16 August 2014
(picture to follow)
One of the things I’ve tried to do is hit smaller pub / brewpub bars in the towns we come through. Some have been wonderful, the benchmark was set at the The Stinking Rose in Campbellford Ontario. In Toronto it was Bar Volo, Sault Ste Marie it was Loplop and here across the river in Michigan it’s The Soo Brewing Company (*)
Like The Stinking Rose,the manager of The Soo Brewing Company is also the brewmaster / owner. Soo had about 9 beers on tap ranging from “The lightest beer you have” to a pair of impressive IPA’s, matched by a great ale named after the University: “Laker Gold”. Oh and a real brewed root beer for the kids.
The place is super family friendly. Long tables with pew benches to sit on. All sorts of games from “Rock’em Sock’em robots, Bananagrams(**), Jenga, checkers, cards, etc to play as you drink the great beer.
No food other than the free pretzel sticks, but “Bring Your own Food” is encouraged. Multiple pizza places deliver, but at Ray’s (the owners) recommendation we had greek food from Zorba’s. We had shrimp and pork souvlaki and paired with my “13 IPA” and Susan’s “Strawberry Forever” it was wonderful.
I wanted a “Soo Brew” shirt, and Ray was wearing one that had the Soo Brewing Company Logo, but had the name of a beer I really liked “Manic Organic Pale Ale” . I asked if they had more, and Ray offered to give “the shirt off his back”, since it was the only one. That’s what I call customer service!! So he went to the back and swapped shirts. (The back story is that he has about 2.3 million shirts and is under an edict to get rid of some of them.) So this was a win / win for both of us. And I’ll wear it proudly (once it gets washed).
We stayed around for a few more beers and a few more rounds of Bananagrams. High score for “Bring your own food” and having great beers to match what customers bring.
(*)Yes, we’ve been to a number of nameless pubs that are in the process of going under, but with the level of beer at Soo Brewing that won’t happen.
(**)And Bananagrams is the first word game that I have a chance against Susan.
I have Bananagrams! I love playing it against “wordies,” because the speed and randomness of the peel makes it fun and frantic, and every once in a while you can win! But even if you don’t you are still having fun!
I had good success playing against Susan (and I’d classify her as a “wordie”). She crushes me when we play Scrabble. I’ve taken the strategy of dumping early rather than trying to mess around with a letter. I also learned that it’s important to make a loooong word out of the first set of tiles so I have places to build on later.