Inspiring Interiors

Well, we've been doing a lot of thinking about how to get the atmosphere of the pub right. Terry spent a fair bit of time in the Mt.A sculpture studio last year trying out designs, crafting settles and benches (a lovely deep green one sits in our mud room now), small tables, and wall paneling samples. Obviously much will depend on the character of the space we end up with, but the we're leaning toward an interior dominated by dark wood, cozy benches, odd nooks and crannies and maybe a dart-board or two all constructed with our very own hands to give it that real home made feel. 

Orwell on the vibe...

The Moon Under Water

by George Orwell

Evening Standard, 9 February 1946

My favourite public-house, the Moon Under Water, is only two minutes from a bus stop, but it is on a side-street, and drunks and rowdies never seem to find their way there, even on Saturday nights. 

Its clientele, though fairly large, consists mostly of "regulars" who occupy the same chair every evening and go there for conversation as much as for the beer.

If you are asked why you favour a particular public-house, it would seem natural to put the beer first, but the thing that most appeals to me about the Moon Under Water is what people call its "atmosphere."

Local Hops and Malt?

Hi, again. We just wanted to share some of the exciting beer news that has been coming out of Atlantic Canada the last while. Just as NS wines have gone from novel experiment to an award winning industry in the last decade or two, we're hoping truly local beer will soon be as sought after, tasty, and abundant.

(photo source: dailybusinessbuzz.ca)

As you may have heard, there has been a lot of talk about local hops in the past year or so. Check out these stories on Evan Price of Fiddle Hop Farms and the burgeoning Maritime hop industry. If you'd be interested in growing hops for The Townhouse and the other NS/NB breweries scrambling to source their hops locally, please get in touch!

• A Dalhousie student entrepreneur is harvesting opportunities from two specialty crops
• Local entrepreneur planting seeds to open up hop industry
• Garrison invests in Local Hop Farm

Hungry?

If things go as we hope, The Townhouse will be situated on, or very near, Main Street and offer a cozy, classy, and genuinely friendly atmosphere to Antigonishers and visitors looking for a place to spend an afternoon or evening, meet friends, sample top quality ales and have a bite of something tasty, simple and locally grown to eat.

We will offer 2 of our own brews, a wide variety of NS micro-brewed and imported draft beers (including Guinness and several others that are not available anywhere in Antigonish), as well as a selection of NS and/or organic bottled beers and wines. But we’ll talk more about the beer another time. Terry is off this morning to do some brewing with Kevin Keefe of the Granite Brewery! Kevin trained in England and is the only guy east of Quebec that does cask conditioned ales (their Summer Ale, Stout and Best Bitter).

Today I want to talk a bit about food.

Early days yet...

As it's a small town, many of you may already know us and it certainly seems like everyone's already heard what we hope to be doing. That said, we'd like to introduce ourselves to those we may not have yet met, and to let you in on our plans to alter the social topography of this little town. Terry and I have decided we'd like to open Antigonish's first brewpub! We're big fans of locally produced, all-natural, food and drink, and of the cozy, laid back vibe of the traditional pubs of the UK and Ireland and we feel such a place would fit into this town quite nicely.

We've been researching, day-dreaming, checking out potential locations, and developing our ideas for about a year now. We moved back to Antigonish this past spring and have just been able to get back to our business planning (after several months of renovating and settling into our tiny new home). It's not going to be easy and it won't happen too quickly–there are many long days of researching, number crunching, exploring regulations, applying for permits, and a lot of money to be raised. And then there'll probably be renovations, and inevitably set-backs, and possibly even nightmares, and so on... But we figured, why not let you all in on the whole process? We'd love to get your feedback as we go along–your suggestions, concerns, ideas will be very helpful to us. We want to hear what you think this town really needs!