Note: I did not write "lib-beer-ty" because I have standards. Nevertheless, good to see that so many of my brothers and sisters are crossing the border like me to exercise their right to a reasonable personal retail relationship with craft beer:
Two Saturdays ago, Troy Burtch settled into a seat at Blue Monk, a new Elmwood Avenue restaurant, and ordered a glass of Sierra Nevada's 30th Anniversary Brewers Reserve Grand Cru. It cost $7 a glass, and tasted like freedom. "That's a limited-release beer we would never, ever see in Toronto," said Burtch. "We wouldn't be able to get this anywhere in Ontario. So to be able to go down there and sit at the bar and order a glass was fantastic"... The explosive growth of the American craft beer sector has led Buffalo beer retailers and bars to offer vastly expanded beer selections. That has led to a small but steady stream of Canadians who have made Buffalo a shopping destination for more than designer clothes.
FREEDOM! FREEDOM!!!
Comments
Pok - December 1, 2010 10:38 PM
I confess. Every once in a while I travel from Eastern Ontario to Upstate New York so that I can buy any one of many good craft beer that doesn't have that before and after taste of guvmint. Honestly, I would rather not make the trip but a "reasonable personal retail relationship" is actually exactly what I am looking for.
Max - December 2, 2010 12:36 AM
Is it the availability of good craft beer that poses such a problem, or mostly the cost? Also, what are your everyday "good" Canadian craft beers? Cheers.
S - December 2, 2010 2:15 AM
Stupid monopoly pisses me off.
Alan - December 2, 2010 8:06 AM
It's a comprehensive Canadian problem, Max. We are a prudent people. We have weathered the recession. We save. We stay at home and watch TV rather than go out on Friday night. America is our madcap, more successful, dangerous, exciting, risky, alive, suffering, irresponsible, important cousins.
So, not only are there more and more interesting beers for less money, you can get chocolate Cheerios not yet (if ever) on our shelves, you find good cheddar for 40% of our price, more shapes of pasta, traditional local snack foods, BBQ. BBQ alone justifies the USA for Canadians. We are like Celts looking at an approaching Roman army and asking ourselves: "How they do that?"
I am delighted to live in a border town that lets me make the trip but also happy to be on this side when it's time to go to bed on a Tuesday.
Chris - December 2, 2010 8:19 AM
I agree with the monopoly part. It just isn't right that our beer stores are owned by breweries who only make fizzy, yellow lagers. We seem to settle for less and like it. I wonder what the Americans would think if the only place they could buy beer was from a store owned and run by makers of Bud. Revolution? You bet.
olllllo - December 2, 2010 6:19 PM
America- Your madcap, more successful, dangerous, exciting, risky, alive, suffering, irresponsible, important cousins.
That would make a fine t-shirt
Greg Clow - December 12, 2010 5:03 PM
Hey! How come I didn't get to talk? :(
(Yes, that's my pudgy little face down in the right hand corner...)
Alan - December 12, 2010 7:44 PM
I tried - Lord, how I tried - but I couldn't swing the stick all the way to your face.