7 thoughts on “Summer is for witte bieren

  1. Hum…

    Nice post. I dicover Schoune lately (I don’t know if you Anglos realize it, but the name is really strange: a mix of schnoutte (shit) and noune (cunt)….)
    Anyway, I did not try the blanche, I tried a brune/red one, a real Ale (while I am not sure about this, I think, from the bootle, that it might be a Belgian style beer, but I do not much about them).
    Really tasty. Strong aromas. Lots of particules.
    I really love those artisanal beers. I think it looks a lot like Cheval blanc’s red one, but everything is more pronounced.

    Anyway, I wanted to comment on something else. After something like 10 tries, I finally succeed to go to Amelio’s!!! (it’s closed on sundays, and that when I like pizza, and I bumped on the doors once because of holidays too).

    I did not ask for Blork’s table as I did not want to be too spoiled and taste it objectively.
    We took the veggie with extra italian sausage.
    What a fest! It’s really good. You are absolutely right about the sauce. It feels like home made pasta sauce, so the vegetable are cooked right. Even the eggplant was good. Crusty pasta, tasty top, I loved it!

    The only thing I did not enjoy was the place, the decoration is so so (as with the waitress’ lipstick…). The place is furnished a bit like a countryhouse, but that’s ok.

    THE THING that really pissed me off was the ATM.
    To me, a shop that screws his client this way is unacceptable, and I am very worried that it does not screw me in some other ways. To me, those cash machines are a huge warning about the shop’s honesty…

  2. Raoul, I’m glad you enjoyed Amelio’s. As for the ATM, I never use third-party ATMs, and I recommend that others follow my boycott, but I don’t blame the proprietors for them. They probably think they’re providing a service.

    In the case of Amelio’s, they’re always been “cash only.” It’s a very modest and low-budget place, and they have never taken credit cards. considering it is difficult to pay more than $15 a person for a full meal, that’s understandable.

    The prices are very low, and they don’t sell wine, so the profit margin in a place like that is very slim. As such, they probably don’t want to pay credit card and ATM fees. But they also likely had the recurring problem of serving people who didn’t realize it was “cash only.” The solution is obvious: install an ATM.

    The decor is quite modest, but again, it’s in keeping with the modest nature of the business. The original Amelio’s was on rue Lorne, a few blocks west of the current location. It was in the basement of a high-rise apartment building and it had about as much charm as a hospital cafeteria, so when the moved to Milton & Ste. Famille it seemed like a major improvement!

  3. I heard a story, but can’t prove the veracity thereof, that a lot of those 3rd-party ATMs are actually owned/run by biker gangs. A couple of years ago, when folks were getting their accounts wiped out by copied cards, it’s said that the passwords and magnetic-strip details were obtained from those ATMs, and therefore that the information was easily available to those dicks.
    Hey, it’s a plausible story, and just another reason to avoid those machines. So, yup, I’ll walk the extra blocks to a bank ATM instead of using the resto one.
    BTW, La Choune has been around for a while. Don’t care for the Scottish ale but then again, I never have. If you’re a home brewer, you can take the sludge at the bottom of the bottle and propagate the yeast.

  4. I understand. I never use 3rd party ATM, except 2 or 3 times a year. most of the time in bars, when I drank too much…

    It costs 1 or 1.50$ for the machine, your bank will also charge 1.50$ usually, and there are also some network fees that Interac charges (I think it’s 1.50 or 2.50$).

    Total, I think it’s like +/-4.50$. there was a topic on it at La facture or L’epicerie. It’s a gold mine for some owners. and some clearly installed them for profit only. Frite Alors removed them (on Laurier, Rachel I am not sure) because of the complaints. A customer rightly said it was breaking the line of confidence with the shop.

    Some places charge ans extra 50c for the interac (directly on the machine, you have to press ok). I guess it does not cost them as much. It’s quite fair to me (but I am stilled pissed off because we were told to use it instead of getting overdebt using credit card… but now this and the debit card cloning too…
    anyway…). I was a bit disapointed seing the machine.

    But I liked the food. I think I will order more often. it’s nice to find an excellent delivery pizza in the neighborood.

  5. Summer is for witte biers

    In Flemish that should be ‘witte bieren’.

    /nitpick

  6. I haven’t had the three whites you wrote about, but maybe I should give them a try. I just have a hard time prying myself away from (what I perceive to be) perfection: Blanche de Chambly is just so damned good, I don’t feel the need to buy anything else. (Likewise with St. A. Oatmeal Stout, which I’ll gladly swill from the bottle, for Pete’s sake.)

    One lesser-known white, that comes with lower expectations I suppose, is from Boréale. I first noticed it last summer when stopping in at the Bifteck patio during the June street sale. Confusion, noise, blonde becomes blanche…and it’s a pleasant surprise. A bit rough around the edges, notably for the assertive instead of subtle citrus notes, but still a great refresher.

    Oh, and speaking of the tangent, I love Amelio’s but now live outside the delivery radius. Must make a trip…

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