Best Beer Garden

Picture this: It’s a summer afternoon and you’ve wandered off Spring Garden Road into Stillwell Beergarden. The sun is shining. Music wafts through the air, you’re at a table with friends and you’ve got a cold glass in front of you. There’s nowhere else you need to be. That’s the vibe Stillwell co-manager Sam Beeley has been after.

“Like a little oasis,” he tells The Coast. “It’s kind of private, despite being right in the middle of the city.”

Stillwell Beergarden has emerged as a powerhouse in the Best Beer Garden category, winning gold every year since the category was introduced in 2022. “I view the beer garden kind of as Halifax’s summertime backyard,” co-owner Laura MacDonald told the Coast then. This year, the beer garden hosted cornhole tournaments and trivia nights. There were kimchi hot dogs and pork belly sandwiches. Plus, the usual soft serve ice cream from Dairy Bar.

For Beeley, the BOH nod is just the sweetener on the reward of seeing “the returning faces every year and the garden full for most of the summer.” Here’s to the next one.