Northwinds Brewhouse & Kitchen

The beer tanks at Northwinds Brewhouse & Kitchen are not set dressing. The house brewery works its way into the food as much as the glass: soft pretzels proofed with beer and served under a cheddar lager sauce, a beef dip carrying its own porter jus, fries cut from PEI potatoes and fried in beef tallow. What opened as a Collingwood brewery in 2014 grew into a full dining room on First Street, and the kitchen never settled for taproom snacks. A diner can drop in for a flight and a basket of wings, or sit down to a twelve-ounce ribeye and a personal pizza, and the menu is built wide enough to carry both. The brewery may have come first, but the kitchen has long since caught up to it.

The savoury plates are specific and current. The Smash Burger stacks two custom-blended four-ounce Wagyu patties seared on the flat top with American cheese, mountain mayo, pickle coins, and a toasted sesame bun. Fish Tacos come crisp under shaved red cabbage, chipotle crema, and tomatillo salsa. The Detroit-style pizzas are personal-sized and built to char at the edges; the Galaxie tops cup-and-char pepperoni with a hot-pepper medley and a hot-honey drizzle over the house cheese blend. The Beef Dip layers shaved striploin with grainy-mustard horseradish aioli and old cheddar on a baguette, with that porter jus alongside for dipping. Steak Frites brings a grilled ribeye with chimichurri and the house fries, and the wings, a full pound fried in beef tallow, run from honey garlic to Scotch bonnet hot.