With soaring food costs and stiff competition, you might not expect a new entry in Calgary’s crowded craft beer market. Yet Vaycay Brew Pub has just opened another such establishment, in busy Marda Loop; its three-year-old brewery is in nearby Currie Barracks.
A flight of beers
Owner Andrew Gass has a few competitive aces up his sleeve. One, obviously, is a fine roster of beers, including a salted black lager (Hidden Dragon) and a tropical New England IPA (Tangerine Speedo). And as a trained chef, he ventures well beyond typical bar food with, say, a superb short-rib taquito.
There are many classic culinary pairings: bacon and eggs, burgers and fries, mac and cheese, peanut butter and jam. To this mix we can add beer and pizza, a longtime partnership that’s only getting stronger in Calgary as more craft breweries add gourmet pizzas to their pub food menus. So much so that you can go for the beer but stay for the pie.
Here’s a half dozen brewpubs that meet this high dual standard, sometimes baking their own pizzas and other times forging partnerships with existing pie companies.
Two House Brewing 1901 10 Avenue SW Sunday to Thursday 11 am-10 pm, Friday-Saturday 11 am-11 pm 403-287-0215
A couple of Two House pints
Tucked out of the way in Sunalta, Two House Brewing is the place to be on a sunny summer afternoon, with two spacious patios and big sliding glass doors. The eight types of pizzas keep flying out of the oven and go well with a flight of up to six beers. Prices are reasonable, with specials every day.
…and a couple of pies
Last Best Brewing & Distilling 607 11 Avenue SW and one other Calgary location Happy hour Monday to Saturday 3 pm-6 pm and late, Sunday all day 587-353-7390
Dirty Bird chicken pizza at Last Best Brewing
Talk about happy hour. Last Best offers at least five such hours every day—from $15 full-size pizzas to $5.50 16-ounce pints of beer to $10 martinis featuring house-made gin. I can sit by the pizza oven and watch my excellent Dirty Bird chicken pie bake or snag a seat on the sunny patio and sip a hazy double IPA Tokyo Drift, my favourite on-tap beer in Calgary.
Last Best pizza oven
Eighty-Eight Brewing 1070, 2600 Portland Street SE Opens daily, except Monday, at noon 403-452-5880
Replacing onetime in-house Noble Pies, 88 partner Portland Street Pizza features a unique, puffy focaccia crust and crispy squares. The beer, named in honour of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, remains excellent. Enjoy a pint of hazy Hi-Fi IPA with a spicy Magnum P.I. pizza in the tropical, funky taproom.
Eighty-Eight Brewing’s funky taproom
’The Mash 50 Greenbriar Drive NW and four other Calgary locations Opens at 3 pm Monday and Tuesday and at 11:30 am Wednesday to Sunday
The Mash’s brewpub
Here’s something different: craft pizza made from craft beer. At The Mash—just outside Calgary Farmers’ Market West—the beer on tap is from Cochrane’s Half Hitch Brewing. The spent grain, from the beer-making process, is folded into the pizza dough.
The spent beer mash goes into the pizza crust
The result is uniquely flavourful pizza, such as a 10-inch wild mushroom ($20.50), paired with a Papa Bear Prairie Ale. No doubt worthy of a monster mash.
This is a partnership between Tailgunner’s Czech-heavy beers anda dozen Acme Pizza Co. 12-inch pies. Grab a seat on the shaded Sunalta patio and try an Ajax dark lager and a Saporita pizza. The brewery’s name honours local World War II tail gunner Lint Stephenson, who survived being shot down and spending two years in an internment camp.
Tailgunner beer and pizza
Trolley 5 728 17 Avenue SW Weekdays 11:30 am to late, weekends 10 am to late 403-454-3731
Trolley 5 is at the top of the Calgary brewpub food heap for its burgers, wings and brisket sandwiches. So it’s no surprise its 10-inch pizzas rank up there, too. Try the Silvio Dante—featuring house-made San Marzano tomato sauce and smoked andouille sausage—along with a Cloudy Daze hazy pale ale.
Okay, this retro 17th Avenue spot doesn’t actually make beer, but with a name like Cold Beer & Pizza, it’s hard to exclude it from this list. They do make plenty of flavourful pizza, ranging from a slice to pie sold by the metre. How about a Dirk Diggler quarter-metre “shorty” and a $5 happy-hour pint?
You can’t beat Citizen Brewing’s happy-hour burger and beer
Pretty much any Calgary taproom worth its salt has at least one burger on its food menu. Here are four of the best pairings.
This one’s a slam dunk. Annex Ales(4323 1 Street SE) is arguably the most adventurous craft brewery in Calgary. The attached Lil’ Empireserves some of the city’s finest burgers. Try a small-batch, seasonal brew and an Empire regular burger with cheese ($12).
Annnex Ales has arguably the most innovative craft beer in Calgary
Trolley 5 (728 17 Avenue SW) is the city’s liveliest brewpub, especially on Flames’ game nights. Its full kitchen churns out the best, most diverse pub food in Calgary (dim sum anyone?). Grab a bar seat and watch the fast-moving beertenders while you savour a Turntable lager and a hefty prime-rib burger ($19 with fries) that rivals the best in Calgary. Bonus points for a brioche bun that doesn’t fall apart. The wings and smoked brisket sandwich are damn good, too.
Trolley 5 is the liveliest brewpub in Calgary
Citizen Brewing Company (227 35 Avenue NE)—between the communities of Tuxedo and Highland Park—may have the best brewpub happy-hour deal in Calgary. From 2-5 pm Monday to Thursday, select 20-ounce pints, like the Hijacked IPA, are only $6 and ground-chuck burgers and hot fries $14. Best enjoyed on an expansive, dapple-lit patio that includes a hop and vegetable garden.
Citizen’s patio is the perfect place to savour a beer and burger
Is it wrong to pair a juicy burger with a knock-you-on your-ass Imperial iPA? Not when the delightfully namedBitter Sisters(510 Heritage Drive SW) is pouring a 16-ounce pint of Triple Haze (8.5%), a full-flavoured New England IPA featuring experimental hops and hop oil. While we’re bending norms, how about a custom-blend beef burger with jalapenos ($20)? Enjoy it all on the sun-splashed patio.
Marathon Mouth 