Tasty sliders, meatloaf and potato halves compliment 200 different choices of beer at Bottlescrew Bill’s.

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Bottlescrew Bill's Old English Pub

It ain’t pretty, but as watering holes go, it’s a city landmark. Located on the main level of a parkade on the corner of 10th Avenue and First Street S.W., Buzzards Restaurant and Bar and its Siamese twin, Bottlescrew Bill’s Old English Pub, are a well-placed lily pad on the downtown bar hop.

Wrapped by a narrow patio, Buzzards’ floor-to-ceiling windows face the street, while windowless Bottlescrew Bill’s takes up three well-worn pint galleries in the back. The same food and beer menus are available in each establishment, and for some odd reason, our hostess chooses to seat us in the far reaches of Bottlescrew’s cavern.

My guest and I look over the new menu of elevated pub grub, steaks and a mix of entrees that the 30-year-old pub launched in May. Our server is very friendly and admits to being punchy from working two jobs for the last few days. The pub can get loud ’n’ rowdy in the evenings, especially during Stampede. The previous night, a group of Aussies decided to play cricket in this room, she tells us. Using ice cubes for balls and chairs for bats, it got messy — as the beer-spattered ceiling attests.

Bottlescrew Bill’s claim to alcoholic fame is its Around the World in 80 Beers passport ($5). Drinking 80 of its 200 listed international brews in one year earns the holder engraved immortality on the brass plaque wall of fame next to such immortal drinkers as Brian “I’ll Have Another” Gibson and a dude named “Foot Pussy” and former Fast Forward Weekly music editor Mike Bell.

Forgoing drinks, we sample the bison sliders ($11) and an apple and fig salad ($12). Both are neatly presented. Single olives top the white, mini-burger buns of each of three sliders. Dressed with a little apple “wraspberry” chutney, lettuce, pickle and tomato, their lean, grilled buffalo taste comes through nicely with a moist crunch. The salad, with its pinwheel of apple slices and particularly good-quality artisan salad leaves, is a good complement. It’s tossed with citrus vinaigrette, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries and a generous number of dried fig halves.

The meatloaf entree ($15) comes with fingerling potatoes and veggies. The loaf is presented as a beefy, oval patty wrapped in bacon and smothered in mushroom gravy loaded with dark mushroom halves. The gravy makes succulent magic with the finely ground meat, which is moist with an undercurrent of smokiness courtesy the bacon.

The potato halves are a little dry, as is their garnish of grilled shallots, however, both are quite tasty and, like the mixed veggies —— broccoli, red pepper and carrot —— well seasoned.

Though a little overcooked, the pesto-crusted wild sockeye salmon ($20) is also enjoyably tasty. The filet is topped with a heap of basil pesto breadcrumbs rather than being encrusted. It looks like finely chopped turkey stuffing done just to the point of crispness, and its pesto nip gives the fish some jump. The accompanying quinoa pilaf is perfectly cooked and nicely moist with tomato bits and shaved red onion.

We share an Irish biscuit cake with Guinness ice cream ($7) for dessert. Latticed with caramel and chocolate, the ice cream is not particularly beery, but it’s a bit richer than, say, vanilla. The mottled fudge biscuits have a cold, chocolaty crunch that softens with the ice cream, but leaves a freezer aftertaste on the tongue. Yet we keep eating it.

Shuffling up front to a street-side window seat, we enjoy post-supper pints of Brew Brothers black pilsner ($5.67). More open and well lit, this western-themed room is clearly a much better spot to enjoy a meal, however, it’s also a good spot to drink. As 10th Avenue nightlife picks up and patrons begin to pour inside, the people-watching gets good.

My happy conclusion to this evening of eats and drinks is that the new Buzzards’-Bottlescrew menu is a lot better than it needs to be for such a popular drinking destination.

Waitress? Another round!