Restaurant
Alibi Room
October 9, 2009
If we gave out a Most Improved accolade at our annual restaurant awards, the out-of-the-way Alibi Room in Gastown would certainly crack the shortlist. Since taking over in 2006, owners Raya Audet and Nigel Springthrope have steadily transformed the two-level space from a mediocre watering hole with passable food to a clean treatise on the joys of craft beer with a well-pedigreed chef—Greg Armstrong, formerly of Habit Lounge—backing it up (try his smoked Alaskan black cod brandade and his mountainous, beer-friendly juicy beast of a burger spiced with chipotle mayo and sweetened with caramelized onions). There are 40 beers on offer, half in bottles from boutique houses in Europe and the other half on tap from microbreweries right here at home. Prices can be as low as $4 for a small glass and as high as $13 for some rare bottles. If you can’t decide, go for the $9 Frat Bat Sampler, a quartet of small sleeves. Bonus: watch for the freight trains slowly gliding silently past the windows, close enough to touch.
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