Shenanigans With Dave: Unibroue and beautiful Chamblay, Quebec, June 2016

We've been fans of the artwork (and brews) for the Unibroue beer company for a long time.

Back in June, Doug and I planned and executed a 25th anniversary trip that was about ten thousand times as much fun as we expected.

We went to Quebec City for three days, Montreal for pretty much 18 hours, down to Chamblay, Que., and an overnight stop in Vermont at our friend's bed and breakfast.

The stop in Chambly was specifically to go to the Unibroue brewery and restaurant. This was a must-see for Doug, and he was very much looking forward to this.

Located about a half hour east-south-east of Montreal, it was on our way to our friend's B&B, and am such easier border crossing that 89 in Burlington VT.

We bypassed eating lunch in Montreal, because Doug wanted to do the beer and food thing at the brewery. We were borderline hangry by the time we made it to Chambly.

Doug had the address for the brewery in his phone, and when we got there, we discovered that they did not have an hospitality suite, or restaurant, so he was grossly misinformed. A quick Google and Yelp search turned up Fourquet Fourchette around the corner.

They touted themselves as the unofficial official Unibroue restaurant. It was about 4:00pm, and the restaurant was empty, but a few patio seats were occupied. The waitress set us up out back, and we noticed that a wedding would be taking place.

The guests began to fill in, and they had a whole portion of the patio set off with a tent and beer all set up for everyone to pre-game before the bride and groom arrived.

We ordered beers and sat back to watch the wedding. We couldn't hear anything, and it was funny to hear their guests, about 50 in all, giggling and laughing. They exchanged vows and kissed, and everyone cheered. For those of us on the patio, the cycling family of 5, the party of 10 friends who had gathered together for drinks and sunshine, Doug and me... we all raised out glasses and clapped along.

As for our beer and food experience, we had grilled cheese, apple and sautéed onion sandwiches, and a charcuterie plate that was gigantic and amazing. I don't know half of the meats we ate. The waitress couldn't remember how to say what things were in English. So eventually Doug said "that's okay - we'll still eat it." And that we did.

We crushed it. Absolutely crushed it. And basked in the deliciousness, sunshine, light humidity, summery feeling by the lake near the fort. Bliss.

That's a very happy Doug with his Blanche de Chambly and the great display of meat and cheese.

We paid our bill, got some fancy Ephemere beer glasses and some bottles of beer (we didn't go overboard because heck, we can buy it in New Hampshire, five minutes from our house).

Enjoy pictures of food and beer!