For me, it bought me quite a bit last night.

Somehow I was fortunate enough to get free corporate box seats for the Raptors game (basketball) last night at the Air Canada Centre as they fought right to the last second against the Atlanta Hawks. The Raptors won in overtime with a score of 109 to 101. The seats were amazing as I had never been up to the 5th level of the ACC before. You can see the entire stadium from there. The room, complete with couch, bar, and your own sever who comes up to you asking which type of beer you would like to drink, was just great and was the best box in the house as it was directly behind the net.

Despite arriving to the game at half time, I still thoroughly enjoyed myself with free beer, pizza, and chicken wings. You can’t go wrong! It’s just a shame that I didn’t have my camera gear at the time as I could have taken some choice shots. My brother and his friends also came along for the ride and enjoyed it just as much. I’ll have to thank Makino-san for these last minute tickets.

Afterwards we headed over to Reservoir lounge where we noticed a good $10 cover charge. The music was pretty nice (jazz) but not wanting to pay the cover, we headed over to the Beer Bistro. As luck would have it, I had a coupon for free Belgium fries. I used that and ordered the 3 beer sample taste tester for $6. The Beer Bistro carries beers from all around the world and has a beer menu longer than you could ever want.

I ordered three beer samples (each about 4 oz) including one chocolatey smooth one, a fruity, citrusy one, and a clear, crisp one from Munich. They were all fantastically great. Even better was that I ended up with 5 samples instead of the usual 3. Our waitress managed to mix up the beers and didn’t know which one was which. So, she went back and got more beers ensuring me that that one was indeed the beer that I actually ordered. I don’t know how she could have remembered all the beers. Four of us ordered the beer samples so she came to our table with 12 samples of beer trying hard to remember what was what. The only one that I remember from last night was the Chouffe Blonde from Quebec. That was the sweet, fruity aroma beer that tasted more like wine than anything else.

That pretty much capped the evening as I headed home afterwards. We stayed at the Bistro for quite a while. It was fun. We should do it again sometime.

Cheers!