Brilliant! A brew pub located in the ground floor of a building that was originally a feed and grain warehouse (1913). It was converted into a boutique hotel/ bistro/ brewpub and Buckersfield Brewery in 1988. Its award-winning brewery offerings have made it the best micro-brewery in B.C. and in the country at various times over the years. We would try the Arctic Ale (a light Canadian lager), the Raspberry Ale and the Bitter, and we cannot argue with the brewery’s excellence (Pint $6).
The pub offers breakfast; the menu for the rest of the day includes soups and salads (to $10), snacks and food to share (avg. $8), pub fare (about $10), burgers, sandwiches, and wraps (about $11) and entrées of salmon, steak, chicken, pork , mussels, seafood, and pasta at $15. There are also desserts, coffees, martinis, and scotches but above all that, they offer friendly service, reasonable prices, and live music every night. You have an option of sitting inside or in the glassed-in Victorian patio setting that surrounds the building. It’s got atmosphere; it’s got it all. I wanted to take it home with me.
We chose to order nachos at $13 and a snack platter (wings, hummus, calamari, veggies, tortilla chips etc.) at $27 and simply snacked-out. It was all good. Did I say that the beer is excellent?
My only regret with Swan’s is that I didn’t discover it until our last night in Victoria; I’d put it high on a list of unpretentious fun-places to spend an evening if you’re in town.