Cowbell Brewery - A Zeke Tasteem Review©!
What better place to have some Drinks with Friends than a huge brewery with an upscale restaurant? ROAD TRIP!
The Cowbell Brewing Company https://cowbellbrewing.com/is quite a story, and quite a place! In short, it is located in Blythe Ontario which you will most likely know nothing about. A quaint little town for sure and some neat local stories but it is rather small. The fact that a brewery of this magnitude and scale is located there is strange in my eyes. Add to that the fancy dining aspect is usually not associated with a brewery.
Heading within 10 minutes of this town I would probably never have any other reason to visit, I had to detour at least to scout it out for a date night as I am always on the lookout for Wifepoints.
As you may be able to see, the facility is awesome. The attention to detail and investment into making it traditional yet modern is obvious. Granted, the investment would be double for the land alone in a metropolis area, is it the buzz of the small town.
Nothing but farms for as far as the eye can see from this angle up on the second floor of the dining area.
Can I start you with a drink?
It might appear I was shaking with excitement when I was snapping a pic of the leather-bound beer menu. I didn't bother looking at the whiskey section or ask for guest taps as I HAD to taste what they had to offer seeing as I had enjoyed it before.
It is ALWAYS a good idea to reserve judgement for a brew until after you have tasted it fresh onsite at the brewery. The process is as clean as you can get it but it is a process nonetheless concluded by a bumpy ride from the brewery to the final destination. Anything can happen and fresh beer RULES!
Boxing Bruin IPA
I opted for the Boxing Bruin IPA https://cowbellbrewing.com/beer/doc-perdues-boxing-bruin which is their founder's series meaning it is available year round and at liquor stores. Here is the story as told on the website:
"Doc Perdue was Blyth's veterinarian in the late 1880's who rescued and cared for a variety of animals, including a bear cub he named Bruin. Along with impromptu boxing exhibitions with the fully-grown Bruin, Doc’s office became Blyth’s unofficial zoo — and a popular spot for gatherings."
Again, nothing really to do with the beer but a unique story to tie it to the community. It is not really outrageously hoppy as they claim but bold enough and sweet enough that I buy it from time to time.
My little one went with her standard and opted for the Shirley Temple. Having travelled far and wide, sampling these at every location that offers them, it was classed as good enough and not enough grenadine.
The Menu
The menu is kinda neat in presentation as it consists of 3 or so pages strapped to a nice little piece of wood. Much better than a laminated and stale old static menu.
The first page tells a tale of snacks, salads and starters. It is a rather impressive variety of fish, meats, vegetarian and even vegan fare. I really wanted to order the Jalapeno Cornbread but had my little one with me who is not overly fond of spices....yet.
Diving deeper in, you get into sandwiches and the kid's menu. Someone told me that if it is in a bun, it ain't fine dining. It is neat that they are keeping the simple stuff on a page of its own. I am going to have to subject them to the classic Zeke Burger Challenge when I go back perhaps.
It gets interesting when you flip again and head to the Mains page. It reads like a typical menu in a place that is completely surrounded in farms specializing in beef, pork and chicken. There is even a little fish in there but not much for the vegetarian. They also offer wood-fired pizza like Jobsite Brewery https://jobsitebrewing.ca/and Toboggan Brewing https://www.tobogganbrewing.com/ though a little more expensive.
A Walk Around...
After making our order, we decided to walk around and take a look at the place. The security guy said we were free to wander which is nice. Here are a few shots of what we saw and a Zeke Peak at the facility which I will delve into more for my #beersaturday post later this week.
Food time!
After our quick tour, we returned to find our freshly-delivered Spinach Dip & Naan. What a great snack with its zesty cheese and tasty spices. It was perhaps a little expensive and the bread was a little floppy for the dipping it was meant for but I would order it again.
They used a neat trick to make it so that the bowl that holds the dip didn't slide around the plate. a few sprouts underneath it did that trick and added a little colour to the presentation.
A Zeke Tasteem Review wouldn't be complete without my patented EXTREME CLOSE UP where you get your face right into the dish and the people near me give me weird looks. Hey what can I say? I am a beerologist and professional restaurant reviewer!
The Gift Shop/General Store
There really was a good variety of things to buy from dog toys to hot sauce, coffee to snacks and all sorts of clothing. Being a world-famous beer blogger, I wear these things when they are provided to me for free in exchange for the publicity I garner ;)
I was interested in the fridge on this trip though. Here, they have a lot of the same stuff you can get back in my home town. Kolsch, porter, lager, ale and IPA.
I know a lot of my international folks like the Growlers we have here to bring home a bigger botle to enjoy. It is also generally the vehicle to some of the one-off, playground or seasonal beers that do not get put in the regular canning run.
I opted for the Mango Hazy IPA as I appreciate unfiltered, juicy IPAs. Haven't had any yet and you will just have to wait a few days until beer Saturday arrives for that.
It was a neat trip to a place I had never been. We barely got into the food but it hit the spot and the facility really is nice. The beer is good and I have effectively scoped this place out for a date night.
All in all, I felt welcome at Cowbell and I feel you would be as well.
Restaurant Information
Cowbell Brewing Company
40035 Blyth Rd, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0, Canada
This post participated in the Tasteem contest Beverages with friends
#tasteem-curation
Interesting to learn about a new place.
Is Cowbell's a new brewery? Their website doesn't seem to give too much back history.
It is relatively new yes. So there isn’t much of a back story except the folklore they use to brand their brews
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Not only is this a great place for liquor and tasty food (i was eyeing on the naan), but a good place to walk around with interesting stuffs. Awesome review!
Wow much appreciated!
You will have to check out my #beersaturday post later on this week when I share more of the Beer side of the story with pics and exploration into the walk around.
Thanks for having a drink with me!
Looks like a neat spot! I would definitely give you some wife points for finding an off-the-beaten-path kind of place that still has that cool of an atmosphere. I'm pretty happy any spot that has the vegan options well marked so that I don't have to hunt for them (even if there isn't a ton of options). I recently went to a restaurant where I specifically told the waitress I was vegan yet the beans I ordered on the side still came out with cheese on top. 🤦♀️ However, on the plus side I did get a killer vegan burrito recently where the waiter was to know to sub the regular rice since they cook it in chicken stock. A bit of a digression there, but glad you enjoyed the first visit! I love the Shirley Temple choice. That was definitely a childhood favorite of mine, as well.
I agree on the vegan labelling and was pointing that out to my little veggie. She first had a Shirley Temple on a cruise and it was such an exotic treat. Now, she orders is sheepishly and gets excited when they say yes.
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So cute! One of my co-workers went to a wedding last year with her husband and kids (her daughters were maybe 8 and 10 at the time). She let the girls enjoy themselves with whatever food and beverages they wanted, but wondered why the younger one was flying off the walls. When she asked why she was so juiced up her daughter told her she had something like 8 Shirley Temples during the course of the reception. What a lush. ;)
Mmm, tasty! That looks like a wonderful hang-out! I love your patent!
More cowbell...! Ha ha.
Definitely!
I think that besides being in cow country, they chose that name because of Christopher Walken and SNL.
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Glasses and jars are unique, the place looks palatial inside and out. I bet the food and beer are amazing. I like grungier sorts of places myself, but looks great!
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They have some pretty impressive bottles there! The beer looks pretty decent... but I have no idea what a Shirly Temple is... I am guessing it is a kids mocktail or something like that?