Tappin' in to the RareBit

Tonight I stayed in. I was sort of itching to go out and try some of the new menu at the South Philly Tap Room around 10, but will power won for once (i must be 30;) and I stayed in. But staying in meant no food, and I was famished.

With a fridge full of beer and condiments I was out of luck. I really regret not taking my sis up on her offer to take home my birthday cake, but I struck gold in a king size Take Five that my Ground Zero salon friends got me for my big day. One hour later, I am in a bit o' pain wanting a stomach transplant. I even took a Tums
(I must be 30).

I can't go out every night. Every night gets rough. real rough.
But I always appreciate those evenings that I have more than a beer at a bar.
*I eat something I never heard of
*My bartender/server rocks
*I learn some new fun fact about what I am eating or drinking


In a short five days- I can already tell that the Memphis Taproom will be a good locale for all of the above. They opened Tuesday night to 500 people. It would have been 501, but I was in Mount Holly, NJ.

I made it a point to go the next day for lunch, where I was to meet Yards' Steven "Mittens" Mashinton... he brought his entourage with him to boot, so I got to chow down with Frank and Tim Roberts as well.

The place looks great. Nice mellow hues of green and yellow lather the room. Decor is limited to some neat hotographs, not too cluttered and well selected.

Spanky himself is pouring drinks and entertaining as usual. I can barely drink my Founders Red Rye while he's "on stage." Other options included:
Poperings Hommel Ale (they went through 3 kegs in 2 days)
Rogue BuckWheat (he made a special arrangement to get this beer...no one else is pouring it on draft in the East -i think)
With a tip of his hat to his resume: Monks Cafe Flemish Sour and Nodding Head 60 shilling
Sly Fox O'reilly's Dry stout
Yards Pale Ale
Troegs Sunshine Pils...and more

All our priced to move at $4. They won't be doing drink specials per se. But every happy hour, the beer that's been on draft the longest, will be priced to drain at 1/2 off.

It was tough to decide lunch, but I first coursed it with Tempura Battered Butternut Squash served with a Poblano Coconut Curry. I love how I order squash to feel healthy, but make sure it's fried all the while. This counter productivity plagues my days.

and went on to enjoy the Welsh RareBit - A beer and cheese fondue over toast with a fried egg on top. The beer of choice was the Old Peculiar and there was certainly a note of dijon to the fondue as well. Rare to me, but not those living in Wales.
It is a traditional Welsh dish that can be served with or without the egg.

There are different theories on how the delightful dish was named. But they all seem to be along the general lines of - The poor people of Wales ate cheese because they couldn't afford butchers meat. In England, the peasants ate rabbit. So in the next land over, they called roasted cheese over toast, Rarebit. No meat involved .

The dish dates back to 1725 and American big box frozen food company, Stouffers even has a commerical version of it.

I enjoyed the rich Rarebit so, that I even called it"I have no intention of wearing a bikini this summer" rarebit.

Other than that, some other menu items include:

Beef and Onion Pasties: Rodenbach braised beef and onion horseradish
*/* ALT :Avocado Bacon and Lettuce with tomato on Toast The Port Richmond Platter: Grilled Keilbasa, perogies, potato pancakes and Kraut
(only $12 buckaroos)
Chicken Fried Chicken:Buttermilk Biscuits, braised collard greens, and Red Chili Mayo
(only $8)
Jalapeno Corn Dodgers: Crispy cornmeal fritters with roasted red pepper ketchup
Walla Walla Suicide Rings: Sweet and Spicy onion rings with Habenero cream

Chef is Jesse Kimball, whom trained under Dominic Feloni (Bianca, Savona) and mastered the kitchen at Matyson following. As the website reads he had a brief course in Molecular Gastronomy at Lacroix and made his way to Memphis and Cumberland.
And they are darn glad to have him.

Just as the beer list has something for everyone, the menu is complete with a key of sorts for Vegans and Vegetarians that certainly haven't been forgotten.

The bar is a mere two blocks from greensgrow farms...In case you ever heard of Greensgrow and wanted to check it out.

The community has welcomed them with open arms. The doors have been flooded by beer industry and fishtown residents alike.

The area has been referred to as one of the last family communities in Philadelphia.
With the addition of the TapRoom, the family grows. and the best part is the reunion can happen daily.

Birthday din din

Marigold Kitchen was the destination for my birthday dinner with lance romance...Just look how romantic that table scene is.
Two glasses of Saison,
a votive,
a Poached egg on top of collar greens and corn bread
and Lance, himself, in the distance wearing a button down shirt.

Dinner was a surprise. He told me to pick out the beer, we were going to a byo, and I had to meet him at 30th st. station at 8:30. Of course I got caught up playing with my new point and shoot that I didn't meet him until 9.

I had been wanting to go to this restaurant ever since it opened...so this was a delightful decision on his part.

I am not sure why it is named Marigold...through my limited research I just found out that it's a british colloquialism for a yellow glove for washing dishes. Doubt that's it;)

The owners of Marigold also own head house squares Xochitl, which I've written about and Society Hill's newest Zahav, which I will write about;)

The culinary theme of Marigold is one of southern homecooked food with a twist.
Our server despite having a bad hair day---you know when it's kind of messy, but it still looks good...was very knowledgable on the fare.

First course
Cornbread with collard greens, ham and a poached egg ( I am really into this poached egg thing apparently this week)
Lance: Grits with Shrimp

Second Course
They didn't have the scallops that I opted for, so I went chicken. I never order chicken out, but this was a great turn of events.

They pounded the chicken out and rolled it into a roulade with a cornbread stuffing (Marigold loves their cornbread). It was joined by cippiolini onions sausage and more greens. It was perfect. Best chicken I have ever had dining out.
Lance: Got hangar steak with home made mashers and these green pickled things that I will have to check on the name of and edit.

Dessert
You know if lance is having dinner, dessert is ever and option.
I selected their house speciality, banana bread pudding served with coffee ice cream...
the cocoavore went with the warm chocolate cake and malt foam



And we were tuckered.
It was nice to exit the Victorian style house turned restaurant and walk a few blocks through scenic West Philly to get a cab. Well at least the part we were in was scenic. I dont' make it out to West Philly too too often, so this was overall a great pick.

Birthday hats off to Marigold Kitchen, and of course, Lance.

Toastin' the 20s away

Hey there....
a Few more days till I will be snapping pics again....

This week I checked out
Les Bon Temps
Time
SideCar (for th 30th time;)
PoPe
Phillies Game
Good Dog (again)
Druids Keep
The abbaye
Standard tap
fin mccools
Fergies
House Party
and more....

THIS THURSDAY-=-=-I'm Thirty years of age.

Please join me on the 24th at Jose Pistolas from 6-8 for a birthday Happy Hour.
We'll toast to the end of my twenties!

I am trying to send out an e-vite..but the program keeps crappin' out on me.


Hope to see you there.

<<<<<<<
i am five y o here. My mom did my hair. And it is osh kosh bgosh.

Friday...Saturday ...Sunday....part II

The rest of the week flew by....new Sly Fox prospects, good bites and a really nice late night bike ride.

On Thursday night, I had to get some Ichor stickers dropped off at Race st. April Annie lives a mere block away so I thought it would be the perfect meet up spot. There are two seats and the end of the bar and I take one of them. No sign of her or Casey (her partner in crime at the moment- and ever a criminal on his own). It was the 2008 debut of the purple thunder, my rock hopper courtesy of Lance. I rode from my house sorta kinda by the Italian Market to there. I def needed a water, then thought a stone IPA would hit the spot. And it did. Unfortunately though, Casey and April were on the roof deck at Standard Tap. I had 3/4 of a beer in front of me when this news was presented.

This young lad from El Salvador sat down next to me. Antonio. Which was kismit because I was working on a freelance project involving latinos. Antonio was more than happy to be interviewed. He told me he used to drink corona light all the time- but now its a lot of yuengling and magic hat. I reach into pay for my beer and realize my wallet is in my sales bag. How mortifying. So Andy from race st. kindly bought me my beer.

Eventually, I rode on over to standard tap. I passed a crowded N. 3rd. sidewalk, everyone had a bit of spring fever I guess only cured by some good beers.

I had a saison or two with April and Casey, a slice of pizza from Rustica next door. Ran into a friend Then had one more saison. Now instead of just owing Andy a beer, I owe two other people too.

Then back home. It was a beautiful night for a ride as i raced down Broad street, not trying to get home to soon, but went so fast with that perfect breeze in my face only to be stopped by almost riding into the back of a burgundy corolla.

Friday was good. I visted Drafting room Springhouse. They were getting ready to do their monthly? firkin. They had a bitter on from Brooklyn. Next month I think he's doing nugget nectar. Steven, the GM, gave me a sample of the Brooklyn. It tasted a little underattenuated, but it wasn't bad.

On to the Ye Old Ale House in Lafayette Hill. They devote at least 6 taps to craft beer even though the majority of their audience coming in still is getting their "usual." The owner, Chris, is a great guy, and they do the beef behind the bar just like Cherry St.

Mcmenamins was my next stop. I was there earlier in the week too, when they had a wait for the dining room on a Tuesday night. Good for them. I am hoping they take sly fox back into rotation soon. I know they switch it up a bunch. I had a nugget nectar while I was there and shared a bottle of Dogfish Black Blue with my new friends Kyle and Damien. They were pretty funny. Damien just got a job working with Cavtel, selling communication technologies and Kyle is pretty high up in a pharma company. Damien was trying to sell phone service to Kyle and kyle was humoring him...but don't see that deal going down anytime soon. Paul Rutherford will probably stay on a bar stool all night first.

I took a nap then met up with Lance at Devil's Den. Despite my fatigue this was a pretty pleasant experience. The place was pretty packed, but there were two seats at the bar.
Sat down ordered chorizo and mussels and a a Goliath Triple which was very nice.
The mussels were great. The fries were slightly undercooked, just like I like em'.
We finished up sharing a NorthCoast organic Cru d'Or. a Belgian Style Dubbel. I thought it was pretty good. Maybe one of the best organic beers I have had. I've never been overwhelmed by the Peak stuff.

Saturday breakfast was at Carman's...Lance's favorite.
It was great, and I was able to talk to yet another latino about my beer project. He told me that one of the most popular beers in Puerto Rico is called medalla light (medalla is medal in spanish). But he said even more popular than that is Coor Lite.

I dropped Lance off at the airport (not before he would've locked his keys in his car and had to drive mine to his house to get them...)
and headed to a mini charity beer festival at the Public House in support of the Ronald McDonald house. I thought it was a great cause. with less then three hundred people there they raised over $30,000 dollars. I think that's a much better use of money then town street lamps.

Headed to Dock st. for some pizza and a saison. The saison was good but a bit darker than I am used to...I'll have to ask the guys about that next time I see them. I got a call from Johnny Goodtimes while I was there reminding me about the Rock Paper Scissors movie playing that night at the International House. Perfect! I was already west of the walnut st. bridge. I had jenny hobbs in tow- My Origlio brand manager kindly took us to the Best House to get some beers and we headed over. There were 3 films being showed. One detailing peoples obsession with the Rocky Statue, one about Frankie the 13th and Philadelphia Rock Paper Scissors league and finally one about philly's other obsession, the cheesesteak. All were well done. I had a brief cameo in the RPS one....but my favorite was probably "This is my Cheesesteak." In addition to having a great soundtrack...and detailed historical information about all of Philly's most loved grease purveyors, it had a song from Tony Luke Jr. himself singing in his kitchen. The movie concluded with a picture of all the steak giants of Philly in one room and on time. Rumor has it that Joey Vento showed up last...

A percentage of DVD and teeshirt sales went to Breast Cancer Research in honor of Filmmaker Ben Daniels mom, who was recently diagnosed.

Then off to Dark Horse for Jim Wiggins 30th b day. I got to see Jim Meiers play electric guitar which was great. I drank a smithwicks. Which was - a smithwicks. If my car wasn't towed, it would have been a good time. When you car is half way in a spot, and half way out and the sign says "No stopping past this point." you should consider other alternatives.

Okay, time to do taxes.
A couple of reminders

-Sly Fox Goat Races- Sunday May 4...if you want on the bus leaving from Philly...email jennie@profilepr.com. The event goes from 12-6. Races starts at 2.

-Attention women-April 23rd we have a special meeting at Bella Vista bev complete with beers and cheese. Learn a bit about what goes on in the beer business...then off to Devils Den a few blocks away.
-April 24....some lass is turning 30. come celebrate at Jose Pistolas. The kind and full of character Rick Suarez of Unibroue will be coming down from New York to celebrate and talk beer. It's going to be like a cocktail party....With BEER! All you can drink/eat for $30.
email me beerlass@gmail.com if you can come;)
-April 26 Manayunk Beer Fest

Friday...Saturday ...Sunday....

Last Friday, Dibruno's was a great time per usual.
We paired six different beers--
Ichor(quad) Saison, Rauchbier, Scotch ale, Pikeland Pils, Incubus Triple...
with cheeses....
Just when I thought the night was flawless...a guest actually brought up a great point---We should have talked about how the Antipasto plate fit in with the evening....Something so simple as a nut or piece of Serrano ham was much appreciated. It was the third criminal to the approved artery robbery.

We grabbed a stout at Jose's afterwards. The parental folk dissipated and then there was Lance and I. Lance had never been to XIX and being a block away I thought it would be a borderline injustice not to take him. Even if he despised it, Sly Fox Saison was on tap and he would learn to love it- one dry spicy sip at a time.

He wanted to use the facilities as soon as we arrived. He told me to order him a "martini."
Oh- here we go.

He had already displayed some of his signature bar stool dance moves at Jose's... What would the conical cocktail do to him?

We sipped our sips, enjoyed conversation with the bar tender and headed home.
The only disappointing factor was the music.

Way too Delaware Avenue for the Avenue of the Arts.

I had a wait staff training at Ruths Chris Steakhouse in King of Prussia that went over well. There is a lot more to the story than that.. you can ask me over our next beer.
Wonderful folks....and It's really important that high end restaurants are catching on to what we are trying to do (or what we've been doing since Fritz Maytag started this way back when...)

Following steak and suds I would then Shop. I hate shopping. I really do. Maybe one day if I sell enough beer I can have someone shop for me. I just don't have the time or patience for it.
Does money= time + patience? hmm....

But I had to shop for some new threads for my best friend's birthday.
The one and only April Annie was entering her third decade and I had too look my best. My best ended up being only the 3rd most hefferific (spell check just tried to get me on this- apparently it's not in the glossary yet) gal in the room. This welcome into cougarville took place at the G lounge. I was dreading it. The only thing propelling me to go was to see in April in her cougar gear...But- upon being informed of Chimay and Lachouffe on the menu from Jim Wiggins, I thought it would be bearable...Nope.

Server had no clue what I was talking about...and apparently the only words in his vocabulary were Moet and Vuuve. I nodded to both and kept their company the remainder of the evening...only to briefly pay attention to cheese steak spring rolls and crab cake sliders.

I was way too busy shoving the aforementioned into my heffer face to display my not so fancy footwork. I managed to walk out onto 17th and chestnut having not embarrassed myself on the Dance floor once....But alas, the skinnier got skinnier and the heffer got...

Sunday was the Origlio Trade Show. I was very impressed. And its sorta kinda hard to "turn my head, to make me sit back and think wow....I couldn't have done this any better." The color play of royal blue and gold was royalty and every guest was treated as such. Jimmy Duffy was the caterer and I wanted to shake his hand.


One could see brands from Boones (Strawberry Fields) to Coors to Allagash come together in one room for four hours.

Rob Todd and Tim Surprise manned their own booths! As did Brian O'Reilly and Tim Ohst from Sly Fox. It had a beer festival feel...but how often do you see the brewers behind the booth at a fest? Never ever ever. Maybe at Iron Hill's Media Fest...definitely at Nodding Head's Royal Stumble--but not too often...

This was different. And different really was good.
Until the PLCB was called by an "anonymous" tattle.
Which is a shame. The damper of all dampers.
It was a great opportunity for Distributors, Taverns and Breweries to spend some time sippin' bevs and shaking hands. They were fined for enticement. I really don't think this was enticement.
I think "buying new draft systems" and having one representation on with a six month commitment is enticement....but what do I know?

Afterwards- i went to the one and only Hulmeville Inn. It's a mere 20 minutes away from Origlio. This is one of those bars that someone brought to my attention and Couldn't believe that I hadn't been to... so I went.

They had Seamus Red on tap as well as Dogfish Aprihop, Chimay, and others.

I was there a just about ten minutes when "Amazed" from Lonestar came on. I knew that couldn't be the soundtrack to my time at Hulmeville Inn. I was way too sober (not that a couple of beers would have made me like the song any more) and I needed to stop it.
I approached the juke but couldn't put my money in and select songs with my Seamus in my hand. I politely asked the gents at the table if I could rest my pint on there table.

they were more than happy. Little did I know I was just about to meet
the Mayor and the Fire Chief of Langhorne. Go figure. We had a great time. Chatted brews and blaze. Hit Belgian Cafe on my way back in. Lance and I shared a 2001 Le Coq Imperial Extra Double Stout.

It almost tasted like it was meant to be oak aged but it wasn't. It had a sourness to it that didn't agree with me. But then again I don't think anything would have agreed with me except goose down pillows at that point.

The rewind on the unwind to be continued.....

Hiatus is over/ spring HOPFEST

greetings readers.....This dramatic pause in writing is multi-reasoned...too busy, no camera, etc...

But I got a little poke today from Casey when he said that I should really put something new up before I lose "faithful readers"--wait---I have faithful readers?

So I will... in a bit. ..
I'll talk about-
* our dibruno's cheese and beer pairing
*Lance's martini at XiX
*Origlio's Trade Show
*My trip to Hulmeville Inn
*April Annies birthday "g lounge" style
*A recent visit to Teresa's Next Door
and More
*
Make sure you check out
Saturday, THe Spring HOPFEST at the Drafting Room Spring house
Tapping 12 till they're G o n e .

Cheesy Beery Friday Fun

Tomorrow, April 4th,Sly Fox's Brian O'Reilly will team up with cheese monger extraordinare Hunter Fike to bring Philadelphia 6 amazing pairings.

Sly fox will be featuring some of our heavy hitters
*Incubus Triple
*Ichor Abbot style Quadruple
*Gang Aft Agley Wee Heavy
*Saison Vos farmhouse Ale
*Our Rauchbier (only served at brewpubs)
and
*our Pikeland Pils (gold medal at great american beer fest 2007)

Hunter has come up with some great cheese to complement Brian's world class beers.
Please join us next Friday at 6-8 pm $45 pp includes an antipasta plate for all guests.
Tickets to beerdom are still available as of today.
It's a fun change up for a night. Good Gift for your significant other!
your dad! your son!
your roommates birthday!
heck go by yourself and make new beer loving, cheese chomping friends!

All the action takes place at the 17th and Chestnut location.

c h e e r s