A taste of Ottawa’s best: Beau’s, Bridgehead and Hintonburger

For more info on Beau's All Natural Brewing Company visit: www.beaus.ca

Conor (a soon be lawyer) and Renée (a dedicated public servant) have lived in Ottawa their whole lives and couldn’t imagine living in a better city.  Their love affair with Ottawa stems from the serene calm that seems to surround the city, the camaraderie of the Ottawa Trivia League (they’re both on the team Spoiler Alert) and by trying new local things.

Conor was first introduced to Beau’s in the summer of 2008 when a friend gave him one of those easily recognizable ceramic bottles.

The Lugtread was delicious, local, and family brewed.  So when we heard that another rising local institution was teaming up with Beau’s we had to make it out to Bridgehead to celebrate Winterlude with Winterbrew, a coffee infused beer.

Bridgehead

The event took place at Bridgehead’s newest location on Sparks Street.  The place was jammed with all types. Who knew so many people liked beer and coffee! While we joked that The Drew Carrey Show had this idea years ago, Beau’s and Bridgehead put a little more thought into this beer’s recipe than getting buzzed on beer and coffee.

According to a press release from Beau’s, they “wanted to go with a medium altitude Central or South American coffee, because they tend to be very clean with flavours [they] thought would be complementary to the beer – nuts, cocoa powder and warm spices. There were a few coffees that would have done the trick, but we settled upon a coffee from around the town of San Juan del Rio Coco in Madriz, Nicaragua because of the pronounced Dutch-processed cocoa aromas.”

Bridgehead

The beer did not disappoint.

We were warned that the first sip would be strange and it was.  But half way through it became really tasty.  Peter and Conor, both heavy coffee drinkers, appreciated the sensation of getting pretty buzzed  and compared it to an iced Americano.  Renee and Kristen, who do not often drink coffee, didn’t enjoy it as much but finished their drinks in true Winterbrew style.

Cynical curmudgeon, Conor, scoffed at both Beau’s and Bridgehead who pride themselves on natural and organic as well as fair trade means of crafting their brews, for serving the Winterbrew in plastic cups until Peter realized that the cups were compostable. Nice touch.

Running with the local and organic theme of the night, we headed to Hintonburger on Wellington for dinner.

Hintonburger is located at 991 Wellington Street West

From the outside, it looks like a dive, but you should never judge a book by it’s cover because within is pure deliciousness.

The beef comes from Ottawa O’Brien Farms and are filled with herbs and seasoning.  No pictures of the burger themselves because we were too busy eating them and/or they were so delicious we ate them too fast.   We haven’t ventured away from the burger, but I hear they’re corn dog is delicious (and can’t wait to try it).

If you’re in Hintonburg you really need to stop in and try anything on their menu, but make sure to have money on hand as it’s cash only.

Thanks for the post you two! We hope to see more of you here…and in person!

Jeopardy update: one Ottawan beats another…

So if you haven’t been keeping up, CBC tells us that last night Robert Kennedy, who now lives in California, defeated current Ottawa resident, George Tsuji, to become the current Jeopardy champion.

The lovely and talented Conor Cronin, who plays on the “Spoiler Alert!” pub quiz team  at the Downtown Royal Oak on Wednesdays, gives us a quick rundown on last night’s show.

George got off to a great start where at $600 and he landed on the Daily Double and bet the full $1000 just as he had on last night’s show.  Unfortunately he could not identify Samuel Adams as the brewery which runs the Longshot American Homebrew Contest. Unsurprising, though, since no one in Canada drinks Sam Adams and under the rules and regulations of the contest, Canadian residents are barred from participating.  The whole game seemed to have an American bias more than usual (although Megan, the lone American, answered a question on the metric system correctly) . None of the contestants were able to dominate the board and at the first commercial break only Megan was on the plus side.

After the commercial, George showed his cleverness and the experience he gained from last night’s show by being quickest with the buzzer.  At the end of the Jeopardy round he was in the lead.

In Double Jeopardy, Bob, University of Ottawa alum, started rolling.  He was clearly quicker on the buzzer.  George’s quiet confidence turned into timidity and, though he didn’t seem to get any answers wrong, he couldn’t answer enough questions to get the lead back from Bob; Bob’s buzzer skills were the deciding factor.

The Final Jeopardy question was held a somewhat American bias as in order to answer correctly contestants needed to know that 1,320 feet equalled a quarter mile and there was such thing as a Quarter Horse breed.  Though in second, George strategically bet less than everything he had in the hope that Bob answered incorrectly.

George loss owed more to Bob’s ability to buzz in faster than it did with the contestants’ knowledge.  Many say Ken Jennings was so successful for that very reason.  George also showed that he could play the game better than many other contestants by betting strategically in Final Jeopardy; obviously a skill he learned by not betting the full two on the Wildcard and waiting to make sure his team got the answer in the Rush Round instead of guessing on the five point clue.

If you have no idea what that last sentence meant, you should really get out to an Ottawa Trivia League night.

Ottawa pub quiz competitor makes it to the big time: Jeopardy!

Former Ottawa-resident and trivia aficionado Jackie Irvine is a publishing professional and book blogger living in Toronto. Conor Cronin is a third year law student at the University of Windsor who will soon be articling at an Ottawa law firm. He plays on the “Spoiler Alert!” pub quiz team  at the Downtown Royal Oak on Wednesdays.

For trivia aficionados, an episode of Jeopardy can be more exciting than a Stanley Cup playoff game. OK, slight exaggeration, but many Ottawa Trivia League players were on the edge of our seats last night as one of our own, George Tsuji from the Costanza pub quiz team, fought tooth and nail for ultimate trivia nerd supremacy.

Here is a detailed play-by-play from Conor, on George’s performance:

After selecting the first Daily Double early in the first round and daringly betting the full $1,000, I had a feeling George Tsuji would do well. Though I was nervous as he was standing at the far right podium where Quiz Master Paul Paquet’s wife Laura stood several years ago and placed third.

George won over our hearts after the first commercial break with a charming story about buying a new car.  It was a stick shift and, not knowing how to drive manual, he had to have the salesman drive him home because it was rush hour.

No one had clear control of the board for most of the Jeopardy round. After missing a few higher scoring questions, however, George found himself in third place heading in to Double Jeopardy. Imee Slater, the size 4 shoe wearing middle podium contestant, basically disappeared and a battle of nerves and wit played out between George and three day champ Vito Cortese.

With one category to go, Ballet, Vito had a small lead. George came up with some timely answers to put him within striking distance and took the lead when Vito incorrectly answered “Nutcracker Suite” and not simply “Nutcracker” on the last clue! George carried his $4,000 lead into Final Jeopardy, which all the contestants answered correctly.

With a sizable bet, George won handily finishing with $20,000. Look for questions regarding the USS Arapahoe and it being the first ship to send an SOS in 1909 during upcoming pub quizzes.

Tune in tonight to see how George fares in his second game!