I Screeched, I Nanaimo’d, I watched The Moose get loose for the last time. Good times on Wednesday night as Hockey Bar teamed with CCYA to hold a Canada Day keg party.
This was the last dance for The Stipp–The Moose–as a Beijing resident. He is off for Singapore. Over the past few years, The Stipp has risen to the Canada Day challenge in ways many:
- He joined a joint Canada Day-Fourth of July pub crawl that included Home Plate, Great Leap and The Box, and led our nation to a rousing come-from-behind flip cup victory against Team USA. “There is no way we are losing!” bellowed Stipp.
- He spent another Canada Day impersonating a competitive eater, first going all-out for brunch at The Fairmont Hotel, then following it with a dozen oysters at the former Starfish, several orders of ribs at the former Switch, and a heaping plate of poutine at 4corners. That’s some serious eating.
- And on yet another Canada Day, he helped lead a “kiss the poutine” event. (It was supposed to be “kiss the cod” but the fish in question arrived sans head.) That involved attendees getting intimate with fries, drinking shots of Moosehead and Spicebox Whisky, and reciting the works of noted Canadian poets such as Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen, Bryan Adams and Gordon Lightfoot.
Also, he has about 247 terabytes of Canadian music.
As the end is nigh, The Stipp took it down a notch this year, simply showing up in his Canadian Idol shirt and with a bottle of weird Calgary whisky.
Anyway, a large crowd was on hand for the festivities at the Hockey Bar. There was live music, a beer pong tournament and corn-toss action.
There were two bottles of Screech, including one secured in 2013 thanks to The Telegram reporter James McLeod and the fine people at the Newfoundland Labrador Liquor Corporation–see this story–and safely held by Tom Bailey since then.
There was Hockey Bar’s Curtis Dracz setting up a table outside, loading it with 50 shot glasses, and making sure everyone got a taste of that Screech.
And there was Dustin Merrett, a Beijing-based chef from Nanaimo, who arrived with about 100 servings of the bars for which his city is famous. A truly rich and delicious treat.
All in all, a good party. And Stipp, it won’t be Canada Day without you, eh?
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