Bar Lupulus: Beer, Natural Wine and Fermentation in Ottawa

On October 20, 2017, its opening day, Bar Lupulus hooked its 22 taps up to beers from Ontario brewery Nickel Brook, served close to 600 people from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. and kept a lineup going all day on Wellington Street West. Today, the Hintonburg address is no longer the beer bar announced that day: its real subject, now, is fermentation.

Anthony, founding partner, comes from wine. His starting idea fit in one sentence: “a world-class beer bar, where beer lands on the table with the same seriousness as wine.” The plan called for a menu of snacks. The arrival of a talented chef derailed the project in the right direction, and the beer bar became a restaurant with a natural wine cellar and a cocktail list that digs into the kitchen’s pantry. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we do fairly serious things,” he sums up.

In the kitchen, Cameron McGihon arrived as a cook in January 2019, a little over a year after opening. He left to work elsewhere, including a stint in Europe at a starred restaurant, then came back. Chef for two years now, he works within a framework he describes bluntly: “practically no constraints.” His logic follows the region’s short seasons. Catch Ottawa‘s good produce while it’s there, ferment it, transform its flavour profile, and serve it in December.

The result is a menu that never stops moving. The raw bar runs through scallop crudo, beef tartare and bison carpaccio. Then come small plates like foie gras with sourdough bread, house-made pasta, then the hot dishes: sablefish, rabbit, duck or maitake. The charcuterie, served with house sourdough crackers, also makes it easy to stop in just for a glass.

The service carries the same intention. The team asks for two or three preferences and a budget, heads down to the cellar, comes back up with three or four bottles on the table and tells you about the producers. Cocktails top out at $20, around $18 on average. “It’s a bit esoteric, we’re not for everyone,” Anthony admits, “but the people who get on board fall in love with what we do.”

Sixty seats inside, forty more on the garden patio, an open kitchen, every seat reservable and the option to book the whole place. Bar Lupulus remains the kind of address where you stop for a glass before dinner somewhere else, or where you settle in for the evening and walk out with something new in mind. Happy discovering!

Written by Jean-Philippe Tastet
Photography by Bar Lupulus

Updated on August 14, 2026

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