'The Greater Good' - Beer Bar Review

I've commented previously on the spartan look that's popular at brew pubs, and to a lesser extent at beer bars. The Greater Good has bought into this fully, with battered old tables, unfinished walls, and sometimes mismatched chairs. One of my friends came up with a term for it: "faux poverty," although I think I prefer "artisanal poverty." It's meant to look cool, but they could have had everything new and matched if they'd wanted to.

The Greater Good is at 229 Geary Avenue at Dufferin (just north of Dupont) - one block away from Blood Brothers Brewing. They had 18 taps going when we visited, and at least as many bottles and cans in a cooler behind the bar. The cooler held a lot of stuff that's very easy to buy at the LCBO (although all local), but the taps were much more interesting - again, nearly all local, but several of them aren't bottled.

Sadly, they don't do flights (more common at brew pubs, but some beer bars do). They have quite a large space, including a loft with skeeball, arcade cabinets, and pinball. Some of the games are free, some require you feed them coins. They also have an outlet of "North of Brooklyn" pizza chain inside the bar, making it easy to get good pizza. When we arrived at 1815 on Thursday evening, it was fairly quiet - but by the time we left at 2130 (with an intervening visit to Blood Brothers), it was packed - a popular place.

My beers for the evening were Durham Black Katt Stout, which was quite nice and Royal City Harvest Porter which I found unimpressive. My friends both had the West Ave Cherriosity Cider, which was quite nice.

Tap list when we visited:

  • Great Lakes Karma Citra IPA
  • Royal City Harvest Porter
  • Silversmith Black Lager
  • Rodenbach Grand Cru Sour
  • Great Lakes Saison du Pump
  • Durham Black Katt Stout
  • Nicklebrook Raspberry Berliner
  • Halo Magic Missile Pale Ale
  • Sidelaunch Wheat
  • Collective Arts IPA No. 3
  • Beau's Lug Tread Lager
  • Stratford Pilsner
  • Indie Ale Outrageous Fortune Sour
  • Indie Ale White IPA
  • Beau's Full Time IPA
  • Left Field Laser Show IIPA
  • West Ave Cherriosity Cider
  • West Ave Heritage Dry Cider

Beer Map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1lD5bs_7kd9vN23SRrH5VdFT8fj8