Pint and a Smoke

Welcome to Pint and a Smoke, a blog about drinking and finding the best places to do so.

We'll start in Toronto and move farther afield here in Canada, over to England, Scotland and Ireland and hopefully places between and beyond.

If you're into places with banks of TVs on the walls or music so loud you can barely hear yourself think then this place is not for you.

No chain pubs if it can be helped. If its part of a chain it better be a "gotcha" after you're long gone. It should be a little dark, maybe a little rundown.

Shiny and new is too shiny and new.

Its got to be a place you can walk to unless it a roadside village pub somewhere. No strip malls or malls of any kind. It had better be part of the streetscape.

History helps but is not necessary - there are no 400 year old pubs in Canada. 40 years is ancient here.

Guinness or another stout is important. Or a bitter. Local or regional brews on tap - a big one.

There may be a small TV over the bar with the game on. There may be music.

But in the end its about the conversation and the pints.

The kind of place you go with a buddy the night your son is born.

Where you can drink a pint and read the paper.

Or go for a drink after the game.

That's the place.

Next post - a hidden gem in the eastern end of Toronto which also happens to be my local.