Feb 5, 2025
One good thing to come out of the pandemic in Ontario was the
ability for existing businesses to add a craft bottle shop element
to their offerings, and it's about time we did a deep dive for this
series. Chris Redmond of Durand Bar & Bottle Shop in Hamilton, ON,
and Marc Lecompte of Sidewalk Beer Shop in Waterloo, ON, joined Cee
and Nate to talk about the law change and how it works, their
approach to curation, how they work with breweries, what they can
and can't sell, the much-debated pricing structure for indie
stores, any impacts from other beer and wine sales points,
challenges with breweries and shipping, how they set up their
fridges, and what they think the future holds for independent
bottle shop. They got into four expertly-curated beers from
breweries that can regularly be found in both of their stores:
Sonnen Hill RGLR Beer Lager, Fine Balance Oats & Honey (HBC 1019),
Badlands Fog (2024), and Third Moon Each Beast A God Coffee Stout
(El Salvador Washed Red Bourbon). This was incredibly insightful -
cheers!