As much as we hate talking about Christmas before the November calendar page turns to December, it’s probably not a bad idea to remind everyone that’s about to happen AND, if you haven’t gotten your office – or personal – holiday shindigs sorted out yet, you might want to consider the Carleton as your venue of choice this year!

We can handle groups of all sizes and our kitchen is more than happy – and capable – of putting together whatever you’d like on the food front. A lot of people only consider us a great place to see live music (and they wouldn’t be wrong) but I’ll stack our kitchen up against anyone’s and we make some of the best cocktails in the city to boot.

If you’d like more information, please contact Stephanie Smith at carletonsteph@gmail.com. Like I said, I know it seems like the season is still a long way off but do you see that light in the tunnel? It’s the Christmas train and it’s coming fast!

Oh, it’s also worth mentioning, in case you’re in a bind for presents for those you love (or folks who are otherwise necessarily on your list), that we have Carleton Gift Certificates available in any denomination. I know, we think of everything…

There’s nothing like Hallowe’en falling on a weekend (and decent weather) to bring out the freak flags and we’re looking forward to welcoming all over the course of this year’s version!

Friday night (October 30th) will feature Roxy & The Underground Soul Sound‘s super-fun soul/R&B/funk and Saturday (October 31st) means The Carletones will rock the joint as always but will be scarier doing it!

The staff has also cooked up some truly eerie cocktails that you’ll have to see/taste to believe.

The much-anticipated – for music lovers – Halifax Pop Explosion – is now upon us so we’ll be hosting HPX shows all week (October 20th to 24th inclusive). We hope you can make it out to some of them, the talent line-up is stellar to say the least!

Secondly, a heads up that we will be closed to the public at 5 PM on Friday, October 23rd, thanks to a big private function we’re hosting. We’ll be open – of course – for the HPX shows that night.

Thirdly, but not lastly, we’d like to offer our congratulations to the federal Liberal party and to our new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. We kinda like him because he’s been to The Carleton as evidenced by the photo below!

That photo was taken during the Halifax Urban Folk Festival in 2012. The guy on the right – Tim Kennedy – is an old pal from Winnipeg who was also in town to take in the HUFF.

The turkey-fest is done – like dinner – and it’s time to get out of the house again; you know, where life is happening!

If you’re in Halifax, I guarantee you the Lost & Profound show at our place TONIGHT (Tuesday, October 13th) will be, by far, the best live music you’ll catch in town. The band is back with a great new album and if they’ve played Halifax in memory, I wasn’t aware of it.

The rain is going to back off and it’ll be a nice warm night. The show starts at 8 PM and it’s only $5 at the door to get in. If you can’t afford that, I’m sure we can work something out. This is going to be a great show.

Tomorrow (Wednesday), if you’re as keen as we are about this year’s Toronto Blue Jays team, we’ll have the game on in the bar at 5 PM. That’s great for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that’s right in the middle of happy hour!

I was in a sports bar in Regina, on the road with Mike & Mike’s Excellent X-Canada Adventures, when Joe Carter hit the walk off home run against the Phillies to give the Toronto Blue Jays their second consecutive World Series win in 1993. Jays fans haven’t had a lot to cheer about since – until NOW!

If you’ve been following the team at all this year, you’ll know it’s been an extraordinary season. They’ve gone from a sub .500 team just before the All Star break (halfway through the season) to an amazing 24 games above .500 and the American League East division title at the end of the 162 game schedule. And that means they’re in the playoffs for the first time in 22 years. And we’re excited about it.

So, we’ll have the Jays games on the bar TV and the big screen in our private dining room when the team opens its best of 5 series against the Texas Rangers from the Rogers Centre in TO on Thursday, October 8th at 4:30 PM (Happy Hour!) and again for the game on Friday, October 9th, which starts at 1:30 PM.

The Carleton will be a great place for baseball fans to gather so let’s do it, shall we?

I know that, technically, summer for 2015 is over but that’s not what the weather in Halifax is saying so I say let’s pretend it isn’t and carry on accordingly. That means taking advantage of the sun and getting out for lunch and/or dinner on The Carleton patio while you’ve got the chance! You don’t wanna be all whiney when the fall arrives for real and moaning about what you should have done.

And speaking of taking advantage of a good thing, Bedouin Soundclash front man, Jay Malinowski and his new Deadcoast band is playing at The Carleton TONIGHT! (Wednesday, September 23rd) on his Skull & Bones book launch tour with Don Francks reading! The fact it isn’t sold out yet is a travesty. Check out the listing on the left and get your act in gear.

We hope everyone is having a great time while the Canadian Country Music Awards are in Halifax, we sure have been! We’d just like to let everyone know that we’ll be closed for a private party tonight – Saturday, September 12th – after 9 PM. If you’re hungry, by all means come in before then!

If you’re not going to the awards show on Sunday, or if you’d just like a break from Country music, we’ve got a great show with Australian band Oh Pep! from Melbourne. Opening the show is our own Tyler Messick. The listing is to your left on this site. Both great acts and it’s just a few bucks at the door to get in.

The curtain just closed on the best Halifax Urban Folk Festival in its six year history and as we bask – for just a little – in the after-glow of that, we’re getting ready to host the cream of Canadian Country Music stars and its attendant industry for the Canadian Country Music Awards.

Like the rest of the city, The Carleton will be involved in a number of events over this exciting week and the public will be welcome to shows we have happening on Thursday and Friday nights, not to mention a special early show on Sunday, September 13th by Australia’s Oh Pep! That has nothing to do with the CCMAs but not everyone can be at the ScotiaBank Centre that night, right?

So stop in for lunch and/or dinner. Take in some live music. Live a little.

If you give a rat’s about live music, you should be online and getting your tickets to our 6th annual Halifax Urban Folk Festival NOW! This year’s crop of talent at HUFF – in all seven participating venues – is phenomenal and The Carleton‘s line-up is flat-out amazing.

Tickets for all our events are available in the side bar to the left of this post. If you don’t know what the “Halifax All Stars” reference is about, it’s simply that we organize full bands for a lot of our headlining artists – made up of the best musicians in the city – to give our paying customers the full rock’n’roll experience they would never, ever, get to have without traveling great distances (and at great expense) to see.

So if you’re in Halifax, you’re being offered the treat of a lifetime and would have to be daft to pass up the opportunity. Of course, you need to get a ticket to do it. If you’re a fan of Teenage Fanclub and its main man, Norman Blake, and you haven’t already got a ticket, you’re out of luck. The smart people already beat you to the punch.

Don’t let that happen again, get your tickets NOW!

This weekend – August 22nd & 23rd – Argyle Street is closed to traffic for a nice little “Taste Of Argyle” promotion to show off the excellent food offered by ourselves and our neighbours on the street. Everyone’s got something yummy and you can wander around without fear of getting hit by a car!

Here’s what our kitchen has come up with in the way of bite-sized tasters. I tasted them, they’re all really, really good.

AND on Saturday, between 4 and 6 PM we’ll have live entertainment on our patio deck because we are, after all, the best live music venue east of Montreal. We’ll also have folks playing music on Sunday, between 2 and 4 PM. So, take a walk downtown, drop in to The Carleton for food, drink and some song.