What’s on the menu at Goose Island Brewhouse, a new Esplanade brewery with an original Banksy on the patio

What’s on the menu at Goose Island Brewhouse, a new Esplanade brewery with an original Banksy on the patio

Name: Goose Island Brewhouse
Contact: 70 The Esplanade, 416-862-7575, @goosetoronto
Neighbourhood: St. Lawrence
Previously: Fionn MacCool’s
Brewers: Head brewer Bernard Priest (Les 3 Brasseurs) and assistant brewer Marc Mammoliti (Great Lakes Brewery)
Chefs: Executive chef Kevin Maniaci and chef de cuisine Shawn Jackson (Bier Markt)

The food

The mostly comfort-food menu will change seasonally. It currently includes a Reuben sandwich made with brisket cured and smoked in-house; a big beer-infused sausage; and an all-day breakfast benny with prosciutto. Each dish has been paired with at least one of the beers on tap, just in case you don’t know what to drink.

All-Day Brewhouse Benny: grilled bread topped with two poached eggs, fior di latte, aged prosciutto di parma and roasted heirloom grape tomatoes. Served with a green salad. (Pairs well with the raspberry table beer.) $16.

 

Bern the Brewer’s Sharing Board: aged prosciutto di parma, beer-cured pastrami salmon, crispy brussels sprout leaves, cheese, pickles and Bavarian pretzels with house-made mustard. (Pairs well with the marzen.) $28.

 

Chicago sausage dog: beer-infused sausage with house mustard, tomatoes, diced onion and hot peppers. Served with fries or a salad. (Pairs well with the Goose IPA.) $15.

 

Low-and-slow Reuben sandwich: brisket cured and smoked in-house, topped with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing and house-made mustard on light rye. Served with fries or a salad. (Pairs well with the Midnight Oil coffee porter.) $16.

 

The drinks

Twelve rotating taps that offer a selection of Goose Island’s signature brews (Goose Honker’s Ale, Goose Island IPA, Four Star Pilsner) and some new ones, like Allora, a table beer made with fresh raspberries, and Midnight Oil, a chocolaty porter made with Toronto’s Station Cold Brew. On occasion, rare variants from Chicago will be offered as well.

Flights of beer include four seven-ounce pours. $12.

You can get growlers to-go.

 

Mammoliti (left) and Priest.

 

The space

Shiny brewing equipments surrounds diners and drinkers in the 18,000-square-foot space, and an archway is all that separates Goose Island from the Bier Markt (which is where the washrooms are, by the way). There’s a street-side patio out front and a sizeable biergarten in the back that comes with an original Banksy. An on-site retail store sells growlers to-go and Goose Island merch.

Here’s the front patio.

 

And this is the biergarten. Those are baby hop vines on the right.

 

And here’s that original Banksy we told you about.