The Best Dive Pub Ever Found, the Inn of Olde

Last Saturday, myself and two friends decided to take the Quidi Vidi Brewery tour. Their beer is delicious: smooth, flavourful and without the pansy-ass low alcohol percentage.

(Side note: I’ve had to switch back to light beer lately, as the higher percentages continuously kicks my ass.)

Anyway, most of the tour took place upstairs in the brewery with an amazing view of the gut and the ocean beyond. We tasted samples of their beer, while the guide regaled us with fun facts about the brewery (upcoming article for Westjet to follow). For example, did you know that something like 10 million cases of beer are drank by Newfoundlanders each year? And we’re a province of 500,000 people. I can’t help but own this statistic proudly.

Best beer ad ever. The caption reads, Results may vary.

Best beer ad ever. The caption reads, “Results may vary.”

The three of us had a table to ourselves, and for some reason, we kept being the last ones to receive the jugs or bottles of beer with the samples. Eventually, all the leftovers accumulated at our table. Naturally, we drank it all.

Why yes, that is cranberry flavoured beer.

Why yes, that is cranberry flavoured beer.

By the time we left the brewery, we were feeling a little tipsy. I was facing full-blown shitfacedness at 3 in the afternoon, and we still had a lengthy walk home.

We decided to stop at the village’s Inn of Olde instead.

I wrote about this pub before, but I had only briefly visited in the past. This time, however, the loud decor and crackling wood stove greeted me like an old friend. I was home.

Cozy.

Cozy.

The pub is actually connected to the owner’s house, an elderly gent who ambled out from his living room when we arrived. We bought a beer over the bar which was entirely covered in photo IDs (confiscated?) and business cards. Then we took our seat at one of the tables beside a grand piano on a lopsided floor. The whole place smelled like old Newfoundland, the kind I remember from visiting my grandparents in Morrisville.

The pub is an unintentional museum, overflowing with items collected from dedicated patrons over the years. License plates, old antique water jugs, hockey gear, signs. Accordion music in the background. I couldn’t even pay attention to my friends’ conversations.

Theres at least three different celebrations going on here.

There’s at least three different celebrations going on here.

The bathroom was hidden in a tiny room around a corner, with one stall. Locking the door from inside, I realized the toilet was inside an actual closet.

Thats one way of respecting privacy.

That’s one way of respecting privacy.

Just outside the door is a mounted huge moose head, and stacked under it are books with creased covers. How does this stuff not get stolen?

I could have stayed forever. By the time we left, our heads were buzzing and the sun made us break out in a sweat. We started our walk around the Quidi Vidi Lake, making loud conversation about inappropriate mid-afternoon subjects of sexual nature. When we ran into my roommates doing a jog around the lake, we turned around to see at least 20 people on the trail keeping their distance behind us.

In other words, if you ever decide to do the brewery tour, leave the car at home and expect to get drunk. And do visit the Inn of Olde.

  • May 16 2010
    maggie

    ahaha, sounds like a great time! ;D I should totally do that brewery tour…

    • May 19 2010

      We’re doing it pre-keggar if you’d like to join!

      • May 20 2010
        maggie

        thumbs up to that! :D
        (unpacking, schumnpacking…)

  • May 16 2010

    Wow – love the school chairs in that place, too!

    And REALLY love the old man beer ad – h.i.l.a.r.i.o.u.s.

    • May 19 2010

      I know, so retro huh?! Hehe, that guy is actually a prof at the university. Goes without saying, it changed his career.

  • May 16 2010

    Sounds brilliant. You can’t beet a pub with a wood burning fireplace. Ahh, the smell …

    • May 19 2010

      The stove was definitely the winning factor for me, oh man!

  • May 16 2010

    I don’t think there is such a thing ‘a bad brewery tour’ I’ve always had a good time doing them. I fruit flavoured beer surprisingly seems to work in my experience. I imagine cranberry is pretty nice :-)

    • May 19 2010

      True dat. Although I’ve been to some that were really more museum than tour!

  • May 17 2010

    That pub looks awesome! … Brewery tours always end in success.

    • May 19 2010

      Really, I mean how can you go wrong?!

  • May 17 2010

    That place looks awesome. I love dive bars. I found the strangest urinal of all time and as bad as it sounds, I wish I would have had my camera with me. It was in an alley underneath a staircase just out in the open.

    • May 19 2010

      Hahahaha, you really should have taken a picture!

  • May 17 2010

    I want to be there so bad!!! THat looks amazing!

    Seriously Candice, one of my life long goals is to hang out with you one day. And we have to go there.

    • May 19 2010

      Aww Carissa, thanks!! I’m almost afraid of the results if we should ever meet. But damn they’d make some good blog entries.

  • May 18 2010

    shitfacedness is my new favourite word! sounds like a damn good afternoon, beats a jog round the lake anyday!

    • May 19 2010

      Totally! Jogging is for lame-os.

  • May 19 2010
    OG

    Seems like a cool way to spend the weekend, but that toilet makes me glad to be able to pee standing up.

    • May 19 2010

      Ahhh, I wish I had that simple pleasure. :(

  • May 19 2010

    You’re not kidding “best beer ad ever.” Almost makes me wanna take a drink. ;)

    • May 19 2010

      The kind of man you’d like plastered to your bedroom wall, yes?

  • May 19 2010

    I LOVE places like that! We have a few here in Austin. I love that everything is small and not really clean and sort of weird. Makes me feel better about also being all of those things.

    • May 21 2010

      Hahaha, it’s hard not to feel at home there, isn’t it?

  • May 19 2010

    Now this is a proper drinking place! Love, love, love the pictures!

    • May 21 2010

      There’s so much more I wish I had captured!

  • May 20 2010

    Nice place to park a beer, the ad I mean.

  • May 26 2010

    ha ha that looks legendary, one for the things to do list for sure

  • February 07 2011

    Looks cool. The best small bar I ever stumbled upon was in the Electronic district in Tokyo. It was about 15 feet wide on the second floor. The entrance was a plain black door which took you up a narrow brick and metal stair case leading to an environment of overworked business men and young hip trend setters. They even had an automatic beer poring machine for 200 yen.

  • February 22 2011

    2 p.m. and I am thirsty now. Thanks. ;)

  • March 10 2011
    Byron

    I was down there last saturday, it is an amazing place. It reminds of being in a shed out home.

    • March 13 2011

      I know! I went back this weekend. Unreal place.

  • August 04 2012
    Teena in Toronto

    We stopped in yesterday … it’s quite the experience :)

    http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2012/08/inn-of-olde-st-johns-nl.html

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