Those were the days, my friends

[ssiguy]

I miss going for country drives on a Sunday where you see could see all the quaint o,ld towns and there wouldn't be a soul on the road.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

Where's the stockpile of 50 No quart bottles. And you call yourself a bar

I had to go there again tonight, so I took pics for you

(These boxes are all quarts, of course)



IMG_3511


IMG_3512

[MolsonExport]

oh my god they still have O'Keefe and Laurentide? Wow! I thought these were no longer brewed.

[MolsonExport]

[MolsonExport]

pickled pork tongues...the legend is true ('twas also when I kept bar back in the late 80s...yes, I was a bartender for 3 years).

[esquire]

Lio has somehow made his way past the gates of heaven tonight

[MolsonExport]

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.9896...i5120?hl=en-US

[lio45]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

oh my god they still have O'Keefe and Laurentide? Wow! I thought these were no longer brewed.

If you prefer those to your namesake then that's what you can choose to wash down your pickled tongues

And yep, those beers still exist. (That pic is from today.) I've seen some people drink them, too.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by esquire

Lio has somehow made his way past the gates of heaven tonight

I have the key to the place. Guess that makes me a mini St Peter

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

That image probably represents the first beers I ever had in Canada. As a teen most summers or sometimes at Christmas at some point I was in the UK and even in the early 80's the selection in the UK was a lot more diverse than that photo.

Back then in the 80's the brews in your picture had a distinctive taste and the stubby was everywhere. I think that they all technically still available in Ontario, but I'd be hard pressed to see a number of them available other than on a dusty shelf at the Beer Store.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by lio45

I have the key to the place. Guess that makes me a mini St Peter

Where is this bastion of quart bottles, Laurentide and 50. Do you have a 'ladies and escorts' entrance as well

In Ottawa, I think of only about 3 or 4 bars at most have quart bottles. 50 may have a bit of a hipster following but honestly it is playing on an old nostalgia as it's taste has been watered down I find and it isn't that memorable.

I gather your bar doesn't serve meals on shovels or condiments in test tubes and there isn't an avocado to be found in the kitchen

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

Where is this bastion of quart bottles, Laurentide and 50.

Pretty sure I mentioned that already. (It's in downtown Sherbrooke, of course.)

The building and bar have been in the same hands since the 1960s, and the building's been configured like that since the 1920s. It's a bit of a time capsule and since I like old things, I would like it to stay that way.

I recently met a guy (he hangs out at that bar) who sold me a downtown Sherbrooke 9-plex in 2007 when he retired - I wouldn't have recognized him ~13 years later, he recognized me. He's 86 years old now and I'm not even sure he's the oldest customer On the other hand there are some youngsters who hang out there too, I'm impressed. There are way less bars around than even back in my day so on a per capita basis the remaining ones have an easier time, even when they don't change with the times, apparently.

Do you have a 'ladies and escorts' entrance as well

Well, the stories above the bar (an hotel still configured as such) are nowadays operated as SRO. Think Vancouver DTES pre-war hotel - because that's exactly what it is. There are whores among the tenants upstairs and they do hang out at the bar, if that answers your question. (Not sure yet to what degree I'll want to clean that up.)

I gather your bar doesn't serve meals on shovels or condiments in test tubes and there isn't an avocado to be found in the kitchen

Nope to all these questions

[esquire]

Originally Posted by lio45

There are way less bars around than even back in my day so on a per capita basis the remaining ones have an easier time, even when they don't change with the times, apparently.

At a certain point places cross the line from looking old and tired to amazing time capsules and reminders of a bygone age.

It's like when the occasional real estate listing goes viral because an old lady has lived in the same house since it was built in 1955 and everything looks exactly the same as it did in the 50s.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

That image probably represents the first beers I ever had in Canada. As a teen most summers or sometimes at Christmas at some point I was in the UK and even in the early 80's the selection in the UK was a lot more diverse than that photo.

Back then in the 80's the brews in your picture had a distinctive taste and the stubby was everywhere. I think that they all technically still available in Ontario, but I'd be hard pressed to see a number of them available other than on a dusty shelf at the Beer Store.

It was really just "beer" like coffee was "coffee". We didn't really have expectations that everything would cater to our own very special and unique tastes, which we didn't actually have.

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

That image probably represents the first beers I ever had in Canada. As a teen most summers or sometimes at Christmas at some point I was in the UK and even in the early 80's the selection in the UK was a lot more diverse than that photo.

Back then in the 80's the brews in your picture had a distinctive taste and the stubby was everywhere. I think that they all technically still available in Ontario, but I'd be hard pressed to see a number of them available other than on a dusty shelf at the Beer Store.

I can’t remember the last time I had a “legacy” Canadian beer, let alone in a stubby. I have essentially been consuming craft or imported beer for at least 10 years. That said, one of my favourite Belgian beer (Duvel) comes in a stubby.

[wave46]

Originally Posted by esquire

At a certain point places cross the line from looking old and tired to amazing time capsules and reminders of a bygone age.

It's like when the occasional real estate listing goes viral because an old lady has lived in the same house since it was built in 1955 and everything looks exactly the same as it did in the 50s.

I've joked with my father that if he kept wearing his '80s style glasses, he'd eventually come full circle to looking cool again.

It is interesting to see certain things come full-circle - LPs and Labatt 50 come to mind - in certain segments of the population.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

I miss going for country drives on a Sunday where you see could see all the quaint o,ld towns and there wouldn't be a soul on the road.

That was a favourite lockdown activity of ours in the Spring.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by wave46

I've joked with my father that if he kept wearing his '80s style glasses, he'd eventually come full circle to looking cool again.

The Chevy Astro van, unchanged since 1985, looked really dated by the mid-1990s when all the modern vehicles looked like jellybeans but by the time GM discontinued it in ~2005 it had become sharp-looking again as the design trends had gone back to straight lines and boxy looks. (I always found that really amusing.)

Compare: 2004 Scion xB (brand new design at the time) vs 2004 Chevrolet Astro.

[ssiguy]

Our first house was the typical 1960's split level on a big lot. Like many it had the one thing that you haven't seen in 50 years...............the front little inlet box for the milkman.

Also remember the days when you appliances needed fixing and you actually fixed it as opposed to throwing it away and getting a new one? Of course the first thing that comes to mind is the good old TV repairman.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by lio45

Well, the stories above the bar (an hotel still configured as such) are nowadays operated as SRO. Think Vancouver DTES pre-war hotel - because that's exactly what it is. There are whores among the tenants upstairs and they do hang out at the bar, if that answers your question. (Not sure yet to what degree I'll want to clean that up.)

Escorts as in someone accompanying a lady..very old fashioned terminology but in the 70's/80's taverns had those kind of entrances