United Nations of Beer

Les Trois Brasseurs, Montreal

by Shannon Wand
(Beer Delegate, QC, Canada)

Les Trois Brasseurs: order a metre of beer, if you dare!

Les Trois Brasseurs
Montreal, QC, Canada

If you like beer by the metre and twenty-somethings dancing on chairs while singing festive French 'drink up' songs, then have I got the place for you.

Les Trois promotes itself as a "unique microbrewery-restaurant concept" and, while there is nothing unique about it (in this day and age), it certainly is a microbrewery and restaurant. With panache no less, as it does offer high ceilings and a microbrewery installation that operates behind glass walls.

The menu offers standard pub fare with a twist. Flammequeche, the house specialty, is a thin crust pizza with tasty and intriguing toppings.

La Saumon Fume, for example, mixes smoked salmon (obviously) with leeks, shallots, capers, and sour cream to delicious effect. However, the standards are simply, well, standard. The chicken brochette was bland though came with a heaping portion of fresh salad. But who cares about salad when there’s all that beer?

And the beer truly is plentiful. They have variations of Blonde, Red, Stout and Brown draughts (click for reviews by Steve LaRue) that you can order by the pint, pitcher, or metre.

That’s right, I said metre! The metre of beer comes in a delightful (though probably not for the server) wooden holder that delivers ten half-pints of various brews.

The metre of beer allows the indecisive person or party to try them all, and, what’s more, your table will enjoy an instant boost to your coolness ratings as the envious other tables ogle your huge rack.

In addition to the bountiful beer, Les Trois Brasseurs Montreal offers what I can only label "beer concoctions".

These bevvies (billed as cocktails) contain beer mixed with vodka, lemon, grenadine, Sprite, banana liquor, and more (though not all in the same drink). But you’re own your own there — I was neither brave, nor interested enough, to try one. Call me a purist.

Speaking of pure... perhaps due to these beer concoctions, the mood at Les Trois Brasseurs Montreal is festive. Tables of ten all celebrating something (birthdays, life, beer) surrounded our table of six with song and dance and the occasional spilled drink.

Young, hip, and liberally lubricated, these men and women were prone to table-wide chugging and dancing on chairs while singing. Clearly the two go hand-in-hand.

Suffice it to say, it was a spectacle: a beer-speckled spectacle. Bring your raincoat, umbrella and waterproof shoes!

Where: 1658 St-Denis Street, on the Plateau, Montreal, QC, Canada