What’s on the menu at Craft Beer Market, a 400-seat bar with 145 beers on tap

By Caroline Aksich | Photography By Caroline Aksich | December 11, 2017

By Caroline Aksich | Photography By Caroline Aksich | 12/11/2017

Name: Craft Beer Market
Contact: 1 Adelaide St. E., 437-922-2337, craftbeermarket.ca/toronto, @crafttoronto
Neighbourhood: Financial District
Owners: PJ L’Heureux
Chef: Cameron McGowan

The drinks

Beer, of course. Out of the 160 taps, 145 of them are devoted to beer. The encyclopedic menu includes a handful of macrobrews (Bud Light, Guinness, Kronenbourg), a bunch of the bigger Canadian brands (Mill Street, Steam Whistle, Beau’s, Big Rock, Le Trou du Diable) and a surprising amount of Toronto and Ontario microbreweries (Blood Brothers, Brimstone, Elora, Collective Arts, Henderson, Clifford, Calabogie). The remaining 15 lines pour wine, cider, ginger beer and even kombucha.

Fortunately for staff, the taps seem to be in alphabetical order.

A chalkboard displays beers from breweries like Toronto’s own Godspeed, Barrie’s Redline and Ottawa’s Kichesippi, rotates regularly.

The food

This Calgary-born concept first spread out west, with locations in Edmonton and Vancouver, and then moved east to Ottawa before gracing Toronto. Everything here is Prairie-sky huge, from the 420-seat space, to the 160 taps, to the nearly 50-item menu, which includes just about every North American bar-food favourite: wings, poutine, burgers, ribs, nachos and fried pickles. A few international flavours (tacos, ahi poke bowls, coconut curry shrimp, Korean lettuce wraps) round out the offerings.

A trio of shrimp tacos, made with white corn tortillas and topped with aged white cheddar, pico de gallo and a lime-avocado cream sauce. ($14.50). They’re pictured here with the Twenty Mile farmhouse saison from Beamsville’s Bench Brewing Co.).

The Yucatan chicken salad is a mix of greens, fire-roasted corn, pico de gallo, avocado, roasted red pepper, black beans, shredded cheddar and crispy tortilla, all topped with a chili-lime dressing ($17.50). It’s pictured with a half-litre of Pilsner Urquell

This grilled west-coast salmon is served with quinoa, almonds and green beans sautéed in a chili-garlic vinaigrette ($26). It’s pictured here with Left Field’s Laser Show, a super-juicy IIPA.

The coconut curry shrimp bowl: shrimp, jasmine rice, bok choy and roasted mushrooms ($19.50). Pictured here with Railway City’s The Witty Traveller, a witbier brewed with coriander and orange.

The space

“This is my craft beer cathedral,” says L’Heureux, looking down from the mezzanine onto the bustling main floor below. The 16,000-square-foot, two-storey space will be even bigger by next summer, thanks to the addition of a 250-seat courtyard patio.