The Alibi Room

8/28/2008 5:34:17 PM, thursday, august 28, 2008
Quite simply the best quality draft beer selection in Vancouver, perhaps in all of British Columbia. Vancouver is way behind Portland and Seattle as a beer destination, but the Alibi Room at least gives us one place to enjoy real beer, served in a friendly atmosphere, with a knowledgeable staff. Love this place.

8/26/2008 11:20:05 PM, tuesday, august 26, 2008 [ Updated tuesday, august 26, 2008 ]
Note to non-Canadians: ratings are relative to what you find in Vancouver, which is much more limited than the US. The Alibi Room bills itself as a modern tavern. In a historical building beside a railyard at the eastern end of Gastown, it has a relaxed, rustic atmosphere with brick, dark wood, and long wooden tables. You’ll find the best B.C. draft craft beer selection in B.C. here currently, 17 rotating taps plus a guest tap that you can sample with four-glass frat bats. Many are not available on draft anywhere else except the original brewpub they come from. NIgel, the owner, works hard at maintaining a quality, eclectic selection and personally picks up the beer from Craig Street, Longwood, Spinnaker’s, and Swans on Vancouver Island. He also has a rotating international bottle selection that covers styles you can’t get on tap. The food menu also changes on a regular basis with weekly specials depending on what can be sourced fresh locally. The food isn’t fancy, just good, flavourful, and very satisfying. Better value, in my opinion, than what you can find in any other pub in the city. Can get busy late Thurs.-Sat. with a clubby type of crowd if there’s a DJ playing downstairs. But since Nigel changed the Alibi’s focus, there are fewer hipsters and more people there for the beer the sort of clientele he’s looking for. Note: it’s in a dodgier part of town if you’re walking there, it’s best to go east on Water Street, then along Alexander from Maple Tree Square.

6/24/2008 11:38:44 PM, tuesday, june 24, 2008 [ Updated wednesday, june 25, 2008 ]
very helpful waitstaff, the first woman identified my confusion and was super helpful with beers and getting hooked up with the internet. pretty nice decor with great lighting. love the taps and bottle lineup. she was really impressed with their lineup - i admit, 19 is nothing to scoff at - though the list was relatively weak. i guess the vancouver description points out its overall weakness as a beer city... jazznotes emanate from the basement, where apparently the very knowledgeable bar owner is spending his evening. the internet connection is solid, i’m gonna torrent so hard. i’m gonna need to find an outlet soon. well, not really. i can’t speak to the beers yet, but i like the menu, the selection is apparently very rapidly rotating, and they have a sampler, which is pretty cool.... added later: the jazzfest downstairs was free, so i went down there, pretty nice. ended up being a pretty costly night nonetheless, but i guess there’s a hefty sin tax here. the beers mostly were mediocre at best, but i liked the place a lot, and vancouver is awesome. the city closes down super early, which is a bummer. the bouncer pointed me over to railway club next, but i wasn’t about to pay $7 to get in for a half hour. props to alibi bartender tho. oh, also, it’s hilarious (as an american) that ’dead guy’ is a coup for any bar.

6/14/2008 8:53:44 PM, saturday, june 14, 2008
This is the best place to get beer in Vancouver, hands-down. Nigel has just put in 5 new taps, bringing the total near 20. The only place in Canada to get Rogue Dead Guy on tap. Need I say more??

5/18/2008 1:09:24 PM, sunday, may 18, 2008
Great selection of local micros. Servers are attentive, the food is very good. Was there at noon on a Saturday no one was drinking beer except me.

2/20/2008 11:57:38 PM, wednesday, february 20, 2008
A go-to place unknown to even the local beer geeks and recommended to me by Gerry of BC Creek store. They work their butt off to be friendly and accomodating here to the micro scene, with 14 taps from 13 brewerie across BC. Noone else does this and Tigglmtl and I enjoyed more than one good round. A few bottles I had not seen elsewhere, including private orders. All taps fresh and extra points for style diversification. A must stop.

2/17/2008 12:09:30 PM, sunday, february 17, 2008 [ Updated sunday, february 17, 2008 ]
What impressed me most when I walked in was that their 14 taps not only carried BC micros but that they represented 13 breweries. And the big pseudo-micros were not present all (though I could easily tolerate some of Vern Lambourne’s GI brew, which I consider a seperate entity). Nigel is the beer guy and he’s working to raise the status of this place in the beer scene. I remember last summer it was mostly known as a place that had several Brooklyn handles, so the shift towards being the BC microbrew desination is a relatively new one. But check this out: Mt Begbie, Tin Whistle, Old Yale, Cannery, Crannog, Fat Cat, Mission Springs, Phillips, Howe Sound...and they’re going to be taking trips to Vic to add Spinnakers, Swans and Gulf Islands to the rotation. The food is kind of upscale pub grub - not in a Spinnakers sort of way but a Gastown sort of way. The space itself is large and open upstairs with lots of metal and wood, and cozier downstairs with plush sofas. The railway runs right behind the place and the shunting of the cars adds to the atmosphere. All in all, this is the sort of place Vancouver has been in need of - somewhere that goes out of their way to get rare micros on tap.