Ottawa beer lovers are buzzing over news that Les 3 Brasseurs, a pub and microbrewery from France that has a popular Montreal location, is coming to liven up Sparks Street.
Adding to the flurry of construction activity already on Sparks Street, renovations start in November to have the building ready for spring.
“I know they’re trying to change up the area, add lively activity in the area and putting unique concept restaurants is a good way to do it,” says Gerry Kakaroubas, part-owner of Les 3 Brasseurs.
The Ottawa location will be the 10th in Canada. The ninth location opens in Quebec City in January. For now, Toronto is the only Canadian location outside of Quebec. At every pub the beer is brewed on-site and serves only serve what they produce.
The microbrewery will take up about 950 square metres on the ground floor of the C.D. Howe building at 240 Sparks St. Despite Ottawa’s bilingualism, the owners have decided to have all Ontario franchises use the name “The 3 Brewers” to cater to English-language market.
The number three in the name stands for the three generations of family that started the old-fashion brewery in Northern France in 1986. The family is still part-owners of the business and opened its first Canadian location in Montreal in 2004.
The pub has five beers on tap and two bottled in-house. The standard beer on tap is called the four sisters, a blonde, amber, brown, and white. Kakaroubas says the fifth is a monthly special which rotates through favourites for the Christmas season, Oktoberfest, and a pumpkin beer for the week before Halloween.
In the summer the brewery experiments; this summer, the Canadian locations tried out a raspberry beer.
Just down the street from the C.D. Howe building is the Brixton Pub, owned by Annie Zhant, which has been around for nine years. Construction activity on the street has slowed business and while she excited for most of the other new businesses proposed for Sparks, she’s not sure about the microbrewery.
“It’s probably going to affect us; we’ll have to make sure we’re the best. It will attract people to the area for sure, hopefully it’s enough for the both of us.”