Situated just south of Banff in the great Rocky Mountain town of Canmore, the Grizzly Paw Brewing Company and Restaurant is popular with locals and Albertans. The pub opened in 1996 and has a cozy wooden interior, with several fireplaces, and a great scenic patio (also with its own fireplace).
Grizzly Paw is the only brewery in the Canadian Rockies and produces an assortment of beer including rotating seasonal ales with interesting names like “Rutting Elk Red”, “Beaver Tale Raspberry Ale”, and “Grumpy Bear Honey Wheat”. If you even vaguely like beer, you’re likely to find one brewed in Canmore that will appeal to your palate. Try their sampler if you’re unsure. In recent years Grizzly Paw has also begun crafting an excellent assortment of non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated sodas, like Black Cherry Cola, Cream Soda and Root Beer. These sodas are remarkably good and very popular with kids.
I’ve enjoyed several meals at this restaurant/pub, each time with good service and very tasty food. The fare is essentially upscale pub-grub — sandwiches, salads, burgers, shepherd’s pie and the like. I’ve tried their bison burger and cheese burger, as well as a Montreal smoked meat sandwich (sort of like pastrami). Everything I’ve tried was excellent.
The restaurant/pub has a cozy atmosphere and best of all is its great patio with grand views of the Three Sisters mountains. As a warm summer day ends, and the coolness of night begins to settle, it’s great to sit outside watching the changing light on the mountains and having a great meal with family or friends.
The pub also has its own gift shop next door, which I never visited. But if you want a “Grizzly Paw” t-shirt of baseball cap, that would be the place to buy it.
When I lived in Canmore, The Paw was one of my favorite places along with Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co. I watched the Grey Cup at the Grizzly Paw.
The place looks great! Isn’t this the place where the photo of the famous Beer Guy was taken?
Close, Rob, but not quite. The Beer guy was frequenting the local pizza joint. But he was ready for some Grizzly Paw, which everyone in town serves.
Thanks for the comment, Jonathan. This would be a good place to watch the Grey Cup. For non-Canadians, that’s the Canadian Football league’s equivalent to the Superbowl, but with perhaps 1% of the popularity of the Superbowl. Football is not a big sport in Canada. Here it’s all about Hockey! Hockey in Canada is about as popular as football and baseball combined in the USA.