What’s better than good food paired with good beer?
How about when both are produced locally.
Compass Brewing has teamed up with The Urban Farm to offer Beer and Groceries. It’s a weekly event where The Urban Farm brings a selection of farm-fresh food from its South Porcupine storefront to Compass Brewing in Mountjoy.
East end meets west end with delicious results.
Kevin Patriquin, owner and brewer at Compass Brewing, is delighted to host the event in his storefront.
“Steve and I sat down a few months back during the holiday season, he was doing a lot of his gift baskets including an empty growler that people would get filled at the brewery,” he said. “I wanted to showcase more of his products and I was thinking of a weekly pop-up shop event with The Urban Farm and we’ve come up with Beer And Groceries, a weekly set up at the brewery featuring local products like meats, preserves, jams, soups and fresh produce where it’s a one stop shop and people get the best of both worlds, supporting local food, and great local premium craft beer.”
Steve Morin, owner of The Urban Farm, is pleased to make the weekly trip.
“Beer and Groceries came about because there was a lot of people from Timmins coming in,” he said. “I figured we could maybe try out a Friday at the other end of town. I contacted my friend at Compass Brewing to see if we could maybe get some items out.
“We’re bringing in some eggs, dried soups, canned preserves — there’s a fridge out there that we’re able to use — so we’re bringing in some cheeses. We’re bringing in a variety, as much as we can to see the possibility of us going out that way in the summer, from May to September.
“The response has been phenomenal. We’ve been doing really, really well.”
Both agree that their products fit nicely together.
“Of course, the nice cheeses from Fromagerie Kapuskoise and Thornloe pair well with certain types of our beers as well pepperettes and other cured meats go well with it all,” Patriquin said.
“A good summer sausage with the growler seems to be working,” Morin said with a grin.
Customers appreciate having the opportunity to have farm-fresh food on hand with refreshing local brew.
“The reaction has been great,” Patriquin said. “It’s gaining quite a momentum and some very new faces in the brewery. It’s been good to get different people in the brewery and being located on the west end of Timmins the Urban Farm has a greater footprint than just South Porcupine now, they really have a good working partnership with us and getting more clientele and that some maybe can’t make it to their store and it’s easiest to grab something at the brewery.
“We hope to continue this with them for sure.”
Customers who haven’t been into Compass Brewing for a while will notice another addition.
“Guests can now enjoy a glass of wine at the brewery now, we recently modified our liquor license to have other kinds of wine and spirits and it allows us to modify our hours of operations later than 9 p.m.,” Patriquin said. “We can now accommodate more non beer drinkers into our facility now which is great!”
Beer and Groceries takes place at Compass Brewing on Fridays from 3-7 p.m. Follow both businesses on social media for updates about event specialties.
Compass Brewing is located at 1300 Riverside Dr., Unit 20, in Timmins. For more on Compass visit their website or on Facebook . Visit The Urban Farm on Facebook.
