Two Pillars, where food and craft beer meet
Love of beer and food meet community at Two Pillars
If the past few years have proved anything, it's that Calgary is and probably always will be a beer town. Even a pandemic hasn't been able to stop the deluge of new breweries popping up in the city. Luckily for food lovers, an increasing number of new breweries are accompanied by new taproom restaurants.
With so many local microbreweries, every new beer label has to do something to differentiate itself and coax in customers, and many have chosen to do that through food. We've already got standouts that do both great food and great beer with the Noble Pie pizza at Eighty-eight Brewing Company, the smoked meats at Paddy's and Prairie Dog, and the reinvented pub food at Dandy, among many others. The newest kid on the block is Two Pillars, a brewery and taproom in Crescent Heights' Tigerstedt Block.
The name Two Pillars refers to food and drink, which co-owners Boaz Leung and Jacob May hold up as the basis for both their friendship and their community. The two met while working in the automotive industry, but quickly bonded over meals and drinks and developed a mutual dream of starting their own brewery. May acts as the brewmaster and Leung does “everything else.” Their individual backgrounds (May is British but spent much of his childhood in Thailand and Leung is from Hong Kong) have given them a unique outlook on beer and food.
“The heart of the business is that everyone can relate over good food and good drink,” May says. “When Boaz and I met, we didn't really have much in common other than that we loved beer, but our friendship grew from that.”
The beer came first: May was more interested in the complex tradition of Belgian brewing than he was in the traditional English beers he came of age with, and he started with Two Pillars' flagship beer, Belgian Golden Strong. While Two Pillars does have a small list of core beers, what truly makes their brews interesting is their tiny production facility, visible from their taproom. Billed as the smallest brewery in Alberta, it only cranks out two kegs per brew, giving May the ability to play with different flavours and techniques, while always giving customers something new to try.
May and Leung designed their cosy taproom (conveniently located next door to Leung's brother's coffee shop, Sought x Found) to create a sense of community for locals who can drop by regularly to try May's new beers. Building on that second pillar, they offer a limited, but surprisingly complex, food menu. The space isn't big enough for a full kitchen with a fryer, so they've kept it simple but elegant, with a “snack in a jar” comprised of dry fruit, pickles, olives and nuts ($14), charcuterie and cheese boards ($15 each) and a signature beef stew made with their Golden Strong beer ($16). There are also regular specials, with dishes such as duck breast or mussels periodically appearing on the menu board.
Two Pillars Brewery is located at 910 Centre St. N. and can be reached at 403-619-1194 or twopillars.ca. The brewery is open Wednesday through Sundays, afternoons only.
Inner City Brewing launched its food program some months ago, but it got lost in the pandemic shuffle, which is a shame because it offers some of the best brewery eats in the city.
The menu was developed by chef Keith Luce after Inner
City's management decided they wanted their expansive and modern taproom to be as much of a restaurant as a place to showcase an extensive selection of award-winning beers.
(If Two Pillars is the smallest microbrewery in the city, Inner City sits on the other side of the spectrum with a warehouse-sized production room as well as a smaller brewer's lab for more experimental beers). They decided to bring in the big guns and hired Luce as a consultant. Most recently of the now-closed Tavernetta, Luce has a long resume that includes a stint as a sous chef in the White House.
Luce worked with Inner City to put together food that goes naturally with beer, all with that special chef's touch. That means above-average burgers ($14 or $23 for the fully loaded, double-patty “beast mode” version), a “brewmaster's” club salad with avocado dressing ($14), and Luce's riff on the Sonoran Dog, the only hotdog to win a James Beard Award ($14.50). The menu is available for dine-in and takeout.
Inner City Brewing is located at 820 11th Ave. S.W. For more information call 587-880-8600 or visit innercitybrewing.ca.
Finally, Canada's Great Kitchen Party is returning for 2020, albeit in an altered form. The annual chef's competition and fundraiser will be held on Oct. 23. Ticket holders will pick up three-course meals from one of five competing restaurants (Foreign Concept, Teatro, Roy's Korean Kitchen, Yellow Door Bistro, and the brand new Orchard) and then tune in to see a virtual concert headed up by
Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy while they eat. Proceeds from the dinner and programming go to charities benefiting B2ten, MusiCounts, and Community Food Centres Canada. For tickets, visit greatkitchenparty.com.