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| - This place is trying a bit too hard.
Environment:
It's hardly "indie" to have a massive restaurant and sign that can be seen from outer space. Furthermore, the interior is atmospherically bereft. A few framed pictures of their more limited edition beer bottle labels and some wooden signs indicating what is on tap for the day. It's cold-feeling, sparse, under-decorated and blank.
Beer:
I've added in an extra star strictly for the helpfulness of the staff and their knowledge of the beers. I'm pretty finicky when it comes to beer, and our server worked with me to figure out what I would like. We definitely enjoyed the beer, but again, it was kind of weird. They have two beers that they charge full price for that are only 3% alcohol. Does anybody drink light beer anymore? Take these two light beers (that are called ANYTHING but light on the menu to detract from their lack of alcohol content), then add them to the other litany of excessively esoteric offerings, and you wind up not having much to keep ordering that's easy-drinking enough to like. Yes, it's interesting to have countless IPAs that have varying sour, citrus-y and vegetal notes. But I don't want to drink repeated glasses of any of them.
Food:
Interesting combinations and flavours, but the prices are too steep for what you get (almost as though you're paying a $2-$3 per-plate tax for "indie-ness"). $14 macaroni and cheese in a tiny bowl set on a much larger plate occupied with pieces of toasted bread. You leave feeling like you've just spent a lot of $ on something that wasn't entirely satisfying from a place that is just too vague to settle on an identity. It's altogether alienating, and the last place in the world I would deem "pub-like". It feels too commercial and insincere, much more like a Milestones than an indie/Junction bar.
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