It’s easy to stay home, order Skip and call it a night, but where’s the fun in that? One of our favourite things to do together is try fun, new places to dine in that we both have never tried before. One of those places is One Great City, located in the Madison Square strip mall on Ness Ave. right beside the BMO.
One Great City is a local brewing company, but that’s not all that they are. They’re considered to be a “brewpub”, which means that they’re actually a restaurant that brews their own beer, so the customers are guaranteed a fresh glass every single time.
The moment you walk in to One Great City, you’re instantly greeted with high ceilings, echoing voices of other customers and a mixture of aromas from the beers to the food.
THE ENERGY
As you walk a little further towards the end of the hallway, you’ve reached the restaurant/bar. We were seated fairly quickly despite the larger crowds that were already there. You can instantly feel the vibe and energy of the room; it might not be the type of restaurant to go to if you’re looking to have a quiet and relaxing evening.
Like mentioned earlier, the ceilings are high and restaurant is open-concept, which means that there aren’t any booths separating people from one another, but the restaurant is so big that you won’t feel like you’re cluttered with the person at the table next to you. There’s high tables and chairs that can seat bigger parties, and a couple of floor levelled wooden tables with cushioned benches to sit on if you’re with a friend or significant other.
Since it is a “brewpub”, the brewing room is actually open to the public to see through their clear glass windows. Large coppers are seen of their core beers that you can either order fresh in a glass, flight or bottle to go.
THE DRINKS AND FOOD
We started with drinks as soon as were seated, sharing a flight of beers. The flights come in 4, in 5 oz. glasses of any beers off the menu. We chose the Belgian Esprit which is a pale ale that is light gold in colour, had a citrus key-note and a slight pear aftertaste that and the Tipsy Cow Milk Stout which is a dark malt that is reminiscent of a light Mocha latte, minus the foam. It has a slight coffee presence that leaves a lingering creamy feeling in your mouth. You’ll forget you were even drinking beer.
To kick off the munches, we started with their charcuterie board. It had 4 types of cured meat, which change within the board and season, but is always accompanied with their date and beer jam, honey dijon mustard, sweet pickled gherkins and house pickled shallots.
The main courses we had were the “Mac & Cheese” and “The Burger”. The Mac & Cheese consisted of smoked gouda and cheddar sauce topped with cured pork belly, pickled shallots, parsley, chilli oil and bread crumbs. It was plated big enough to be served for two. It was an interesting texture along with the flavours; they were small macaroni noodles that seemed also baked to ensure that the pork belly, chilli oil and bread crumbs stuck together. If you are, however, looking for a cheesy Mac & Cheese, this won’t have the cheese pull you might be looking for.
The Burger has their house beef patty that was textured on the outside but very soft and chewy on the inside. The patty itself was seasoned and flavourful. The Burger also contained crispy bacon, pickled shallots, English cheddar, shredded iceberg lettuce, sauced with ketchup, mustard and garlic aioli. All of this was wedged between the softest buns that felt like I was biting into a marshmallow cloud. It also came with a side of their house made fries, which wasn’t salty or overly crispy at all.
THE EXPERIENCE
Overall, we really enjoyed our experience there. The atmosphere was energetic, the servers were attentive and the food and beverages were savoury within every sip and bite we took. If you’re a self-proclaimed beer connoisseur, One Great City is a great place to start! We’d definitely go back to try out different items on the menu and different beers to challenge our palate.
Price: $-$$
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