We started in the Canoe club. I continue to dislike the beer there, but love the patio and the food is reasonable. I had the eggs diablo, a baked egg and chorizo sausage dish. Not exactly filling, but very tasty and a good start for the day. The IPA was terrible, and I should have passed on drinking here. But with fine weather and even finer company, the mood was set in for the day for me. The shared appy here was some just about passable calamari and a mushy, sour tasting white bean dip.
We then took a hop over to the Lido. A small cafe and patio bar right next to the Hyack air terminal. I've had a great coffee there before one trip to Seattle. The beer menu is short, but good. Two jugs of Driftwood's White Beer were shared, and the conversation was set for the day. The very attractive Brunette of my Acquaintance enjoyed her Pimms cup, served properly with cucumber and a basket full of raspberries. The G&T drinker declared the mixed drink to be fantastic. I love the space here, and for summer drinking, it's well worth it. The appy was perfect drunk food, a cheesy garlic thin crust pizza. No sauce, just cheese, bacon and garlic. Served with a 'special' white sauce (sweet, thin and terrible) and a thick oregano paste (really good).
A real ferry ride took us to Spinnakers. Not part of the official Pickle Pub Crawl, but one of my favourite places in Victoria. Sadly we sat inside, so the day seemed to slip away and the energy lowered with the lack of sun light. Still, I drank a fantastic saison from Gigantic Brewing. 8.5%, in a 13oz snifter. Dry, slight fizzy, slightly spicy and crisp. Too many would have made me slip into a happy coma.
Fresh air, and we left the Brunette behind for errands, while nine of us continued on to the Steamship Bar and Grill. Their beer menu is super short. Four beers, two pretty dull premium lagers and a really nice dark wee scotch ale. Everyone else got stuck into the big fruity drinks. The sangria was voted as worth a second drink. And second were had.
The free appy here was more calamari. Tender pieces, lightly breaded and served with also breaded and fried pieces of lemon and jalepeno pepper. Really good, one of the better calamaris I have had in town. The view here is great, the patio over looking the harbour gives you plenty to watch the world go by, and the service was super friendly outside. Inside, the big high ceiling space looks a bit sterile, and I'm not sure I'd go for dinner... it feels more like a tourist bar than a local place.
Finally, we took the ferry over to Lure at the Delta Pointe. We were reduced to six by this point, but this fine and hardy bunch took in the patio there. Or we would have, but it was being maintained and the builders were in. Odd, as I think it's just been opened, so maybe it was made from sketchy concrete. We sat inside on a big long table. Really comfortable chairs, but that's about the best I can say about the venue. The service was rushed, and they seemed to have much debate about a missing cucumber for the Hendricks and gin. We saw the cucumber, but were told it was still missing. I have no idea why... Maybe I was just beginning to really feel the glow of the beers by that point, and cucumbers gained to much importance.
No matter, we finished off and headed back to the Canoe to wander home. Or to friend's houses to write blog posts about pub crawls before going to fringe shows.
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