LE RESERVOIR - MICROBREWERY

 

LE RESERVOIR - 

MICROBREWS, TONS OF PEOPLE, GOOD TIMES

Their website (in French only):  http://brasseriereservoir.ca/
9 Avenue Duluth Est, Montreal, QC H2W 1G6 
Telephone:(514) 849-7779
Price Range:  
Meal - $30+ per person including one drink, meal, tax, and tip
Drinks only - Before 8pm:  $3.50 for a glass of beer, $5.50 for a pint
                     After 8pm:  $4 for a glass of beer, $6 for a pint

 

Exterior, nighttime. Have I EVER been here during daytime?

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Here's a place that hearkens right back to my university days - i.e., a HEAVY drinking period. Just what is it about university life that incites such high volumes of alcohol consumption? Is it the movies, the beer commercials starring schlubby guys and hot women, the WB dramas? Who knows - it just happens, and I got swept along with the massive drinking. I am currently well past those days, and if a pub managed to stay with me till now, it's only because I love the taste of their food or the taste of their beers.With the microbrewery Le Reservoir, it's because I loooooove their beer, especially the cream ale.

Now, one of my buddies is convinced that I still love this place just because it's dark and gloomy. LORDY, the boy don't know me none (I am well aware that the previous sentence was grammatically incorrect. Grammar sticklers:  Down! Down I say!)! Yes, the place is thoroughly dark at night, with candles seemingly purposefully chosen to be poorly illuminating. And, come to think of it, most bars and restaurants that I like and frequent are, coincidentally, dimly-lit. But man alive, I come for here for the beer! The lovely, wonderful microbrewed beer! Drinking microbrews nearly exclusively IS part of my low-rent food snobbery, after all! The darkness is just something I live with to get access to the delicious beer nectar! So, with that in mind, here are my thoughts and impressions of the beers on tap at this place. One of the first things you'll notice coming here is the fact that the place is PACKED and that you might not get a table right away. On a recent trip, me and my drinking companion were crammed into a corner underneath the stairs. That's fine though - still a good view of the action in the place, and besides, I came for the beer. And so, I present their beer menu:

We begin with my absolute favorite here, a glass of cream ale ($4):

Right after serving.

One minute, twenty seconds after serving (yes, I timed it).

This awesome beer can't even be consumed right away (well, okay, I guess you can, but still, better to wait). It takes at least a minute for the foam to settle. And the settling of foam is pretty amazing to see. Most of the time, when a beer is this foamed, it basically means that you're going to have to pour more beer in your glass (because the person who did the pouring was highly unskilled). This beer? The foam disappears and is replaced with an equal volume of beer. It's like a magic trick! Anyhow, I love this cream ale. It's light, mildly fruity with a solid hops taste and almost no aftertaste. And it makes my mouth water from the very first sip to the very last. Lordy, it's good! Every one of my visits here starts with this beer!

A glass of India pale ale ($4):

The IPA is bitter, slightly tart, and has almost no aftertaste. Not my favorite beer here, but still a VERY solid bet!

A glass of pilsner ($4):

The other beer brewed at Reservoir that makes my mouth water from the very first sip (hell, thinking about the beer as I'm typing this paragraph is literally making my mouth water - is this a Pavlovian reflex, or an operant one?). The pilsner is tart, bitter, and has a fairly strong aftertaste.

A glass of weizen ($4):

A wheat beer that absolutely leaves you with no doubt as to its chief ingredient - you can really taste the wheatiness of this beer. It also has hints of fruitiness and a touch of spice. A great summer beer, to be sure!

And finally, a glass of noire ($4):

A barley stout, this dark beer has a nice hint of coffee flavoring. Also, it feels like a meal unto itself (in a good way)


There are other beers, but they vary by season. The beers I described above were the ones on tap - they also have other beers which are served exclusively in a house-bottled 750ml format. I'll update the current post with their house-bottled beers next time. 

Now, a word on the food at Le Reservoir:  It is tasty, but it's not why I come here. Besides the ubiquitous pub dish of fish and chips, the rest of their food selection hails from the upscale end of the spectrum, and will cost you around $18 (before taxes and tip, obviously). Contrast that with the beer - for $20, you get to buy a glass of each beer on tap (like I did for this review). I know how I'm spending my money! That said, it's still worthwhile for the uninitiated to take a gander at their food menu:

As you can see, they have raw spiced salmon, rillettes and duck spread, shrimp guedille, steak tartare, and a cheese plate. I've had everything on this menu except for the steak tartare over the years, and while they've all been good, I just can't bring myself to order these dishes here anymore. In fact, it's been at least five years since I ate at Reservoir. It's kinda like going to a great bbq chicken place and ordering the spaghetti - you know it'll be competent, but it's not why you're there, y'know? So why bother?

To finish, here is my suggestion in a nutshell: Really, just come here for the beers (especially the cream ale). They're all VERY tasty, and they're offered at a pretty good price. If you love beer, you will be very, very, very glad you did.

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Mouthwatering Montreal - Le Reservoir is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.