Dominion City Brewing Co. Pop-Up Brewery Kitchen Series: Great local beer with a side of good food.

This past Friday, we decided to check out one of Dominion City’s Pop-Up Brewery Kitchen events. Dominion City is a local brewing company and every month, they pair up with a local restaurant to host a food and drinks event at their location on Canotek Road. Good local craft beer with good food? Count me in! I’m surprised I didn’t get on this train earlier! There’s no cover and no reservations needed. You just need to show up between 6-9pm. Easy peasy.

The Beer

First things first: the beer. We’ve had Dominion City beer before and they are definitely one of our favourite local breweries. Full disclosure: I love hoppy beers, specifically IPAs, so I can only truly comment on their IPA line-up, which never seems to disappoint. If you want something less hoppy, maybe try their pale ale. (As suggested by one of the staff there when a patron asked “what’s the lamest beer you have”.) For IPAs, my usual go-to is their Two Flags IPA, but this can be easily found at various restaurants/pubs around town so I opted to try something different. The two beers which caught my eye was the Fidelis DIPA (double IPA) and the Needless Luxury TIPA (triple IPA). I asked to sample the Fidelis but they accidentally poured me some of the Needless Luxury instead. I cannot complain because I fell in love with it and ordered a full pour immediately! Its flavours are so impressive! Definitely NOT a lame beer. Because it was 10% APV, it was only an 8 oz. pour instead of the usual 12oz. and I savoured every tasty ounce of it. Aaron got the Fidelis, which was good but it was definitely overshadowed by the Needless. As much as I wanted to have a second of my new favourite beer, I decided it was probably not a good idea to drink two 10% beers within the span of an hour. Instead, I went for the Sunsplit IPA, which was very refreshing and grapefruity, the way I like my IPAs. I was reminded by Aaron that I’ve actually had this one before as he has previously ordered a few of their beers online (I know right??) for us to try at home. We also got to sample the Northfield Saison, their farmhouse ale, which has been fermented for 6 months in oak barrels. It wasn’t my usual cup of tea, with a more sour taste but it was surprisingly easy to drink, regardless. Aaron quite liked it and decided to pick up a bottle. We also tried their Bonspiel Brown Lager, which again was not my cup of tea, but a good choice for those who like coffee-tasting beer.

The Food

The restaurant that they are featuring this month is Town, which we have been to in the past and quite enjoyed their food. The neat thing about this event is that they are not necessarily serving what they usually serve at their restaurant. Instead, they get to experiment with new menu items. The theme for this evening is “Chinese take-out”, which is quite different than the usual Italian dishes you would find at their restaurant. Some may be skeptical about this and worried about a restaurant stepping into new territory but I was pleasantly surprised! The dishes were priced at $6-12. We decided to try a bit of everything. We wanted to try the “Moo Shu Pancake”, chicken wings and fried rice. Unfortunately, they were out of chicken wings by the time we arrived, so we decided to try a few more flavours of the pancake to make up for that. Their pancake options are the beef shank, mapo tofu and eggplant. Their interpretation of a “Moo Shu Pancake” was basically like an Asian-styled taco, with the shell being the thin wrapping that you would wrap Peiking duck with. We started with the tofu, which was alright. It definitely was outshone by the other two. Next, we had the eggplant which was nicely flavoured and the texture was not too slimy, which can often be a problem with eggplant. The beef shank was definitely my favourite, full of umami flavour. Then we tried the fried rice, which was definitely the winner of the night. It was packed full of flavours from the salted cod, ham, Chinese sausage, tobiko mayo. The little chunks of potato were definitely a nice touch as well and changed up the texture of the dish. It also had a good spice factor, which was quite impressive. The only thing I would change about this dish, is slicing the sausage into thicker slices so it doesn’t become as dry and hard. It didn’t bother me too much though, as we ended up ordering seconds of the rice.

The Vibe

The vibe of here was very chill. The staff were friendly and were all very knowledgeable about their beer. The kitchen staff seemed like they were having a good time. There was quite a bit of seating and places to just stand and chill. I also appreciated how it was children friendly as many patrons brought their kids as well. Others just were having a good time playing Jenga on top of a beer bottle.

Overall, this was an awesome way to spend a Friday evening! I would love to come back to one of their future events in this series. Next week they have a pop-up event in support of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.

Friends of the Dominion
Date/Time: March 30, 2018 from 4-10pm
Location: General Assembly – 5 Fairmont Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 1X4, in Hintonburg
Featuring: Beer by Dominion City and other local breweries, wineries and cideries. Snacks by MeatPress.

For more information: Friends of the Dominion
Drinks line-up: Here

In the meantime and as mentioned before, you can order their beer online to have it delivered straight to your home! However, I would highly recommend checking out their physical location for a tour of their facilities or to try some of their specials (which cannot be purchased online) at their tasting bar.

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For more information and to order beer: https://www.dominioncity.ca/