New Arlington Brewpub!

It can certainly be argued that DC, while generally a very good beer town, is lacking in the brewpub department. There’s a couple of national chains in Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch, and a local chain in Cap City. Rock Bottom also operates The District Chophouse.

“They all make great beer, Sam!” you say. “Why are you complaining?”

I’m not complaining as much as I’m just asking for some kind of independent establishment where I can feel more like “This brewpub is mine! People who don’t live here don’t know what they’re missing! Muhuahahahahaha!”

Yes, its true, not every Rock Bottom sells Ballston Brown, but the snob in me wants somewhere to go where you can only get the “experience” of it in that particular place. You know if you talk to your friend out in California and say “Oh, going to this great brewpub over here called Rock Bottom.” They can just reply, “Oh, I’ve been to one of those.”

Well with Mad Fox Brewing Company, there will be only one. Not one of many.  I was alerted to this via DCBeer.

Looking at their site, it seems they’re going local for most of the food (always a plus) and will have a nice stable of beers to try. Now I might actualy WANT to go to Arlington, again some snobbery at hand there. (Or maybe not snobbery as much as laziness. I tend to stay in the city closer to my apartment.)

DC Beer Week

I’ve been so lax the past two weeks I haven’t even written a word about DC Beer Week. Yeah, there was a DC beer week a while ago, but this one is different, and it even seems there’s more to do during this one. I think the last one coincided with American Craft Beer week so this one is DC’s own event. Some highlights include the not-affiliated-with-DC-Beer-Week “Brew at the Zoo,” which I plan on attending, and a hoppy beer tasting at Black Squirrel tonight, lead by DCBeer’s Mike Dolan. Unfortunately I will be signing a lease on a new apartment and not be able to attend the hoppy event. Other standouts to me would be the Allagash Beer Dinner at Granville Moore’s and the hitting for the cycle event at Marvin.  I just think the Marvin event is a clever idea for a great price.

Meanwhile, something I’ve come across since jumping into craft beer has been the “beer snob.” CityPaper’s Lagerheads help define the difference between snobbery and geekerie. While I often call myself a snob, I’d like to think I fall into the geekerie category. There are some folks though, who are a bit snobbish. If you come across one of these folks during Beer Week, it’s best to avoid a showdown of geek/snob knowledge and just get on with the drinking.

Postless

Lack of posting recently because last week I went and visited my college roommate in Wilmington, N.C. It was a very relaxing four days that included all the things I have to get when I go to N.C./The beach.

1) N.C.-style Bar-B-Que – vinegar-based, spicy and tangy with hush puppies, fried okra and red slaw (I didn’t get any red slaw this trip but subbed in some excellent potato salad) We went to a place called Jackson’s Big Oak. I highly recommend it. It’s exactly what I look for in a BBQ joint. 

2) Bojangles – If I really really want to I can get Jenna to drive me to Maryland for some Bojos, but it’s a must any time I head back. For any of you who don’t know, Bojangles is a southern chicken and biscuits chain restaurant. 

3)Flaming Amy’s - This one is Wilmington-specific. Best burrito joint I’ve ever had the pleasure of patronizing. Yes, it’s better than Chipotle.  Carrburritos in Carrboro, N.C., is way up there as well, but Carrburritos only has Mexican-style offerings, whereas Flaming Amy’s has any kind of combination you can imagine and a salsa bar. The pineapple-jalepeno salsa is a personal favorite. If I were getting Mexican-style, it would be a much tougher decision. 

4) Cheerwine – A cherry-flavored soft drink that’s available lots of places in the south, but mainly N.C. and S.C. It also originated in my hometown, Salisbury, and is still based there. I worked for those guys for a couple  of summers.  

5) A “real” beach – That’s what I call the beach in Carolina. It’s one where you can walk for miles if you want and not have to worry about running into private sections of coastline. Also one where everyone in town is wearing shorts and flip flops and the “shirt and shoes required” sign isn’t enforced. You can drive your boat to a restaurant and your bike anywhere because it’s so flat. There aren’t attractions like mini-golf and water parks, just the beach, and that’s all you need. 

Didn’t mean to get all preachy on that one. There’s just nothing like going to the beach for me. 

If I had gone home to “tha Bury” I would have gone to Hap’s Grill. It’s another one of those “best” places that no place on Earth will ever compare to for me. It’s solely hot dogs and hamburgers, and the way to get them is “all the way,” which include chili, onions and mustard. I get cheese as well. 

………..great. Now all I can think about is how much I want to get back.

Coach K to Obama: Fast break

Couple of more quotes in the link below from K on his whirlwind publicity tour for his book. He was asked on the radio about his comments concerning Obama’s picking UNC to win it all this year. 

“I get in trouble whenever I say anything.”

Cry me a royal blue river, weasel. 

Courtesy of “Under the Dome” from the Raleigh News and Observer, of which I am a former intern. Yeah, Dome!

Coach K to Obama: Fast break | newsobserver.com projects.

Coach K on Colbert Report

WATCH IT HERE

In the opening seconds it was:

“They might have made the Final Four if they were called the ‘Blue Jesuses’”

Then at the beginning of the segment, it was:

“He may have lost the NCAA tournament, but he’s one of my final four guests of the week.”

Thank you Stephen Colbert.

Coach K was on the Colbert Report last night. The PR master himself was promoting his book on coaching the Olympic basketball team, “The Gold Standard: Building a world class team.”

Gag me. At least Colbert wore a Carolina blue tie.

There was another shining moment for UNC, though as Colbert asked K who was the best player he ever coached. K referred to his time as an assistant for the 1992 Dream Team. 

“Jordan is the best ever,” he said.

“Did you make him run suicides?” asked Colbert.

“It would be suicide if we didn’t have him on the team”

Yes. Yes. Yes. Probably felt like suicide about 10 years before that when frosh Jordan hit the game winner in the ‘82 National Championship, too. Anyway I guess I can’t get too critical of K for writing the book because Chuck Daly, the ‘92 coach, also wrote one about his team of All-Stars. People are probably interested to read about the team.

BUT.

The book is coming out now, in the third week of April. The Olympics were in August. So between September and, oh I don’t know giving some time for editing, MARCH. Coach has been writing a book about “building a world class team.”

This tells me two things: 1) Coach K thinks he played a huge part in the gold medal because the title suggests the book is about how he BUILT a team (using NBA superstars was merely coincidental) and 2) He was writing this during Duke’s entire season! Unless he somehow managed to write the entire book in the month of September, he was definitely taking time away from the Dukies to write. No wonder they didn’t get past the Sweet 16 yet again.

I’m not saying it’s impossible to write a book in a month, but from the timing of the release, I’m guessing there was work to be done in the meantime between September and now. Way to go, weasel.

Paulus playing football?

Duke Blue Devils coach says Greg Paulus could try out at receiver – ESPN.

One phrase pretty much sums up this story to me:

Classic Coach K PR move

Here’s my 100 percent raw speculation on the subject. K has a coaching friend or two in football — I’m guessing in state of Michigan. K calls them up and says:

“Hey, man. My boy down here used to play football. Why don’t you come down and give him a look, no pressure. You don’t have to sign him, hell, you don’t even have to watch him closely in the workout as long as I can say you did. We’ll make a weekend of it. I know you like that North Carolina Bar-B-Que!“

K’s friend, who does in fact love N.C. BBQ, is tired of the current frigid Michigan spring and decides that might not be a bad idea. Friend looks at Paulus, friend eats Q and friend goes home. 

Coach K is happy as a clam. The story is all over ESPN and drawing attention to Duke. This attention is somewhat positive and draws attention away from his Blue Devils bowing out in the Sweet 16 yet AGAIN. 

Once again, Coach K makes it seem he is running a national contender, after all his kids can play football, too. Isn’t that what matters when you’re recruiting basketball players?

Puhleez. 

Do something impressive like bolding words in a blog post for emphasis……or winning two national championships in five years, maybe?

New N.C. Brewery

So I’m not exactly plugged into the N.C. beer scene anymore, so this is probably a bit late, but I was reading Dan Bradford’s blog and discovered that a new brewery will be opening in Durham probably sometime this year.

I wrote a story on the now-almost-two-year-old Triangle Brewery  - Durham’s first brewery as far as I know – for the Daily Tar Heel when I was in school. Rick and Andy are good guys and even let a college kid hang out and drink beer with them after a tour one day. That college kid – staying true to his roots – eventually drank too much and made a bit of a fool of himself. But he learned alot about drinking in public and not being an ass in front of people in whose company he might want to someday appear professional.

But I digress. The new Durham brewery is called Fullsteam.

From a scan of their Web site it looks like Fullsteam’s mission is to develop a truly “southern beer.” If necessary they look to create a new style and it appears they are calling at least one of their batches “Carolina Common.”

I’ve often thought of this idea and I’m really excited someone with more  brewing knowledge than I have has taken it up! When you read Michael Jackson’s beer books or other beer books that weave in historical significance, the older brewing traditions and styles were usually very regionalized even down to specific cities. Why not keep it that way. It doesn’t mean I’m going to be a Carolina beer snob and only drink beer made in N.C., it’s just a way that new styles can develop and be enjoyed. I’ll still love my West Coast IPAs.

The West Coast may have been the first beer region of the U.S. to develop an identity with its high-hopping rates and citrusy American strains, and the South should follow. Using ingredients that are local and creating a unique style would be a great accomplishment. Here’s to hoping they can pull it off!

House of Hansbrough

I’m so excited and have read so much about the game last night that I feel me writing anything about it would be redundant.  But I will anyway. The best part was obviously reading about a “red-eyed” Greg Paulus getting emotional about never beating Carolina in Cameron. I can’t think of two players I’d rather see accomplish a 4-0 record in Durham than Hansbrough and Green. Of course, I guess I’d say that if any other UNC player had done it. Not only did dook lose, they got rocked. It was the first time a Coach K team had given up 100 points in Cameron since 1983. They’ve held all other opponents to 80 or less. 

It was also a comeback win. Nothing much better. UNC is starting to look like the team that everybody thought they would be, and I like. 

Watched the game at Crystal City Sports Pub in Arlington. It was a good time as the bar was full of UNC alumni and BLUE CUPS! Apparently this bar brings up authentic blue cups from He’s Not Here in Chapel Hill for Heels games. Nice touch. Takes me back to Tuesday nights in North Carolina. 

More reasons to hate Duke:

They are so touchy-feely with K
They cry…… often
Singler’s intentional foul last night

Reasons to hate Duke

J.J. Redick
Coach K
Because they come to Franklin St. because Durham sucks
That too-important-for-this-discussion nose
Daddy’s trust fund
Wojo
Coach K didn’t wear an Eve ribbon
1991 and 1992
Tyler’s broken nose
Slapping the floor
Coach K commercials
Foul shooting
Cameron Crazies
“We need to play ‘Duke Basketball’ today”
Kryzewskiville
Pep band’s royal and white striped shirts
2001
Shane Battier
Jeff Capel’s overtime shot (they lost the f***ing game!)
3-pointers
Because Coach K might pass Dean Smith
Laettner
Hurley
Cromagnum Williams dates Candace Parker (Correction: He is married to and has knocked up Candace Parker. Hate him even more)
Duhon
The fact that I’ve been alive for more of dook’s championships than UNC’s

OMG. That’s a disturbing fact. More to come.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be a contemplative time. Inspired by DTH articles from the past, I’ve always wanted to write the “Why I hate Duke” article. I think I’m going to use tomorrow to gather my thoughts, maybe adding new thoughts in the evening, and eventually try to complete the article  by the Heels’ final regular season game in Chapel Hill vs. the Devils.

Ambitious? No. This will be easy, and very, very fun.