Tonight, in the interests of having something light and getting to be early (for me), Vive and I head the other direction out of the hotel, looking for something a bit off the beaten path and not so touristy. Just a few blocks from the hotel, on the famous St. Jean (what isn't on St jean in this town?) we see a sign for beer. Looks like our kind of casual cafe so we go in and are ushered to a table in the back. The bar has a bunch of tables in the front room, a few looking out over the street and then a back patio with a nice fountain trickling. We sit in the back by the fountain.
Everyone is very friendly and we talk with the waitress about beer on tap which she calls presson but she wants to know the english expression and after we tell her she keeps coming to our table saying "On tap". All their on tap beers are from Quebec and Vive decides to work his way down the list. I help him by ordering one beer (a white beer which they don't have because they can't get the tap to switch over) and instead I get a "blond beer". Vive gets the winners though. He orders a red and blond mixed beer which tastes of cloves and smoke which I love (Coup de Grisou). So I drink that one and Vive drinks my blond beer (Tremblay) and then orders the beer noir which is this rich coffee cocoa tasting beer like a Guinness (St-Ambroise Noire).
We order a plate of nachos to go with it. Not traditional Quebec or French food but traditional bar food and, in any case, they do it a bit different. No beans, but interesting cheeses (not cheddar or white cheese, not sure what it was), a homemade salsa and sour cream and lots of mild pepper rings. We decided we are going to bring the kids back tomorrow. Soemtimes, we just need a break from the gourmet food for the casual.
No comments:
Post a Comment