Category: Beer

Posted on

A day of unhealthy eating on Johnston St: Bomb, Ilk Bar, Kooshi

Yesterday my curiosity about this place prompted me to detour from my otherwise rigidly fixed route to work on my bike, in my suit. It doesn’t exactly leap out at you when driving past as the missing breakfastry of Abbotsford, and even after peering through this window last Sunday when it was closed, its true nature did not reveal itself, but Bomb Cafe & Bar, as I have discovered it is known (229 Johnston St, not far from the corner of Hoddle St, 9486 0699) is a great spot. Like so many long thin places on Johnston St, a small front section gives onto a middle room and then a magnificent back yard graced by a large peppercorn tree. The hot breakfast menu looked promising, the people behind the coffee machines engaging, but I had a pastry with custard and raspberries with my coffee. Steak, red wine, and salad followed by cheese and walnuts at Vue de Monde didn’t really help at lunch. Continue reading “A day of unhealthy eating on Johnston St: Bomb, Ilk Bar, Kooshi”

Posted on

Park Hotel’s Third Birthday: 1 April 2006

Now I do like a bit of Chinoiserie moderne, and it’s a la mode right now in newly degrunged pubs and quirky Japanese cafes alike. The Park Hotel is a truly excellent pub in Abbotsford, which manages to be grungy and degrunged at once, down Nicholson St a bit from the Retreat Hotel on the other side at no. 191 (9419 4352). It has copies of Truth lying around (and I thought defamation writs had shut it down, but it seemed to have morphed even more into a racing tabloid), itself more kitsch interior decor than true fodder for the regs probably but then I’m not sure about that, and a good beer garden, with a pool table. Its kitchen serves up tasty tucker and its prices are reasonable. One time, its taps had broken down and they were selling stubbies for the price of pots. That was a good day. Its present incarnation’s having its third birthday on April Fool’s Day, and, unless they’re joshing, there’s going to be fillums ‘n all. [I can’t find any evidence on the internet of The Truth being extant, but that doesn’t mean anything. I did find this interview of a former editor though, in which the rag is described as something read by folk who won their money on the racing pages and spent it on the brothel pages, and in which it is recounted that a Mr Justice Innes described it in the 1890s as “a wretched little paper reeking of filth”. I also learnt that it broke some serious stories, including what happened at Maralinga with the A bomb blasts. Those were the days, when it would sell 400,000 copies a day.]

Posted on

All the Pubs and Bars and some of the beers of Abbotsford

Here’s a useful starting point for an exploration of Abbotsford’s pubs and bars.

Unless my Google search skills aren’t up to it, though, Abbotsford doesn’t have any happy hours featured at The Happiest Hour.com which an acquaintance of mine claims to run, or to have invented, or something.

When in Abbotsford, do as the Abbotsrigines do and drink Abbotsford Invalid Stout, or Abbots Lager, or Abbotsford Sparkling (or any other CUB product of course), or a Mountain Goat beer, though that’s pretty weird, and actually from next-door Richmond.  Beer critic Willie Simpson says of the Sparkling:

“Abbotsford Sparkling Ale is another heavyweight contender (8.5 per cent A/V), which CUB created to celebrate a century of brewing at Abbotsford. Unfortunately, this rich, malty ‘barley wine’ won’t be released commercially, but it does prove the big boys can make serious specialty beers.”

The photo, by a Norwegian living in Malaysia who was in the Galapagos Islands at the time is from Aliasgrace’s wonderful collection of images at Flickr.