Soft opening at Red Racer, Yaletown

Red Racer Restaurant:
871 Beatty Street, Vancouver

On Friday July 24^th, Surrey’s Central City Brewers + Distillers opened their 4800 sq ft Red Racer pub in the old Dix’s BBQ location on Beatty St in Vancouver. We checked it out earlier at a V.I.P. preview event.

This is a full service restaurant, not a brewpub, as they’re not brewing beer onsite (yet). The interior has been refreshed but remains mostly the same as it was for Dix. The service was vastly improved.



The sweeping main bar has a custom serving up a varied  40+ craft beers; 14 of their own plus various guest taps from mainly local craft breweries including:  Bomber, Bridge, Dageraad, Persophone, Deschutes, 33 Acres, Driftwood, Steel & Oak, Postmark, 4 Winds, Hoyne, Steamworks, Powell St, Parallel 49, Hearthstone and others. Their big screen TV’s also serve as beer menus showing what beers are being served on tap, how full each keg is and the prices for a glass, pint or pitcher. Our server mentioned that growler refills will be available soon.

Food is key and includes the BBQ that Dix was known for and a Build Your Own Burger Bar. We tried many of the starters they plan to serve and especially enjoyed the Spring Rolls Al Pastor (good crunch), the Scotch Eggs (well-seasoned) and the Squid Diablo (nice heat). The pulled pork sandwiches were tasty as were the pork ribs (a little salty) but the surprise favourite was the  S’more dessert.

Looking forward to a follow-up visit to check out the burger bar and work through more of the brews on tap.

~ Ron          .

@FoodieIam

B33r tasting at 33 Acres

This places seems to be a victim of their own success !

We all arrived in small groups, and ended up having to wait ! They were at full capacity. This is likely because it was a beautiful Vancouver evening on a Thursday. And we all know Thursday is the new Friday !

33 Acres is located just off main street and if I lived in that neighborhood I would be stopping for a pint on my way home as well. 

We all managed to get in after about a 20 min wait.  Each trying different flights and different pints. Ordering flights is fun, you take a card and mark down which B33rs you would like to taste. There was no stand out beer that was a "must try" but everyone seemed to find something they liked. 

The atmosphere is fun! Their tasting room is bright, crisp with a modern interior.

~ Colleen

A long overdue visit with a friend

A girlfriend and I had a pleasant evening at the Tap and Barrel.  To be honest it wasn’t my first choice as I haven’t heard outstanding reviews.  We picked the coal harbour location as it was a middle meeting point on transit and found a table on their large patio without any problems. They have set tables under giant umbrellas or communal seating up top overlooking the seaplane. This is where we opted to sit.  They have a large area so we had no trouble finding a table with some space on a summer evening.

Their drink menu is pages long of beer or wine. You can pick a flight of whatever you like, which is a great option. Being easily overwhelmed I picked things that sounded refreshing on a hot day.
 

My choices were:

Pineapple hef. The Tree Brewing, Kelowna offers up some beers with great creative names. They love what they do and have fun with it. Mellow Moon Pineapple Hefeweizen has a summer smell to it! It is a light citrus wheat start for flavour, than evolves to a citrus taste before finishing with the pineapple flavor. 

Beermosa, Parallel 49 see: Bearmosa Post

Life, 33 Acres Brewing.  I didn’t love this in the start.  There is a bite as the beer hits your tounge, but by the 3^rd sip it is hardly noticeable. Perhaps that bit is because of the way it is processed. It’s called a California Common” What this means is rather than fermenting the lager at a cool temperature it is done at a higher temperature closer to an ale. Because of this face it is often referred to as a lager / ale hybrid.

Over all it was a great summer evening for a patio drink and some great company.

~ Colleen