A co-worker came into the office gushing over this new hipster brewery so I had to give it a try for myself. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Located on Princess street in between Clergy but north of Sydenham, the space has good vibes and a beautiful open atmosphere. It’s lack of patio is made up by the open front garage door that lets in a nice breeze. If you’re a people-watcher, you can sit at the high top at the front and watch strangers stroll up and down Princess street. I’m into it. Something about this place reminds me of a spot I would find on Toronto’s Queen west – très trendy – but the wholesomeness of Kingston brings it down a notch (in a good way).

Drink choices:  Of course the highlight of this place is the beer. It is a brewery, after all.  In fact, you can take a tour of the brewery at the back of the restaurant. It is enclosed by glass, so you can see where the magic happens – live. Most of the brews have a pretty high IPA, meaning they are quite hoppy. I went the girly route and had the “Bianca,” which is an appropriate shade of pink, very sour and can be easily described as a boozy “pink lemonade.” My husband had “The Ships in the Night Oatmeal Stout” he said it was “alright, kind of bitter.” He’s a man of few words. Stone City describes the flavour as “rich chocolate, slight sweet maltiness, toffee, caramel, roasted dark coffee , earthy herbal hops.” After I stole a sip, I could taste a bit of the coffee for sure.

Food choices: The food menu is very diverse. We felt like sharing so we ordered a couple of apps. The first thing that caught my eye was the “Meat and potatoes” which was double-smoked and candied bacon with house-made chips *heart-eye emoji*. We also had a charcuterie board with duck prosciutto, skipping stone cheese, calabrese and house-made crostini. Mmm charcuterie. It was all delicious. I mean, you can’t go wrong with bacon and you especially can’t go wrong with double-smoked CANDIED bacon. And it’s hard to mess up charcuterie. I think what I appreciated most is that they prepare even the basics – the chips for the “meat and potatoes” and the crostini on the charcuterie board were made in-house. That sort of effort matters to me. Plus, everything was served on minimal wooden boards which was appealing to me as well (I said trendy, didn’t I?).

$$$: I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t the cheapest outing. But considering the quality of ingredients I can’t disagree too much with our bill that was about $45 before tip.

Chances of re-visiting: I would definitely go back. There were other menu items that I was eyeing that I would like to try. Ie; the “Beet City” sandwich: roasted beets, pickled carrots, goat cheese, arugula pesto and pumpkin seeds.

BONUS: Stone City seems to be very involved with our community, they host events like “Hoppy Yoga” in collaboration with Studio 330 which allows yogis to practice in their space and then take a tour of the brewery.

Keep Up with Stone City: They update their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter regularly if you want to stay in the loop with what their team is up to.