Halifax Seaport Beerfest
August 11-12
Cunard Centre, 961 Marginal Rd
$45/$50, VIP $65
seaportbeerfest.com

It’s almost time for the Halifax Seaport Beerfest, which festival co-founder Brian Titus calls “the biggest party.”

“It’s such a unique offering where it’s almost 100 percent proper craft beer or specialty import,” says Titus, who is also the president of Garrison Brewing Co.

Beerfest started in 2007, and it’s been growing ever since. Attendees have three sessions to choose from (one on Friday and two on Saturday) to taste unlimited samples. There will be 112 breweries and 368 brands participating.

“This year, it just exploded,” says Titus. “Part of that is, obviously there’s a lot more breweries around now than there were a number of years ago. But the other part is that we’ve been working really, really hard with individual breweries.”

Titus acknowledges that it’s a busy time of year for brewers, so although the festival has actively tried to focus on local and Atlantic beer, it can be tough—especially if the brewery just opened. This year, the local focus “really kicked in, in a great way” and about 40 percent of the beer is Atlantic Canadian.

That being said, there will also be booze from overseas to sip.

“There’s all kinds of beers here that you just genuinely cannot get otherwise if you don’t go to this festival,” he says. More than half of the beer and cider on offer is not available in stores, and Titus says the fest is an opportunity to seek it out.

“Whether it’s beers that have come in from several provinces away or outside the country that just never makes it here,” he says, “or even stuff that’s from quite a small, rural brewery that doesn’t normally end up on tap in town.”

There will be a total 40 gluten-free options, too, (should that be a concern of yours) and some non-alcoholic kombucha for the designated drivers. Bottoms up.

Tastes as good as the wood fire smells! Hope they are a huge success. @HalifaxReTales pic.twitter.com/zeLu8ZvufD

— Roy Francis (@MrFrancis_Music) August 1, 2017

When Labana Sukhchan Singh first came to Halifax in January, he didn't know a soul. But he did know was that there was no one in town making wood-fired Montreal style bagels.

"Every week, all of these bagels are coming from Montreal to here," he says. "I said, 'let me take a chance'. So I started to look for where I could open a shop."

Singh isn't just a bagel enthusiast, he's a veteran. He honed his expertise in the bready baked good by putting in 18 years at the St-Viateur Bagel— home of the Montreal bagel. And with that skill set in his back pocket, he confidently promises his bagels are, "hand rolled, boiled with honey water and cooked in a wood-burning over. It’ll be 100 percent Montreal style."

Singh's Bagel Montreal Style opened today at 135 Wyse Road, after a summer of preparations, which included the construction of the aroma-inducing wood burning over.

"I have a whole bunch of bagels you can’t get anywhere here," he says. The list of flavours is sprawling, including the classic sesame, poppy seed and cinnamon, plus options like coconut, strawberry, garlic, Montreal steak spice and pumpernickel.

It’s hard to believe August is already upon us. Soon patio season will be over and Halifax will be nothing but icy sidewalks and parking bans (sigh). But let’s not get caught up in that just yet. Summer is still here, so let’s enjoy it while we can. To help you do that, we’ve rounded up some late summer releases from a few of our local craft brewers. 

1. Tag! You're It by Big Spruce Brewing (6.5%, 49 IBU)
Release: August 3

This IPA was created in collaboration with Dalhousie University’s Ocean Tracking Network (OTN). Big Spruce has pledged that 50 cents from every can they sell will go to OTN and other programs doing ocean research, such as the tagging and tracking of sharks in the Northwest Atlantic. Big Spruce co-owner Jeremy White says Bishop's Cellar and Harvest Wines agreed to contribute another 25 cents from the sales they make. A second release of the 20,000-can brew is scheduled for October.

2.Fandango by 2 Crows Brewing Co. (6.8%, 52 IBU)
Release: August 5 (tentative)

This milkshake IPA has a tropical flavour with Azacca, Galaxy, and Citra hops: “All very tropical hops, think passionfruit, mango [and] tangerine,” head brewer Jeremy Taylor says via email. The beer is conditioned in a calvados barrel for several weeks, then finished with mango puree, peaches, vanilla bean and lactose (hence the term “milkshake IPA”). This will be a limited release, Taylor says. “We only have the one batch of it, and once it is gone it is gone.”

3. Promiseland by 2 Crows Brewing Co. (8.3%, 64 IBU)
Release: August 31 (tentative)

The folks at 2 Crows first brewed this double IPA a few months back. If you missed it, fear not—it’s going to be available again due to its popularity. Taylor describes it as “hazy and very juicy.” Promiseland is brewed with malted oats, flaked barley, and honey malt, and loaded with Citra and Simcoe hops. This beer also has a tropical touch, with juicy citrus notes: Orange, tangerine and a bit of mango. Taylor says they expect this to be a seasonal release, so you’ll have a couple months to grab it before it disappears into the boozy void for a while.

4. Oh My Darlin’ by North Brewing (6.3%, 30 IBU)
Release: August (tentative)

Oh my darling, oh my darling clementine IPA. North co-owner Rozina Darvesh says brewer Josh Herbin aged this beer in the company’s tank at Battery Park. It then underwent a secondary aging and fermentation process with Brettanomyces claussenii (a type of wild yeast), along with clementine juice and zest. This brew is bottle conditioned and is part of North’s Finite Series, so it’s limited edition.

5. Low Tide by Tidehouse Brewing Company (5.5%, 13 IBU)
Release: Late August

Say what? Tidehouse is about to drop its first bottle release, and they’re promising it’ll be something special. In collaboration with Low Point coffee, they’re releasing an American Porter. Low Point soaked their raw burundi coffee beans in 2 Crows’ calvados barrel for 24 hours, and those beans were sent up the hill and roasted at Java Blend. “Low Point made us a keg of the cold brew concentrate from this incredible coffee,” says Tidehouse co-owner Shean Higgins, and thus, a marriage of beer and coffee only made sense.

After over nine years as a tucked-away upstairs gem at 1541 Barrington Street, Ciboulette Cafe & Catering is ready to sparkle a little brighter from a street-level location next-door.

“We outgrew the spot many years ago, but until now I’ve been struggling to find the right venue to expand into,” says owner Brady Muller who affectionately calls her new home—which was most recently Auntie’s dispensary— the old Loop (1547 Barrington Street). By expanding, the cafe will be able to move its kitchen equipment (it’s currently sharing a space with its neighbour, Chives Canadian Bistro) and set up an open-concept restaurant that’s more “sit-down friendly” than its current nook, offering up 40-ish seats. “It’s a huge improvement over our eight seats we currently have,” says Muller.

“For years we know that people walk by us every day and do not know that we’re there. It’s really exciting to hear comments since the announcement of the expansion and people are saying, ‘I never heard of this place, I never knew it was there’,” she adds. “We do have a loyal following, but we’re excited to see what will happen when we’re more visible. I think we have a lot of opportunity in front of us right now.”

With the move also comes a new name for Ciboulette. When it re-opens in the early fall it’ll be called the Bird’s Nest, a nod to a nickname and an excuse to start fresh.

“We’ll be keeping our existing space as a little reading room and have it available to private meeting rentals, tucked in the eves as our little nest,” says Muller, adding that Ciboulette—which she originally opened in partnership with Chives, but has since bought out—had always been a difficult word for customers to pronounce and spell. The tried and true menu items will be sticking around, but the Bird’s Nest will expand its offerings thanks to less constraints in the kitchen. Muller is particularly excited about the fact that her new location makes for an entirely food and drink centric block of Barrington Street.

“We are all very tight,” she says of her neighbours The Old Apothecary and Chives. “The Chives and 2 Doors Door family and I are truly family. I immigrated to this country after coming on vacation here and having a meal at Chives and deciding to go into the restaurant industry. It has literally been a home base for me for over a decade.”

For almost three years, Shivani Dhamija’s been bringing authentic Indian flavours to people’s tables and kitchen counters via Shivani’s Kitchen which operates as both a tiffin delivery service and a host of one-on-one and group cooking classes. Now, Dhamija is adding a little extra spice to her food-based-business, offering a line of fresh, salt-free, gluten-free masala spices to use at home. Her collection includes garam masala, butter chicken masala, curry masala, turmeric masala and chicken tikka masala, which retail for $7 a jar. Find Shivani’s Kitchen at the Spryfield, Tantallon and Prospect farmers’ markets, or contact her directly with orders via her website.

Punny folks and cafe connoisseurs Saf Haq and Lisa Brow are whispering sweet nothings into south end ears this month. The pair—who worked together at Two If By Sea—are opening their own cafe and bakery, Tart & Soul Cafe at 6389 Coburg Road, where Springhouse (formerly Fruition) recently closed up shop, in mid-June.

“We both were seriously craving the need to create something to call our own and we were lucky that it happened for us almost simultaneously,” says Haq of the well-timed vacancy. “We have worked together a lot already so it’s nice to have your business partner also be someone who can kill it in the kitchen with you. Lisa actually trained me so she’s definitely the real deal. We have kind of been waiting for this moment since we met in baking school in 2014.”

The cleverly named cafe will be all about the baking, serving cookies (see the pictured oreOMG, a shortbread/cheesecake sandwich, for instance), scones, squares, bagels and plated desserts alongside Anchored Coffee and another local roaster, says Haq. Once things get rolling, you can expect Tart & Soul to serve lunch as well, and sell wholesale goodies.

“We really believe in the downtown core of Halifax and we want to add something that’ll help make downtown Halifax a destination,” says Geir Simensen. He and his Stubborn Goat Gastropub co-owners Joe McGuinness and Kyle Drake are putting wheels in motion this summer to add not just one new place to eat and drink downtown, but two.

First, The Rooftop. In the next week or so, the literal rooftop above Blowers Street’s Sicilian Pizza—which has operated as an outdoor space for Scanway in past summers—will re-launch as one of the sunniest new patios in the city. The Rooftop will serve a small menu of “flavourful, tasty and seasonal” barbecue-style eats, all cooked on the roof, says Simensen, as well as craft beer, cider and wine.

“It’ll be very different from the Goat experience,” he says. “We don’t want to offer the same experience in two places.” Once summer winds down, the Goat family will prepare to launch another new restaurant—this one indoors—in the renovated former home of The Foggy Goggle (1667 Argyle Street), which will overlook both Argyle and Barrington Streets.

“The concept is Mexican. It’s not going to be Tex-Mex, it’ll be authentic. Joe, Kyle and I all share an appreciation for that style of food,” says Simensen, who’s been spending time exploring Mexico, its culture and its cuisine for nearly 20 years. “It’ll be nice, simple food. Fresh masa tortillas. Real Mexican products.”

The restaurant—which doesn’t have a name just yet—will seat about 120, and aims to open in late September. Think Spanish music, good tequila, homey atmosphere and flavorful food.

“We like to stay very true to our concepts. With this one, we feel like there isn’t this being done anywhere in Halifax and we think it’s going to be a great addition to what’s downtown already,” says Simensen.

“I want people to smell the fresh masa when they walk into the place.”