The Pint Jockey Online: Southern Ontario Road Trip Day 2: What ever Happened to Saturday Night?

The second day of our South-western Ontario road trip was our main reason for going. I bought tickets in January to go see The Rocky Horror Show at the Stratford Festival. And honestly, it could not arrive soon enough. I'm an old theatre kid at heart. I've done my tour on the stage back in high school. Wrote some plays, trod the boards. And honestly, I don't know a theatre kid that does not love this play and can recite lines and sing the songs by heart. First written in 1972-3 By Richard O'Brien as almost a joke, it opened in London on 19th of June 1973 and ran for 7 years. In 1974 It opened on Broadway, and a year later the now cult classic film Rocky Horror Picture Show was filmed and released. Written as a homage to the cheesy B-movie sci-fi flicks of the 1940-1970's, the play is chock full of catchy tunes and innuendo. I'm not going to go too much into it, because if you haven't seen it (we call you people Virgins...) weeeeelll, it's really too hard to explain. Go find yourself a Rocky expert and have them take you to a showing, preferably at midnight, in a run-down old theatre, after a few drinks. And let there be lips...

What was doubly exciting about this play is that it was being put on at the Stratford Festival. For those of you who do not know what the Stratford Festival is, it is our annual celebration of Shakesperean plays. Formed in 1953 and first performed in a tent, The festival put on their rendition of "Richard III" with none other than Obi-Wan Kenobi in the lead role (That's the original, Sir Alec Guinness, I don't think Ewan McGregor is that old...) They celebrate their 50th season in 2003 with a return of one of their most popular actors Christopher Plummer in the lead role of "King Lear" ( I managed to see that one it was excellent). Then the artistic directors started to think about the future. While the festival started out just showcasing Shakespeare, over the years they began to work in other relevant productions. They expanded from one theatre (the main Festival Stage, a unique purpose-built thrust stage). To 4 theatres as of 2002. With the extra performance space, they began to grow their idea of the festival To include more modern and popular shows. This year was the first that they tried anything like Rocky Horror. I'm not sure if they even suspected how amazingly popular it would be. The play opened on June 2 We went to see it on September 2, It is still playing as of now, and will not close until December 2, if they do not extend it again. That is a huge difference to other plays that show at the Festival that only run 4 weeks or so. The play was directed by Donna Feore she is a renowned Canadian choreographer and director who is married to longtime Stratford Festival actor Colm Feore who I have had the pleasure of seeing in "Romeo and Juliett" (Mercutio) "Hamlet" (Hamlet) and "Love's Labour's Lost" (Berowne). He also starred in one of my all-time favourite Canadian Movies "Bon Cop Bad Cop" (watch it!!! it's on Netflix I believe...).

Obi Wan Kenobi Was here

I won't talk more about it, but the play was stellar. It was the best theatre experience of my life. What's even more exciting is that Donna Feore is returning next year to take a shot at another Theatre Kid's longtime favourite "Little Shop of Horrors." I'm counting down the days to buy my tickets.

Well, we had time to kill so we decided to look around Stratford. We drank our morning coffee in a shop that used to be the home of a 16-year-old Thomas Edison. He apparently was a signalman on the railroad. He fled to the US after he nearly caused a train accident when the device he invented to alert him when there was a train approaching failed, and he was too busy tinkering with experiments. He also spilled acid that seeped through the floorboards onto his boss's desk in the office below. He got called to Toronto to be reprimanded but ran out of the office and hopped a train and never came back.

We did the touristy, window shop thing and then settle down for some cheese and beer at one of Stratford's best breweries.

Black Swan Brewing Company

Nestled in a storefront on one of the main side streets of the historic downtown. Black Swan is unassuming and quaint. 5 or 6 tables await for you inside with an open concept swag-room tasting bar and brewery, you can see clear to the back and watch everyone working. I tried the main four beers on tap and we had a very nice cheese platter from a local cheese shop that complemented the beers quite well. Believe it or not... one of the cheeses was Limburger! and it works very well with beer.

Beer # 453: Road Trip Golden Ale
ABV: 4.3 % IBU: 15

light gold beige with a thin skiff of a head light barley aroma hints of citrus.. first sip is grassy wet dog...molson golden entry level not exciting

Beer # 454: English Pale Ale
ABV: 5.0% IBU: 29

copper colour with a thin head tradition spicy malty nose... standard pale ale lines malt forward fruit and spice very close to Bass Pale ale

Beer # 455: Porter
ABV: 5.3% IBU: 45

dark brown thin head nutty malty aromas . very malty smooth and light kind finish with a hint of pepper at the end excellent

Beer # 456: Milk's Doubt Milk Stout
ABV: 5.0% IBU: 15

warm nutty coffee and malty aroma hints of liquorice and molasses creamy milky huge amounts of rich creamy chocolate
fantastic!

Final Thoughts

The two lighter beers were not terribly exciting; where Black Swan shines is their darker beers. The Milk stout and the porter were true stars of the day deep, rounded, and very flavourful.

The Mercer Kitchen and Beer Hall

Later, and prior to the show, we met up with the Queen's sister and her husband for dinner and drinks. after careful consideration, we picked the Mercer Hall. The food was quite good, and the beer selection was not bad at all.

Beer # 447: Cowbell Renegade Series # 008, Paradise Lime Wit

ABV: 4.0% IBU: 12

Ginger lime on the nose translucent light gold... skiff of a head.. sweet lime and ginger warming wheat and biscuit.

Beer # 448: Burdock Brewery Té Sour Berliner Wiesse

ABV: 4.3% IBU: ?

Cloudy opaque light beige in colour. pine and cat pee on the nose light sour.. grapefruit grassy citrus and bitter greens.

Beer # 449: Forked River Brewing Hansel and Brett'el Saison

ABV: 4.9% IBU: 22

Clear gold light white head. clean malt and Brett nose tart apple citrus... fresh and alive

Beer # 450: Indie Alehouse Breakfast Porter

ABV: 7.2% IBU: 60
6.
Very dark chestnut no head. nose is coffee. creamy malty coffee and chocolate. woody bourbon smooth and light mouthfeel.

Beer # 451: Collective Arts Liquid Art Fest IPA

ABV: 5.9% IBU: ?

Unfiltered cloudy opaque almost chunky light beige. fruity nose with hints of pine thick and creamy mouthfeel.

Final Thoughts

Everything seemed to be a prelude to our amazing evening. The beer was great we had good food and amazing company. Can't wait for next year. Going to bring more battery power as you can tell I didn't have any pics of the beers at the Mercer.

Cheers

CJT

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