Brewpub well worth the hop to Squamish
I wasn’t in the best of shape or mood. I’d crashed on my bike when a wheel caught on a wooden bridge on the Squamish Valley Road. I rode into Squamish a wreck and with a very sore rib. I couldn’t laugh and didn’t feel there was much to smile about either.
So thank you Backcountry Brewing for nudging me to buck up and enjoy life; the refreshing brews on tap helped, as did the lively, inviting vibe. And then I discovered the food was better than I expected of a brewpub where you order at the counter.
It’s in a semi-industrial neighbourhood, albeit one that’s getting pretty tasty. Tall Tree Bakery with artisanal offerings has opened next door to Backcountry and a couple more places to imbibe are new to the vicinity: North Yard Cider Co. and A-Frame Brewing.
Backcountry, which opened last year, is built to accommodate. It’s a huge space with high ceilings, communal tables, and others with backcountry maps embedded on table tops and a moose head. The theme is ski cabin and it’s specific: 1975 ski cabin. It’s filled with the young and the restless and the recreationally inclined. One of the guys across from us had a broken arm from a mountain biking accident; he’d been to a hospital in Vancouver, but the wait was too long to get treated. It looked like beer was the next-best remedy.
The brewery made the top 50 new breweries in North America (Beer Advocate) and brewmaster John Folinsbee made an impression at the 2017 B.C. Beer Awards, winning Rookie of the Year and a first place for the Trailbreaker Pale Ale and second for the Widowmaker IPA and Ridgerunner Pilsner.
As for the food, it cosies up to beer, nothing fancy. But chef Artie McGee, who recently took over the kitchen, does an admirable job with pizzas. Last month, they sold 5,500.
McGee’s been around some serious kitchens: most recently, Four Seasons Whistler where he was banquet sous chef. Previously, he’d worked at two Michael Mina restaurants (Baltimore and Washington, D.C.) and the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh (a private club for the corporate elite). Backcountry is a move from stiff and formal to bike shorts and jeans.
“It’s 100 per cent different. I love being here. I want to make fun bar food and do things that push boundaries with beer,” he said.
The pizzas have thinnish crust, but not to the point of a limp middle; there are blacked spots and toppings are fun without being silly. Mine, with foraged mushrooms, truffle cream and kale ($15) wasn’t fun, but it was very good.
Wake-N-Bacon with maple garlic cream, roasted potato, guanciale, mozzarella, ovencured tomato and sunny-side-up egg was topped with fun. Buffalo chicken pizza comes with buffalo chicken and celery root puree,
mozzarella, blue cheese, celery and buffalo sauce using Backcountry beer.
I also enjoyed Oyama sausage, wrapped in thin pizza dough with Pilsner Dijon and pickles ($9). And a tomato salad with burrata, bacon, croutons and basil puree ($12) exploded with the taste of hot summer tomatoes and I’m putty anywhere near burrata.
Spaghetti carbonara almost nailed it. I say almost because the sauce could have been looser and seasoned better.
Instead of bacon, the kitchen uses ground end cuts of their cured meats. There are two other entrees: a hoagie with beer in the bun and a stromboli (rolled pizza) with ground lamb, tzatziki, cured meats, roasted peppers, and garlic oil. “The hops and beer come through,” said McGee.
Don’t count on dessert. Since I liked my lunch, I felt dessert would be worth the calories, but there was none that day.
“We run them as specials,” said McGee. When they do appear, it could be in the form of a milkshake with their Widowmaker IPA, a peach tart or chocolate custard.
This certainly isn’t the Squamish of old. A 2015 New York Times article naming Squamish as one of the top 52 places to visit in the world certainly helped breweries and good pizza places come to life.