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The Townhouse Brewpub & Eatery

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May: Mother's Day Brunch, Trivia, New Jazz Night & upcoming events!

Brunch:A Sneak Peek...

Here are a few items that will be on offer for our up-coming Mother's Day Brunch, Sunday, May 11th, 11-2pm. We figured out a few things on our trial run last month, and are looking forward to the next edition, complete with new menu items, new Brunch cocktails, a all our lovely mothers! 

Pulled Pork Hash & Eggs 

North Carolina-style pulled pork (less sweet than the BBQ sauce styles), with hash browns, 2 poached eggs, and hollandaise               

Roasted Mushroom Hash & Eggs

A vegetarian breakfast indulgence! Roasted mushrooms, hash browns, arugula,  2 poached eggs, hollandaise                       

Lobster Omelette

Wild spring garlic (aka ramps), arugula, local lobster, shallots, topped with a drizzle of hollandaise, with a side of hash browns or bacon or salad                  

Huevos Rancheros

Spicy refried black beans, white cheddar, 2 fried eggs, on corn tortillas, with fresh salsa, & avocado cream         

Banana Bread French Toast

 served with homemade ricotta & maple cream, and blueberry compote                  

Beverages include Bacon Caesars, a brand new Michelada, Mimosas or Beermosas, Irish Coffees, and more...

Come join us and toast the wonderful women who've raised us all!

Sunday night we will be open regular hours, with our Sunday Roast and Irish music session!

Double Trivia Trouble this month!!!   

Wednesday, May 7:   hosted by Sam Shepherd.

Wednesday, May 21: Katie Edwards is back and hosting.

Teams of 4, 9pm start, no cell phones, and beers to the winners! Bone up on useless knowledge and join us! 

New! More live music!!!   

Every Thursday, starting at 9pm, we host a live jazz session. Come hear some remarkably talented students from the STFX Jazz Department play standards and more.

Upcoming events:

May 27: Print Preview: Relief

An evening of storytelling, poetry, music, and revelry after a long winter. 

Readers this month include Janette Fecteau, Emily Kane and Anne Simpson.

Contact me if you might be interested in getting up to the microphone this month or sometime in the future. The theme for May is "Relief". People are welcome to read their own writing or someone else's.

Music this month by Tom Curry.

Suggested Donation $10 at the door. All proceeds to benefit Antigonight Art After Dark Festival.

We hope you can join us!

May 31: Bette & Wallet CD Release

Details TBA

March/April : upcoming events, live music, themed dinner specials!

Hey folks,

We're back in regular schedule mode. We had a great St. Patrick's Day eve session and lamb roast and are looking forward to spring and some more events! We've got some exciting stuff in the works...

Meet the Brewer Night: Big Spruce Brewing
The first in what we hope will become a regular series of evenings of great local food and beer  will kick off with Jeremy White of Big Spruce Brewing
Details TBA, proposed date, April 19th - so pencil it in!

Coming soon!
Agricultural Trivia Night
Writers Reading Night 
Townhouse Movie Night - screening locally produced films
And perhaps a second performance of "Clowns: Demystified"....

Plus the following musical acts:

MORGAN DAVIS, Saturday, April 5th, 9pm $10 at the door

The Townhouse is pleased to be bringing back Juno and Maple Blues award winning performer for an intimate show. He has a huge following, but in case he's new to you, here's some background on Davis from his website:

For nearly four decades Morgan Davis has been on the road travelling across Canada, the United States and Europe. His performances draw from a rich tradition of country blues, as well as his own contemporary songs infused with wit and a large dose of humour.

Originally from Detroit, Davis grew up listening to a prolific mix of rhythm and blues. The music of Jimmy Reed, Ike and Tina Turner,Chuck Berry and Fats Domino was in the air. He later moved to California with his family, and then in 1968 left for Canada.

While living in Rochdale College, Toronto's mecca for the subculture of the late 1960's, he immersed himself in the study of Delta Blues, especially the music of Robert Johnson. Toronto's music scene in the early 1970's was the perfect place for Davis to cut his teeth as a journeyman, having the opportunity to see and play with many legendary performers. Bukka White, Johnny Shines, Sunnyland Slim,Snooky Pryor, Hubert Sumlin, and John Hammond were encouraging supporters.

Over the years he has had the priviledge of opening for Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, John Hammond, Albert Collins, and Eric Bibb. A highlight of his career was backing the phenomenal Dr.John. Morgan has shared the stage with Colin Linden, who also produced his second album, shared the stage with James Cotton, Huber Sumlin, Sunnyland Slim, Snooky Prior, James Harmon, Gene Taylor, Dutch Mason, Gene Taylor, Sue Foley, Ray Bonneville, Carlos DelJunco and many other great blues artist over the years.

Davis' songwriting talent received international recognition whenColin James covered his searing ballad "Why'd You Lie".Morgan's recording "Blues Medicine", on Electro-Fi records, garnered critical acclaim as well as awards for songwriting and production. His multi- award winning release "Painkiller" won an impressive four awards at the 2004 Maple Blues Awards and not long after took home Canada's top music prize...the Juno for Blues Album of the Year.

Davis has established a rich career as a solo artist, and also performs with stellar lineups of musicians as a trio or full band.

Morgan's passion for the Blues has never wavered... and he fully expects to be on the road for the rest of his life.

KRASNOGORSK, Thursday, April 10, 9pm, $10 at the door

These guys tore the roof off the Townhouse in January, and had everyone out of their seats and dancing! We couldn't wait to get them back again - so if you missed them last time, don't let it happen again! They are positively electric performers - there's drama, intensity, closely controlled chaos, and something primordial just under the surface... Halifax based Jacques Mindreau, violin, and Corey Hinchey, baritone ukelele, form the core of the group, and they've recently added a young stand up bass player, . A listen to their  CBC music stream reveals influences from Roma and Eastern European folk traditions, conjuring visions of full, whirling, multi-coloured skirts, flying white shirt-tails, and long, dark beards.  There may even be a guest appearance from Antigonish's own gypsy-jazz violinist, Donald MacLennan...  Below is an excerpt from an article from The Coast.

"Folklore music," as Jacques Mindreau describes it. "We try to tell stories with our music."

Their stories come from everywhere: their dreams; their imaginations; old folk tales of wizards and horses. The goal is non-verbal communication: Hinchey, with his baritone ukulele, will strum and stomp without any sign of fatigue, while Mindreau, in addition to playing a wicked-fast violin, has an operatically dramatic voice, made all the more operatic by the fact that he never sings in English. "It's sort of ineffable, the stories," Hinchey says. "They feel the music, and they jive it, and they give it its life."

And - for those who haven't checked us out in a while  - we've introduced themed dinner specials for winter:

 Tuesdays: Chicken Adobo

Wednesdays: Mexican Night 

Thursdays: British Pub Food 

Fridays: Catch of the Day

Saturdays: Home-made Pasta

Sundays: The Sunday Roast

Mid-Winter Break

Hi all, we just wanted to let you know that The Townhouse will be closing for a brief mid-winter break this month.

CLOSED February 17 - March 3

We're very sorry for any inconveniences, and we will miss all of our amazing regulars, but we think taking a break and making sure not to let anyone get too burnt out is part of running a sustainable business. We hope you'll understand - we chose the slowest part of the year to close, hoping to minimize the impact!

We'll be back the first week of March, refreshed and rejuvenated, and with more music and great food in the works! Next up - a new Halifax based duo Magnolia, who will be bringing a mix of jazz, blues & folk to The Townhouse

Saturday, March 8, Live Music  - Magnolia

Saturday, April 5 - Live Music - Morgan Davis

Plus the return of Julie Doiron...

Thanks for your understanding, and we'll see you again very soon!


Rose & Terry

January/February news, music and events

Happy New Year, everyone!

Well, the winter has set in, and it is certainly not kidding around this time. We've already had several stormy nights where our only patrons have showed up on skiis, but we seem to be in the midst of a January thaw as I write this. I just wanted to let you know about a few things happening at The Townhouse this month and next.

With the exception of hosting an informal Irish traditional music session on Sunday nights, being a music venue wasn't at the top of our minds in planning the pub. We were more ffocused ona  place to bring people together for conversation, good food and really good beer. However, there are so many excellent musicians in and around the area who have approached us about playing since we opened, that we do our best to rearrange the chairs and tables and make space for music at least twice a month. 

Despite the lack of a stage, a bit of an awkward lay out, and the complications of having two different types of liquor license within one space, with the loan of a small PA system from Clay Yancey (host of The Antigonish Underground Jam, Friday nights at the legion!) and a bit of shuffling, the Townhouse makes for a cozy, intimate venue. And to our initial surprise, the room, it turns out, always sounds great. With all the shows we've ended up doing, we've decided to purchase our own PA, and eventually to renovate the upstairs (first and foremost to house a larger brewery) and create a special functions room, complete with a proper stage and designed with hosting music in mind.

In the meantime, because we still don't do music shows too often, the acts we do bring in are musicians Terry and I are both really excited to see. So far, we've focused on folk, blues, old style-country and bluegrass, but bringing in people we feel are doing something really unique and special within those loose genres eg. Michael Hurley, Morgan Davis, Al Tuck, The Minnikins, The Sin & The Swoon, The Modern Grass, etc. As we only seat 60 people, and do have the aforementioned lay out issues, we encourage anyone keen to have a good seat for the show to come in a little early and grab a bite to reserve them. And we do have some particularly interesting shows coming up over the next few weeks...

FIVER, Jan 23rd, 9pm, $10 at the door

Our next act is one I feel really lucky to be able to be able to bring to Antigonish. Here for Halifax's In the Dead of Winter Festival, Fiver is the solo project of Simone Schmidt. I'm not alone in thinking Schmidt is one of the most exciting musicians in Toronto these days (see The Star article, that calls her the voice of 2 of the year's best albums). Despite her youth and edgy aesthetic, she has a remarkably timeless, almost transcendent, sound. I first got to hear her play several years ago at a small  music festival in New Brunswick, where she was performing in a duo called $100. Her incredible deep, haunting voice, stripped down musical style, and sharp song-writing (kind of a gritty contemporary take on traditional hurtin' country songs) really blew everyone away - this low-key acoustic duo basically stole the whole festival. This time around, Simone is fronting her own band - we'll have a drum kit set up in The Townhouse for the very first time! Fiver's sound is a somewhat mournful, country-esque rock, reminiscent of Townes Van Zandt, that I think The Townhouse's music crowd will really appreciate. We have already heard from one couple who will be driving 1 1/2 hours just to come see the show. You can check out her song Oh Sienna below, for a taste of what's to come.

KRASNOGORSK, Jan 30, 9pm, $10 at the door

This show promises to be a truly exotic, hair-standing-on-end, treat. Although I have yet to see them play, they come very highly recommended - as much for their eccentric intensity as their virtuosic plucking and bowing of strings. A recent listen to their  CBC music stream revealed influences from Roma and Eastern European folk traditions, conjuring visions of full, whirling, multi-coloured skirts, flying white shirt-tails, and long, dark beards. Halifax based Jacques Mindreau, violin, and Corey Hinchey, baritone ukelele, form the core of the group and we've just managed to squeeze in a show during their NS tour before their accordion player (visiting from BC) heads off to India to study Harmonium. There may even be a guest appearance from Antigonish's own gypsy-jazz violinist, Donald MacLennan...  Below is an excerpt from an article from The Coast.

"Folklore music," as Jacques Mindreau describes it. "We try to tell stories with our music."

Their stories come from everywhere: their dreams; their imaginations; old folk tales of wizards and horses. The goal is non-verbal communication: Hinchey, with his baritone ukulele, will strum and stomp without any sign of fatigue, while Mindreau, in addition to playing a wicked-fast violin, has an operatically dramatic voice, made all the more operatic by the fact that he never sings in English. "It's sort of ineffable, the stories," Hinchey says. "They feel the music, and they jive it, and they give it its life."

Coming up in early February is another event we're really looking forward to:

CRAFT BEER TASTING, Feb. 8, details TBA

We're bringing Tracy Phillippi, of The Ladies Beer League, back to town to host another guided craft beer tasting. While the last event was a thank you to our SUDS Club, this one will be open to the public, and feature 7-8 Maritime Craft Beers paired with appetizers from Chef Jacob Buckley and the Townhouse kitchen. While craft beer is gaining more and more popularity across the world, and more and more styles of beer are becoming available close to home (4 new breweries opened in NS in 2013!), people are getting more and more adventurous in what they want to drink (barley wine, smoked porter, or sour beer, anyone?). Everyone is starting to take beer a little more seriously, and having a lot of fun doing it. The author of a book on tasting beer that I've been reading, claims that if you can get a few beers into a wine sommelier they will admit that beer can do an even better job of pairing with food than wine! 

Whether you're new to craft beers or an IPA aficianado, this promises to be an excellent evening - Tracy is a certified beer judge, experienced professional and home-brewer, writer for TAPS Magazine, creator of Craft Beer Experiences, and an excellent guide through the multi-faceted, oft confusing, and fun world of craft beer. Come and try some new beers, learn a bit about different styles, and about how to appreciate that beautiful beverage even more! Details about tickets and beers will be forthcoming - stay tuned!

The Townhouse will be closed for a break and a few renos, from February 18 - March 3.

Finally, we just wanted to let you know in advance that The Townhouse will be closing for a few weeks towards the end of February. Don't worry, we'll be back in March and better than ever! We all need a bit of a break, and a chance to do a few renovations and things we can't do while open, and thought we ought to get it out of the way during the slowest time of year. We're very sorry for any inconvenience, and hope you understand that it's all a part of making sure this little business is sustainable in the long term!

More music coming up when we re-open:

MAGNOLIA, March 8th, details TBA

Halifax based duo play folk/jazz/blues. Check them out here!