Pint Public House (Vancouver, British Columbia)

Pint Public House, 455 Abbott Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in the Gastown area in downtown Vancouver.  www.thepint.ca  604-684-0258.  Hours 1100-2 am.   A great sports bar just a few blocks from BC Place Stadium, home to the Vancouver Whitecaps of the Major Soccer League, and the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League, and the Rogers Arena home to the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League.  The walls are adorned in tons of various sports photos, mostly local teams.  In the center is a nice big square bar with seating an all 4 sides, I guess it could sit 30-35 people.   Before games this place fills up very quickly.  They just added a 300 seat extension below in the basement and that opened about a month ago.  If it is beer that you are after, there are 17 different types of beer on tap, as well as bottled and canned beer.  You can also order this real cool beer vat thing.  It is about 2 1/2 feet tall, glass and full of beer.  It has a tap on the bottom and you can pour your own beer!  No waiting for service, which by the way was very good!  Through out the bar there are numerous HD TV's.  They have roll up doors so you can sit and enjoy the fresh air and everyone passing by.  This pub is in the old Lotus Hotel, which a few years ago  you would never have ventured here as it is part of the downtown East Side which still is one of the poorest areas in Canada and riddled with drug and addiction problems.  Where the pub is located, there has been a lot of revitalization going on and sure that is nice.  You only have to walk a couple of blocks to the north east and you can appreciate how good you have it!  The food here is very good, I had the pound of chicken wings.  They come in 40 different flavours with a choice of 8 different dipping sauce.  I had the Bourbon BBQ with blue cheese dipping sauce. The wings were great, juicy and not dry, the sauce had a little zip to it but still mild, the way that I like them.  My Son had the Great Canadian Burger that came with Bacon, smoked cheddar cheese and maple BBQ sauce (and all the usual toppings), it came with a choice of sides that included, fries salad, etc.  He had the fries which were very good!  They have a fairly extensive menu!  The atmosphere here is very good, you don't have to be a sports fan to have a good time here (but it helps)!  It is not that far from all of the major hotels in the city, so it is a short easy walk.  I really like this place and highly recommend that you give it a try!

Cultus Lake Pub (Cultas Lake, British Columbia)

Cultus Lake Pub, 3696 Columbia Valley Road, Cultus Lake, British Columbia, Canada  Phone 604-858-5615.  It is about an hour and a bit east of Vancouver and makes for an easy day trip! It looks inviting from the outside, looks inviting on the inside. All log cabin, with an outside patio area. It just didn't grab me, it felt that it was lacing something.  I had chicken wings and I could only give them a fair rating.  The spring rolls were OK.  My friend had a chicken burger and said that is was really good.  It is in a great recreational area and just up the street from the water slides, which by the way are expanding and making them even bigger.  There is a lot to do in this area, mini golf, beautiful lake and camping.  Maybe in the summer when it is busier, this place may be better.  I just wasn't feeling it.  The sit up bar was fair at best, one could do so much more with this place.  They have lots of parking, and easy to find.  Maybe some one else can give me another reason to go back and try it out again.

Kulshan Brewing Company (Bellingham, Washington)

Kulshan Brewing Company, 2238 James Street, Bellingham, Washington, USA  wwwkulshanbrewery.com   This was a great find.  I have been past it many times, and it is always busy.  It is a very social place with lots of picnic tables.  You just grab a seat and sit with everyone else.  They offer 12 beers that are brewed on site in their 15  barrel 465 gallon) Brewhouse.  You can get beer to go in "quart and half gallon growlers that have been cleaned, sanitized, purged of oxygen and counter pressure filled to ensure freshness." Check out their web site for more details on their beer. The front paved lot is their beer garden.  Inside there is more seating and the bar area which does not allow anyone under 21 years of age.  As it is a working brewery, they do not sell food, but there is a street vendor truck in the lot and they serve awesome food such as the Lamb burger with tzatziki sauce!  Very Good! Unless you are really hungry or sharing, order the small fries....just a hint.  Also down a couple of doors is Coconut Kenny's which makes great pizza and sub sandwiches, and they will deliver.  There are a couple of other places that will deliver.  Since I don't drink beer, I had the homemade apple cider, which was quite good.  The staff was very friendly as was all of the patrons, just a great place to go and socialize with a fresh cold beer!  Check it out for sure!!

Filini Bar & Restaurant (Chicago)

Filini Bar and Restaurant, 221 North Columbus Drive, Chicago, USA  Ph# 312-477-0234  www.filinichicago.com.  Located in the beautiful Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel Chicago, which is 18 stories of hotel then the rest to the top which is 82 stories are private residences.  The restaurant is on the floor above the bar and is an Italian restaurant.  I am only dealing with the bar.  It is a very modern looking bar, with these angle shopped booths that are quite big. The tables in the booths have glass tops with little electric candles underneath the glass, looks cool.  The sit up bar can easily seat 20 and is quite long with the cooks area to one end.  You may have not noticed, but I didn't say sat comfortably.  That is because at the bar and the two long tables have these bar stools that kinda look like chunks of dinosaur eggs.  These have to be the worst seats I have ever sat in, and I am not alone making that comment.  Everyone that I was with who were in this bar said the same thing. When you sit in them you start sliding forward and down and if not careful right out of the chair on to the floor.  All that and you haven't had a drink yet.  We had to move out of these chairs and sit at one of the round tables with normal chairs.  Crazy stools I say!  Filini has a couple of flat screens tv's at one end.  We found the food in the bar sub-par.  The Capri salad, with Buffalo milk mozzarella cheest, marinated tomatoes, the tomatoes in it that weren't ripe.  The waitress even commented on it at the end of our meal.  We also had the brushetta, and it was just OK.  The prices for what you got were high as well. They had 2 or 3 different types of beer on tap. There you go.

Pippin's Tavern (Chicago)

Pippin's Tavern, at Rush and Division, Chicago USA.  This is a small bar that really packs a punch! It's capacity is 62, and I bet all 62 were there when we were.  They have a rounded rectangle bar in the center. This sit up bar probably seats 30, and when you get a seat you keep it! Seating is at a premium and lots of the University crowd was here as well as a more mature set, LOL!  They have, get this 29 different beer on tap, and the bartender said it is always changing! This place looks like it has been around for quite a while, the bare wood floors are worn by time.  They have a sidewalk patio but not in use when we were there as it was cool out.  There are stool situated around the outside walls and windows of the bar.  A cool feature is you can play the juke box using your smart phone.  What will they think of next....sliced bread?  They had all sorts of music playing spanning all generations.....OK not all generations but 1960's to the present.  There was a guy having a beer reading a book with everything going on, I don't know how he did it.  If it was me, I would have to read the book again after I left, A really cool little bar.  Well worth going to!!

The Kerryman (Chicago)

The Kerryman, at the corner of  West Kinzie Street and North Clark Street, Chicago USA.  An Irish bar and at first I was not sure, but it grew on me. It is a two level bar with a situp bar on the main floor seats about 10 and the bigger more party bar up on the second floor seats 15.  The stairs going up had the name The Kerryman light up on each step as is was fairly dark in there, this was a nice touch.  The bar is done in nice dark wood through out.  They have 10 different beer on tap.  The second level wraps around so you can look down at the main bar.  The food was OK.. I had the three crab cakes and they were just OK.  My wife had the chili and found it rather salty.  It was very dark where we sat making it very difficult to see.  I asked for a flashlight and the waitress brought some crappy little fake candle that if it was any dimmer it wouldn't give off any light! All in all the decor was very nice and it had a good feel to it.

Harry Caray's Bar (Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse) (Chicago)

Harry Caray's Bar in the Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse, 33 West Kinzie Street, Chicago USA.  Now this place is beautiful and full of history.   Harry was the famous Chicago Cubs broadcaster, who passed away a few years ago.  Upon the 4th floor, Frank NITTI lived.  NITTI was the enforcer for Al CAPONE, his in laws owned the building.  In 1998 during renovations the discovered secret tunnels, safe and room used by NITTI and CAPONE.  You can go down stairs and see if for free.  Back to the bar....the situp bar is long and seats about 20 people.  There are 10 tables along the window and they each sit 4 people per table.  There are all  kinds of sports and celebrity memorabilia through out the bar and steakhouse.  This place is beautiful, I just can't say enough about it!  We got to sit and watch the Chicago Cubs vs San Francisco Giants there as well.  For lunch I had the grilled corned beef sandwich which was about 2 inches thick, topped off with coleslaw and cheese.  It came with home made french fries.  My wife had the chicken pesto sandwich with Swiss cheese and fresh spinach and that was also very good.  I must say that was one of the best corned beef sandwiches ever!!  They also serve every one deep fried potato slices.  They have 14 different types of beer on tap.  Great place, I give it 2 thumbs up and highly recommend it if you are in Chicago!!