Eastbound Brewing Company
Raising the standard…
Dave Lee, the co-owner and brewmaster from Eastbound Brewing Company (website here), expressed his take on what craft beer lifestyle is this way: “It’s the search for better. A craft beer lifestyle is one that isn’t willing to accept the standard; it’s one that searches to create a higher standard.”
…in Riverside
Opening on April 25th, 2017, Eastbound is located at the west end of Riverside in Toronto. Riverside is an area just east of the Don Valley River that stretches from the river to Degrassi Street along Queen Street East. Riverside itself has been raising its standards, as it has quickly become one of the most trendy areas in Toronto today.
Some places, like the Opera House, a theatre built in 1909, and probably my favourite live music venue in Toronto, have been in the neighbourhood for quite some time. And, thankfully, it’s still rocking.
Other’s are new neighbours: Riverside’s most notorious resident for three decades, Jilly’s, a strip club, has moved out of it’s incredible heritage building at the corner of Broadview and Queen St. East to be replaced by the stunning Broadview Hotel (a return to the roots of the now revitalized building).
On the opposite corner to the Broadview Hotel, resides the new Brickworks Ciderhouse. Bars and restaurants, like the Comrade, Hi-Lo and I’ll Be Seeing You, and local shops, like the Arts Market and Common Sort, have all played a role in helping to reestablish the area as a must-visit destination.
Building with neighbours…
Eastbound Brewing Company has joined these and other local businesses and residents in the neighbourhood in pushing Riverside towards further beautification and greater community, while continuing to raise standards.
Eastbound is on the board of the Riverside BIA, helping to organize events and grow the neighbourhood. From the Riverside wine and beer fest to community fundraisers and “Eats & Beats,” a streetfest in June that brings around 12,000 guests to the Riverside Neighbourhood, the community works together to move forward.
In the summer of 2018, Eastbound partnered with the Broadview Hotel to double-up the service, offerings and experience to be had on the hotel’s rooftop patio. And together they are planning a similar venture this year; albeit, on a more grand scale (details are currently hush-hush!).
“Feastbound,” Eastbound’s monthly beer dinner series, has their team partner with guest chefs and local suppliers to help design a beer and food paired evening that’s a communal, family-style sit down event.
And then the “Eastbound Run Crew” (ERC) meets every Monday night (even in the winter!) for a 5 or 8 km run that starts and ends at the brewery. The ERC was formed by local Riverside residents, in conjunction with the brewery.
…and their brewery neighbours
Engaging with local runners lead Eastbound to get involved with the Canada Running Series, and then more recently with Culture Athletics (Eastbound’s sports apparel store neighbours). Along with other local breweries (Rorschach, Radical Road and Black Lab), the group has created a “Brews Cruise:” a 10km run that stops at the four breweries along the way.
Finally, there’s Eastbound’s own craft beer community. Joining nine other east end breweries, Eastbound is a founding member of the Toronto East Brewery Collective (TEBC). The group was formed to give the members further reach and ability to accomplish projects that they would not be able to accomplish on their own, and their tap-takeover events have brought all involved great success. Indeed, together, they raise each other’s standards.
Going behind Eastbound Brewing Company’s beer…
When I arrived at Eastbound Brewing Company (see the full photo gallery here), I was greeted by Meghan Serratore. Megan’s a supervisor on the floor, pouring, serving and drinking beer; and is currently taking Prud’homme beer sommelier classes.
We had a brief chat about pairing beer with life. The “Fresh Start” American Pale Ale series is her favourite Eastbound brew, and I wanted to know what she might pair that with.
“‘Wayne’s World’ because it’s the only movie that matters, and Doc Martins because I wear those about as much as I like to drink Fresh Start APAs,” was Meghan’s response.
Meghan had an infectious smile and a really fun attitude. Her pairings were therefore a perfect fit, not only with her smile and attitude, but with her favourite Eastbound beer as well. Part of the purpose of the Fresh Start series is to allow the brewers to have fun experimenting with hops, focusing on a different hop with each rendition in the series that Eastbound releases.
If “Wayne’s World” and Doc Martins don’t scream fun to you, then get out from under that rock, Meghan would say (and I totally agree!).
…with the brewmaster
I had an engaging conversation with Eastbound Brewing Company’s co-owner and brewmaster, Dave Lee. He’s an easy-going, approachable guy – honest and thoughtful.
Dave began his career in brewing shortly after finishing his BA in communications at Brock University, getting a part time job at a local brewery. It wasn’t long before Dave contracted the ‘brewing bug,’ which had him travel to Chicago to the Siebel Institute, a school entirely dedicated to beer and brewing, to get his brewing knowledge and techniques to a high level.
From there, he’s never looked back, holding brewing positions with Kensington Brewing, Mill Street Brewery and Grand River Brewing before eventually co-founding Eastbound Brewing Company with his partner, wife and head chef Tara Lee.
Tara is as friendly and as welcoming as is Dave, and her fascination with cooking with beer and pairing food with beer burns as fiery as Dave’s does for brewing it. While they are often working with beer in different ways, they’re both, of course, exactly the same when it comes to drinking beer – they love that aspect as well.
Dave explained that the philosophy behind Eastbound beer is to provide “Europe through us.” The aim is to produce a wide range of classic beer styles with their own Eastbound take on them: don’t get fancy, but provide innovative, personal touches. And with each new beer Eastbound brews, they aim to raise the standard over the last beer they brewed.
Tara, of course, is an expert on pairing beer with food, but I like to make pairings of a different sort. The team at Eastbound was happy to let me have some fun in pairing three of their beers.
Pairingwith… Eastbound Brewing Company’s “Fresh Start” (Centennial) APA
“Fresh Start” is a series of American Pale Ales that Eastbound Brewery Company produces, focusing on one particular hop varietal for every entry in the series. The one I drink here is the Centennial version, and, while this one is not always available, they do always have at least one from the series on offering.
The Fresh Start is a perfect pairing with this lamp from AJ’s Antique Revival. The citrus aromas, grapefruit and candy flavours of the beer provide a refreshing renewal to one’s mouth in the way this lamp can brighten up the room. With gauges, iron pipes and a mason jar cover, that is, the lamp sparks conversations – it fills one’s mouth with something fresh to talk about.
Indeed, the lamp breathes a fresh start into it’s repurposed parts, just as the APA from Eastbound kicks a bit of life into you with it’s medium-bitter hoppiness. Flick the switch, crack the can, and whatever project you’re working on, you’ll now approach it with a fresh start.
AJ’s Antique Revival
AJ Geensen has been refinishing antiques since 2012, but her love for antiques stems from growing up with parents with a keen affinity for antique furniture. Items from the past have a story; they’re one-of-a-kind; and for AJ these attributes are exciting. She not only quickly fell in love with finding interesting objects, refinishing and (sometimes) repurposing them, but AJ also quickly became good at it.
She left her corporate job that was, as she puts it, “sucking [her] soul,” and started AJ’s Antique Revival. AJ has always enjoyed being creative, starting her own photography business out of high school, before turning that into a BA in Fine Arts.
AJ enjoys building unique items with a rustic touch. She likes a vintage look. She likes to search for old, forgotten and discarded pieces that she can breathe new life into. AJ enjoys a treasure hunt; and especially enjoys knowing that her process helps minimize waste. Finding discarded scrap and transforming it into something both beautiful and useful is AJ’s ultimate goal.
Her Antique Revival offers everything from restoration, revamping and repurposing to custom builds and designs using reclaimed and salvaged materials. As AJ says, “If I can’t find it, I’ll make it!”
AJ’s Antique Revival was awarded First Runner Up for Best Design Firm in Toronto for Now Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards in 2018. Her beautifully funky products can be found at the Arts Markets in Riverside and Leslieville, as well as on her website.
Pairingwith… Eastbound Brewing Company’s “Basecamp” Saison
The “Basecamp” Saison is a dry, spicy and slightly sweet saison that is available year round from Eastbound Brewing Company.
It is a delightful pairing with the card game, Exploding Kittens. The clove and bitter graininess of the beer speaks directly to strategizing a way to have your friend explode: there’s nothing more spicy and bitter than sabotaging a friend – especially with a kitten!
The subtle flavours of apple, lemon and black pepper provide a fun medley of curiosity and excitement in the same way that a peak at the deck of cards in the game provides the player with, not merely an advantage, but an overwhelming sense of excited anticipation.
Of course, there’s a mountain of cards that each player must carefully manoeuvre through, so it’s nice to know that one has a basecamp to return to after each nerve-racking turn.
Pour a glass, pull a card, take a sip, but don’t explode!
Exploding Kittens
When Shane Small approached Elan Lee with a card game he called “Bomb Squad,” the two employees of XBox spent the following weeks playing and messing about with some sort of card game that they wanted to work like Russian Roulette.
Matthew Inman, a cartoonist and friend, saw the game as they were working on it, and wanted to join the team. Shane and Elan were more than happy to take his help.
With Matthew’s art and humour now employed, the name of the game was changed to “Exploding Kittens.”
They then perfected the rules. On each turn, players draw cards from the deck. Certain cards allow you to avoid exploding kittens in various ways, but eventually, someone will draw an exploding kitten and lose the game.
As the game goes on, less cards are left in the deck and the odds of drawing an exploding kitten increases – as does, of course, the intensity of the game.
Once the rules were ironed out, the ‘kitten’ team brought their project to Kickstarter for funding. One of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns yet, “Exploding Kittens” pledged a goal of$10,000, and then hit nearly $8.8 million of funding from a whopping 219,382 backers.
I had actually never played the game before stumbling upon it at Eastbound Brewing Company. After the shoot, I picked up a copy and was able to get into a game with some friends a few nights later. This is more than simply silly fun – there’s enough strategy to keep you engaged for an extended period… Who doesn’t like trying to sabotage your friends with laser beams or weaponized enchiladas anyways?
And tell me this doesn’t sound like a perfect game to play while enjoying a beer?
Pairingwith… Eastbound Brewing Company’s “Backpacker” Blonde
The “Backpacker” blonde is what Eastbound Brewing Company is calling a “gateway beer” for virgins of the craft beer scene. It’s a more typical, light beer made for easy consumption.
The Backpacker is actually an obvious pairing with these art deco maps from iLikeMaps. The golden/blonde ale from Eastbound arrives as a slightly hazy beer. Its look gives body to trying, on first approach, to orientate oneself on a “chroma” map from iLikeMaps: not initially clear, but with a little (fun) detective work, you can find the destination you are looking for.
Of course, the maps are not made for function, but rather as art, beautifying any space they hang in. The beer too is something that is made to appeal to any potential beer drinker (i.e., everyone) – made to be beautiful, regardless of the palette.
The slightly sweet and fruity malt flavour of the beer, with its light body, is a wonderful compliment, moreover, to the sweet colours and comfortable atmosphere that the maps can create in any space.
One needs a map to go backpacking – and one needs an easy-to-drink, light beverage while doing so. If you’re going on a journey, pack your bag with chroma maps and Backpacker blondes.
iLikeMaps
Olivier Gratton-Gagné, hailing from Montreal, has been interested in maps from a young age. “Interested” may in fact be an understatement. Olivier is of the sort who can stand and stare at a map for hours, lost in the winding roads and blocks of buildings that give shape to cities.
When Google maps came out in 2005, Olivier’s affinity for maps became a full-blown obsession, with access to every map imaginable. It wasn’t until 2012, though, that iLikeMaps began to materialize, when Olivier discovered the open source project, OpenStreetMaps. This provided him with the resources needed to create prints of maps himself.
Olivier has turned his love of maps into an art project, creating rich and detailed prints of cities, provinces, countries and more in a number of styles and colour schemes. Designed as art, rather than as reference, the iLikeMaps maps are like no other map: they are stylish, beautiful works to be hung in beautiful places.
Maps can be custom built to your preferences and needs, or one can chose from Olivier’s database of map designs. His work can be found at the Arts Market in Leslieville, on Etsy and online on his website.
See you next week when I’m Pairingwith… Shacklands Brewing Company!
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