Life is good man, don't be so anal.
Sincerely,
A Moron
http://tourguys.ca/toronto-tours/toronto-urban-adventures-walking-tours/
BTW Ryan, while you're correct that the pilsner style was created in the Czech Republic, it was in fact invented by a German brewer. (So your example that a German pilsner is not a pilsner because it isn't a Czech pilsner is getting rather esoteric)
Understaffed or what, they continued to waste our time. We considered leaving after drinks went dry and appetizers never appeared.
Somebody buy the head waiter a notepad.
One word, disorganized.
We had to remind the waiter many times about drinks and food we ordered.
Our waiter finally told us after an hour that the pilot light of the oven broke, or something, so it would be another 10 minutes.
Crazy!