I could give the Blackberry Mead a Miss

You know what it is like to find a bar that you think of as your own? In the UK it would by my "local" or simple "the pub." It is the kind of place where you can go for lunch, settle in for a pint after a game of badminton or with a gang after floor hockey. A place where the staff get to know the regulars, a spot where you feel comfortable, somewhere you can linger over a couple of pints and talk. For me that sort of place is Bushwakkers.

Bushwakkers has character. It is in Regina's old warehouse district and the old square rough sawed posts that hold the roof up must be 2 feet square. They were probably shipped in by train from B.C. The floor creaks and the decor could use an update and if I was the chef I'd update they menu and bring back the potato skins, but it is comfortable.

It is a brew pub with a line of beer with good prairie names like Stubblejumper Pils, Sodbuster Brown Ale, and slough Shark Ale. I always have a chuckle when people order a pint of Mother-in-law - half a pint of bitter and half a pint of stout.

The only drawback about the place is that, around this time of year, Bushwakkers introduces Blackberry Mead to the drink menu. The place fills up every night with rowdies who have come to drink up the mead as long as it lasts. There are those who are there for the taste but without question, many are simply there for the high alcohol content.

My favorite place turns into a zoo for a few weeks each year. Friday evening when the forecast was for an overnight low of -49 with the windchill there was a lineup out the door and not a chance of getting a table for eight. After our weekly floor hockey game we had to go somewhere else for beer which for us was a giagantic break with tradition.

I hate to sound like a Grinch but, at least when it comes to Bushwakkers, will be happy to see then end of the holiday season.