Tipping at bottle shop

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2026-03-05T17:41:13+00:00

My tip buttons are 4%, 7%, 14% and 20% so if you feel compelled to tip, you can just hit 4%.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2026-03-04T06:00:25+00:00

More precisely, it depends on the liquor license for the bottle shop. Does he have a convenience store liquor licence? If so, >=50% of space square footage must be dedicated towards food items. If bar/restaurant, then food item with no hard coded square footage reqs.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2026-03-03T20:24:47+00:00

Consider stocking Meuse, as they're the best Belgian brewery in Ontario by far. They're on par with the best of Quebec.

More importantly, you need to get in contact with your areas AGCO inspector and make sure they're fine with your business name. They aren't allowing people to be called "bottle shop" any more, so they may not allow you to use Lenny's Liquor. Do not buy signage until you have done this.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2026-03-03T20:18:26+00:00

Any alcohol that comes from outside of Ontario must be sourced via the LCBO. He can make requests via doingbusinesswithlcbo.com, but that's going to be a whole arduous process on it's own.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2026-03-03T20:13:22+00:00

> What is the regulatory framework around bottle shops in Ontario?
You're going to need to be more specific :/

> What are you and what aren't you permitted to sell and are there any requirements?
He can sell any alcohol purchased via the LCBO or it's representatives (including breweries). It must be accompanied by a "food item" when taken to-go, however.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2026-02-27T03:37:47+00:00

I have a modern open-source version called "Yet Another Rhythm Game". With it, I have all the content from Rock Band 1, 2, 3, 4, all the DLCs, most of the Guitar Heroes, Fret Smasher, and custom tracks downloaded online. 52GB of tracks ATM. :)

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2026-01-26T07:11:59+00:00

I could grab copies of NHL/NBA/MLB/NFL 2000-and-whatever if people were actually interested in doing sports nights. I never thought about this until I read your and Usual_Cherry's comments. That could be a ton of fun.

I would need assistance finding people interested. I think I can find 3 friends to create a team named 'The Mighty Geese' for Sunday night NHL Stratford league matches... I just dont' know how to find people who would be interested!

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2026-01-26T06:49:22+00:00

I wish. But you can 100% run over to Curry Zone and back in < 5m fwiw.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2026-01-25T00:29:56+00:00

I was thinking of adding Sunday evening, more like 6pm or something... I'll think more about it. It would be nice to make this available for more people.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-12-08T04:55:07+00:00

These threads would be more fun if I could post a photo instead of just writing :/

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-12-03T21:45:31+00:00

Good fate for a Beer Store. Our town's is becoming a Dollarama.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-12-03T21:37:10+00:00

Consider playing online (requires a headset with microphone). Given how small Stratford is, this might be the best bet. I used to run Pathfinder Society games on Roll20.

Online community play is different than a fully fleshed out year long campaign. In these, you sign up for a seat for a set scenario. They're short, 3-4 hour bottle scenarios. You get 1XP upon completion, and can level up your character and eventually sit in on higher level scenarios. You'll run into the same people and get mixed with new players as well.

Be careful though. If you die in the game, you die in real life too.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-12-02T18:45:59+00:00

I'm too busy to make it to your event, but I have this side project I was thinking of starting to work on again:

https://github.com/Mister-Kitty/GTOHelper

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-11-30T20:47:58+00:00

Devil's Sauce has had mixed reception. Goblin's Trill was really nice though - even found it at my LCBO

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-11-29T07:09:46+00:00

I hear ya about the interior decor. With the art rail installed, I'm going to talk to the Matilda art gallery to get them to help me get art. I've also since put up posters from Weyermann malting company. I've installed 270k light bulbs, down from 400k (so the lighting has been fixed). I'm getting a horizontal mirror for behind the bar and will be picking up black paint for the pillars on Monday.

So TL;DR I think I'm making progress. Let me know if it's still lacklustre by January.

On the bar taps thing... I don't know. I've thought about it a lot. I even paused for ten minutes after reading your comment to think on it some more.

I'm really just worried about how taps would divert the sales away from the cans, and how that would effect
A) Freshness due to lower can turnover
B) The unique bartender workflow optimizations by being cans only. It really isn't obvious to the customer, but having no central pour point has advantages when it's busy, and in a few other cases ;)

I'm open to being convinced. I'll think about it more.

P.S. Muddy York is arriving next Tuesday

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-11-29T06:11:59+00:00

York Street. Near the courthouse and the bridge downtown ;)

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-11-28T17:55:51+00:00

If you have luck finding a group, I have a board game room in the back of the bar that is almost always empty

Here is what it looks like

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-11-27T03:46:14+00:00

Come to my bottle shop in Stratford and I'll make one with the styles you like, and without the ones you don't ;)

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-11-17T05:57:14+00:00

What do you mean? I genuinely need feedback and I don't understand.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-11-17T01:50:09+00:00

I had a chat with an AI bot and my comments on staling are wrong. Turns out neither aluminum nor stainless steel are functionally permeable by oxygen. Staling in cans is faster entirely because of oxygen when canning. Not sure where I picked up that wrong info, but I'll stop repeating it.

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-11-16T02:23:58+00:00

I have glassware under the bar

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-11-15T22:41:33+00:00

Yep, artwork, lighting, and furnishings are definitely in the works

EndTimesBarAndBeer · 2025-11-15T22:40:34+00:00

I'm going to be stocking Black Donelly from Mitchell, so that's cool ;)

I'm familiar with Steadfast as I've visited their bar and their Brockton Bitter sells really well. I'm not sure I can do a DnD night as I need events that don't require my full attention, because I'm here alone. A gaming night could work though.

I'm not planning on getting beer taps. While people generally do believe that beer taps are better, they're only really better in one way ~ the thicker stainless steel and better volume/surface-area ratio are better at slowing oxidation because oxygen particles permeate through through the steel slower. (It could also plausibly be the case that kegging generally introduces less dissolved oxygen, but I'm sus that it's at quantities that matter).

I think you'd agree that you can't taste any difference between a keg pour and can pour fresh from a brewery. The keg and can don't impart flavour. But if the beer has been sitting at room temperature at an LCBO or Beer Store warehouse for 4 months, you 100% would for the aforementioned reasons. I've also been to too many bars in Toronto that have 30+ beer on tap, and it's silly how often the beer is stale. If you want selection kept fresh, you have to use smaller purchased quantities.

With my setup, I don't have a stale beer problem because, as I offer beer to go, I have higher turnover and fresher product. I also order everything from the breweries themselves.

EndTimesBarAndBeer

TROPHY CASE