Hi everyone, welcome to The (Ontario) Beer Hunter!
Semi-transparent icons on the map indicate stores that are closed.
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) is a Crown corporation established in 1927 to sell liquor, wine, and beer in Ontario through a chain of retail stores. An old monopoly from the paternalistic days of yore, they almost universally close too early and on all stat holidays. Fortunately, most locations have an excellent selection of foreign and domestic libations.
Brewers Retail Inc., founded in 1927, is a privately owned chain of retail outlets in Ontario, Canada operating as "The Beer Store". In fact, it is owned by a consortium of the Labatt arm of InBev of Belgium, Molson-Coors of Canada and the US, as well as the Sleeman Breweries arm of Sapporo Brewery of Japan. It’s a cartel with poor hours but a very large selection of (mainly domestic) beer covering the gamut from "distinctive" to "swill".
Wine Rack is the largest independent retailer of wine in Ontario. It sells exclusively Ontario wines and soft liquor products like hard cider and wine coolers. (Also known in some circles as "the Shmeckie", as in, "I'm going down the street to buy some screw-cap fortified wine from the Shmeckie.")
The Wine Shop is another large wine retailer in Ontario.
The red indy icon represents the independent micro-breweries who run retail outlets at their brewery locations.
Independent wine retailers are often found in grocery stores. They are Ontario wine makers. Because they’re a diverse group and we don’t know the names of all the stores, they’re poorly represented on the map. Please feel free to
Many of the larger centres in Ontario are also serviced by The Beer Guy. These folks will deliver beer right to your door from orders placed online! Their hours are Monday - Thursday 10:00am to 9:00pm, Friday and Saturday 10:00am to 9:30pm and Sunday 12:00pm to 5:00pm.
*No, not that beer hunter.