| Janet McMahen: On 17th Avenue S.W., just off 14th Street, exactly where Exhaust Fumes meet up with Stench of French Fries, is the new food and drink locale 1410 Bier Market Restaurant and Lounge. To check it out, I joined Fast Forward booze writer Don Tse (henceforth referred to as "Beer Lover") for a double review. It seemed to be a perfect excuse for a joint effort: the place sounded like it had interesting beer, given that it is apparently a "bier market," and the term "restaurant" in its name would suggest newsworthy food. Right?
The first thing we noticed was the missing restaurant. Instead, there were flat-screen TVs, VLTs, abundant ashtrays, and the facade of the restaurant was a working garage door. "Huh!" we said in unison. "Huh!" we said again.
Beer Lover studied the beer list, while I took in the food menu. Pedestrian at best, the latter seemed to be inspired by other Calgary pub favourites. We had seen it all before, quite literally. As such, I was worried that I was in for a typical meal of all-brown food. Beer Lover was worried about other things: stay tuned. He chose mussels in lobster bisque cream sauce ($7.99) and, while melting his fingerprints on the metal lid of the mussels, commented on its huge portion. But we were positive that no lobster had so much as dipped a claw into our mussels for more than a second. I selected these adorable little Yorkshire puddings and beef (à la Molly Malone’s and Limerick’s), consisting of tender beef tucked into a popover, served with reasonable au jus and a generous helping of horseradish. These were delicious – really the best parts of a good Brit meal all bundled into bite-size portions.
For our main courses, we made the following macho choices: I took the Meat Market Pizza of pepperoni, ham, sausage, mushroom and green pepper ($8.99) and Beer Lover chose the Gladiator Pasta of chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and cavatappi pasta (which looks like dislocated elbow pasta). On a serving plate that would cradle a turkey, Beer Lover’s pasta steamed and stared and dared him to eat it all (which he didn’t). My pizza was tasty: zesty sauce, pepperoni of the more herbed than gamy variety, a thick ring of green pepper and a lot of mushrooms. Beer Lover detected a hint of cardboard flavour in my pizza and then turned his keen eye to the suspiciously symmetrical circularity of its shape. I didn’t care – it tasted good. So it seems that the menu has a healthy respect for the hungry armchair athlete. Over to you, Don.
Don Tse: I have certain opinions about what is necessary for a restaurant, lounge or bar to call itself a beer place, especially if it chooses to use the Belgian spelling, "bier." Fifteen draft selections and 17 bottles might suffice, but not when they are so uninspired. And not when, aside from one Sleeman product, three Big Rock products, Corona and two Guinness (note to Bier Market: it has two n's) products, they are all from Labatt or InBev (Labatt's parent company). Not that I would condone drinking them, but even Molson and Coors products have been banned from the premises (apart from an advertisement over the men's urinal).
Stella is the beer of choice here. Prominently featured on the menu cover, at least half of the patrons were drinking it. A Boddington’s (note to Bier Market: it has two d's) and my Hoegaarden (note to Bier Market: it has two a's) were served in their proper glassware, but that doesn't appease this beer snob.
It is clear that no thought has been put into the beer menu – there were five spelling mistakes and no information on the beers. No description. No country of origin. No alcohol content. In some cases, the beer on offer is not even named, only the brewery is. My one question of the staff regarding the beer list, which was relegated to the bottom of the back of the menu, remained unanswered by the time we departed.
The wine list, though short, was a carefully selected cross-section of grape varieties and geographic regions. Why can't beer get the same respect? |
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