It’s that time of year again: the holidays are right around the corner, and The Quill has accumulated a list of some family favourite activities around the area.
Read moreGrim Acres Update: More Fun!
For those who actually read my articles (thanks mom and dad), you may recall the article about Grim Acres Scare Away Cancer, and the two events they did this year besides their usual haunt.
Read moreQ-Mail: Nightlife
Dear Quintilius: I’m new to Brandon and was curious what the night life is like or what there is to do for fun? - Sincerely Searching For Fun (#PartyTimeAllTheTime)
Read moreCool Stuff Around Brandon
BUSU is hosting the Glow-Up Social at the Park Community Centre, there are going to be a bunch of food trucks set up at the Victoria Inn parking lot, and local high school students are selling discount cards for several popular businesses around town!
Read moreSummer Is Coming!
The measure of your sanity is determined by the number of hours you spend outside of this city. Therefore, spend as little time in it as you possibly can this summer.
Read moreOP/ED: Canadian Blood Services
I’m a proud supporter of the Canadian Blood Service. I’ve only been able to make a dozen successful donations since I turned 18 due in part to the rules in place for said donations – you have to wait six months post-tattoo, and your iron level has to be at least 126. I like tattoos, and I’m mildly anaemic, but I still try to donate every few months.
Read moreEscape the Final Countdown: New Year, New Rooms
Escape rooms are all the rage right now, made popular by an episode of the Big Bang Theory in which the gang solves the puzzle in about four minutes. It is not quite that simple in reality. The goal is to escape the room within 60 minutes, to do this you must find a series of clues and puzzles that will lead you to the solution and your escape.
Read moreFinding a job online
Tuition, books, and living expenses add up fast, making the task of finding and securing employment during the academic year seem like an impossible challenge, especially when you have no idea where to start looking.
Read moreSERC 101: community resources
I am new to Brandon and I am curious about some of the resources available here. Is there a place where I can get free birth control?
Read moreBuy textbooks for less!
With each August day that slips through your fingers, September and the start of the 2013/2014 regular term nears. In addition to perhaps requiring a new fall wardrobe (budget pending, as always), every student needs textbooks for their new courses.
Read moreA day on the job with the Canadian Animal Blood Bank
Byron doesn’t stop smiling. From the minute he rushes into the exam room of the Brandon Hills Veterinary Clinic and scrambles up onto the table, to when he makes a mad dash for the door ten minutes later, there is a permanent grin on his face, his tail happily wagging behind him. It’s a good day – he’s just given blood.
Read moreThe Wal-Mart Supercentre: Yea or nay?
Brandon’s Wal-Mart located in the Corral Centre on 18th Street was recently upgraded to a Supercentre, benefiting students living nearby who are in need of, well, virtually anything. Known for providing shoppers with affordable prices, “Wally World” finally caters to all your possible shopping needs—from that hamster wheel your beloved (and now obese) rodent Fluffy has been missing or a fabulously cherry car freshener to a $10 classic like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to fill your Friday night.
Read moreReview: The Double Decker Tavern
File photo. The Double Decker Tavern on Rosser Avenue. (Holly Kalyniuk / The Quill)
After a hectic, jam-packed week of performing the typical duties of a student (working a part-time job when you should be studying, studying instead of sleeping, house-cleaning in hopes of conquering a never-ending mess, and engaging in extra-curricular activities that have begun to lose their appeal), sometimes restoring balance means a relaxed weekend outing in the company of friends. If that’s the case, regardless of whether you prefer beer, or no alcohol at all, The Double Decker Tavern on Rosser Avenue offers an excellent atmosphere for your much-needed recuperation.
Established in 1994, The Decker features a daily special and a classic menu spiked with specialities like the shrimp basket, zucchini sticks, the Big Ben Burger (on the kids’ menu), bangers and mash, and “Sinfully Scotland” (deep fried Mars bars). For less curious visitors with hunger pains, there are several more standard options available, like a taco wrap, a ham and cheese sandwich, onion rings, and a plentiful nacho platter. With over ten different flavors of chicken wings, every wing-lover will be more than satisfied. There are even vegetarian options available. Finally, complete your meal with any of the 14 beers readily available on tap, including their own brew, the Double Decker Lager. Another incentive is The Decker’s student deal, whereby students receive 10% off their entire bill on Thursday and Friday upon producing a valid student ID.
The staff is consistently courteous and professional, serving customers in a timely manner and handling less-than-properly-functioning patrons with something comparable to grace. The comfortable atmosphere is made all the more so by the tasteful music playing throughout the pub, which strays far enough from popular radio hits to keep guests pleasantly at-ease. The pool tables and dart board encourage friendly (and inebriated) competition that can invoke booing in epic proportions across the entire upper level.
Rivalry between The Dock on Princess and the Double Decker begs the question of which pub packs the greater punch. While similar in atmosphere, the more constricted layout of the Decker creates a warmer feel, as opposed to The Dock’s large, open billiards area. However, The Dock offers the “Long Nights on The Dock”, a specialty brew which amalgamates alcoholic beverages which theoretically shouldn’t taste as delicious together as they do, and which could easily challenge the Decker’s house lager. Customer service is equally as pleasant in both establishments, and their menus are similar in their differences. In the end, which is the ‘best’ boils down to personal preference, which is usually arbitrarily decided by factors beyond the control of food, faculty or management.
Contrary to rumors mentioned in an earlier review, The Decker will continue to feature live music on Friday and Saturday nights. In the past, everything from jazz to rock has hit the stage, as well as various cover bands like Midlife Crisis and 2012 Brandon Summer Fair Battle of the Bands finalist Out F’ Sync, with some of the upcoming performances featuring local talents Sebastian Owl, Young Pixels, and Young Folk.
For a full calendar of events, visit the Decker’s official website.
Republished from The Quill print edition, Volume 103, Issue 23, March 5, 2013.
‘Safer Ground?’: thought-provoking, touching, terrific
On February 28th, James Forsythe’s powerful production Safer Ground? premiered at the Evans Theatre. Containing both harrowing and heartwarming verbatim accounts from Afghan refugees and Canadian soldiers, it chronicled radically diverse events in the lives of the two groups and was “in many ways a quintessential Canadian play,” according to Forsythe.
Read moreA glimpse into the 2013 Lieutenant Governor’s Winter Festival
The Ukrainian Pavilion, located in the Ukrainian Reading Association Hall on Assiniboine Avenue, entertained guests with traditional song, dance, drink and mouth-watering dishes throughout the course of Brandon’s Lieutenant Governor’s Winter Festival, and on the final night, the building was filled with the lively music late into the night.
Read moreThe Producers: Absolutely Hilarious
From January 24th to 27th, Brandon’s 7 Ages Productions brought to life the hilarious, and arguably offensive comedy, The Producers. Originally a 1968 film, The Producers was brilliantly adapted into a play by Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, and Spaceballs) and Thomas Meehan (Annie and Hairspray), hitting Broadway with Nathan Lane (MouseHunt and voice roles in The Lion King) and Matthew Broderick (Farris Beuler’s Day Off) taking the reins as money-hungry Max Bialystock and the mewling, incompetent Leo Bloom.
Read moreReview: Ye’s Buffet
Move over, Kim Lung and Wah Lee: there’s a hot new destination for Asian food in town! Disappointingly not actually called “Yes” (as in: “Is that a new restaurant in Brandon that I see?” “YES!”), Ye’s Buffet has very recently started calling 18th Street home.
Read moreReview: The Dock on Princess
With new management, a new logo, and a new name, 1133 Princess Avenue is (almost) a brand new pub. Formerly Clancy’s Eatery and Drinkery, the location was (not-so-) magically transformed into a watering hole of similar taste called The Dock on Princess in the last few months of 2012.
Read moreShopping and services near BU
Whether you are looking for a carton of milk for your cereal or a container of ice cream for your late-night stress-induced cravings, it can be hard to find a grocery store within a fifteen-minute walk from campus. While larger shopping centres can be found at both the north and south ends of Brandon in the Corral Centre and the Shoppers Mall, they are at minimum twenty-five minutes away on foot.
Read moreProject Youth
As a youth, a resident of Brandon, and a member of the Youth Advisory Committee, I see the tremendous benefit that a youth centre in town could provide. A youth centre is a safe environment where you can chill with your friends and join in fun activities.
Read more