Got to see Bill at Grape & Gourmet's Friday wine tasting. We took home a Pinot Noir and
Gina at Grape & Gourmet
We bumped into Gina at Grape & Gourmet the other week. Last time I saw her was at the He Said, She Said IV event at Croc's.
The tasting room was open during the CRAFTED event.
Running Around Town - Oct 11, 2014
October 11th was a busy day. Saturday kicked off with the CRAFTED: Indie Arts & Craft Market at O'Connor Brewing in Norfolk, VA. Local crafters were joined by crafters from Richmond to display and sell their work. We saw a lot of friends and our buddies at HomebrewUSA were there serving up their beer; a demonstration on home brewing was setup for those who wanted to see how it's done.
After O'Connor went headed over to Smartmouth Brewing--also in Norfolk--because Shelby saw that New York Souvlaki was setup there that day. We kept missing it when it was out so this was the perfect opportunity to finally try it. It was great! Lucas inside poured me a nice, cool Rule G Shelby and I finished while we ate our chicken and pork kebabs.
We went to Cheap and Cheery at Grape & Gourmet in Virginia Beach, VA after we finished up at Smartmouth. I've posted plenty of Cheap and Cheery event photos and it's one of the events Shelby and I look forward to every month. We bumped into a bunch of friends while perused and sampled wines, beers and ciders on the tables. A great event that lets you sample things you might not normally buy. Wen we finished at Grape & Gourmet we took a little break at home to finish up a pita full of meat called "The Bomb" we got from New York Souvlaki earlier. After our brief down time we headed out again.
The last stop of our run for the day was at Lynnhaven Pub to meet the local chapter of Barley's Angels. Barley's Angels Coastal Virginia is a group of female craft beer enthusiasts who aim to educate and promote craft beer in their region. One of the ways they do this is through volunteering and that night's meeting was a big one because the next day they were going to work the Treasure Chest event.
San Diego brewing company Green Flash has held a breast cancer awareness benefit called Treasure Chest Fest. This year is special for Virginia Beach because it was going to the first one and held on the future spot for a brand new Green Flash brewery! We bumped into a lot of friends and met the friendly people from Green Flash mingled about.
We headed home at a decent time but I still stayed up too late. In the morning I was headed to Treasure Chest Fest where I was asked to be the event photographer. I'll write about that later.
Beer Tasting at Grape & Gourmet - 16 Oct 2014
Gabe is still gone but Grape & Gourmet had Carl pouring for Thursday beer tastings.
Cheap and Cheery - Sep 2014
This past Saturday was this month's Cheap and Cheery at Grape & Gourmet. Always fun and lots of new wines/beers/ciders to sample
Wine Tasting at Grape and Gourmet - 12 Sep 2014
Every Friday night is Wine Tasting night at Grape and Gourmet in Virginia Beach, VA. This past Friday it was Bill pouring.
Cheap and Cheery - August 2014
August's "Cheap and Cheery" at Grape & Gourmet had a special guest, Drew from Champion Brewing Company out of Charlottesville, VA. He was at the tasting table with Gabe, pouring Champion's Killer Kolsch and Missle IPA. I recently had the kolsch at home and think it's a great beer to drink chilled on a hot day. The Missle IPA was very good, blended with 5 hops it didn't over-power you and was herbaceous.
The wine tables had some sangrias and other good stuff we enjoyed. Shelby and I ended up buying a bunch of beer and my new stand-by red La Cappuccina.
Check out the photos!
Another Edition of...
I was putting together events on i-heart-food.com's new event calendar and saw the bottles and taps were going to be flowing this weekend. It's been a while since I posted a map to the local booze trail. Here's what's going on and make sure to check out my calendar for more details on the events:
1 May - Beer Tasting at Grape & Gourmet
- Weekly selection of new arrivals and favorites to try in the store.
1 May - ABSOLUT Artini at MOCA (Sold Out)
- 1920s themed Artini event at Virginia MOCA. Sadly it's sold out but there are rumors of getting tickets if you go to their page and poke around.
2 May - Wine Tasting at Farm Fresh (Great Neck)
- Farm Fresh always pours a couple of wines in the store if you're shopping. Good if the kids are getting on your nerves and you want to take the edge off.
2 May - Wine Tasting at Grape & Gourmet
- Weekly Friday night tasting with regulars. Good stuff!
2 May - Wine Tasting at Yiannis Wine Shop
- Yiannis always has something good on the table and if you're lucky maybe something special.
3 May - Big Brew Day at Homebrew USA
- Big Brew Day is a collection of beer enthusiasts who setup shop outside of Homebrew USA and show you how it's done at home. Last year there was a whole pig, hot dogs, hamburgers and much more. Free to the public. I don't think I need to mention there is going to be a lot of beer there right?
3 May - Town Center Virginia Beach Craft Beer Festival
- Town Center will be cordoned off to keep merry makers in while they enjoy the area's finest craft brews. Food and entertainment will be there too.
3 May - Spring Town Point Park Wine Classic
- The 8th Annual Wine Classic returns to Town Point Park running both Saturday and Sunday. Lots of events and wine will be available.
3 May - Mariner's Museum Craft Beer Festival
- The Mariner's Museum will celebrate craft brews from the Southside and Peninsula in the museum. I haven't been to one yet, but they're supposed to be fun. The Hampton Roads Beard and Stache Society will be volunteering too.
Sunny Days
The weather has been crazy the past month or so but it looks like Spring is finally here. This past Friday was my off-day so I spent it running around taking care of a few things. Post office drop-off, a trip to the landfill and then an invite to lunch with Shelby and her co-workers. I'm kind of the of the lunch mascot for those guys, I always show up when they go out.
3-Meat Sampler!
Shelby, Maria, Crystal, and Ken
We went to Whitner's Barbeque in Virginia Beach, it's near Lynnhaven Mall. It's been there for a while now and I've actually had a BBQ sandwich from the shop once or twice before. Shelby and I ended up sharing a three meat sampler that had pulled pork, beef brisket, and "wet" ribs. We had a little mac 'n cheese and dirty rice too. Shelby really liked the brisket and I enjoyed the ribs, but all three BBQ meats were good. I didn't care a lot for the mac 'n cheese, it was a little bland, the dirty rice was tasty though.
After dropping off Shelby I made run to Norfolk to pick-up a stack of HR Growlers for my mother's barber shop Town Center Barber Shop near Pembroke. I made my way back to hit Back Bay Brewing, I was hoping to meet up with Josh Canada, one of the founders of the brewery to talk a little bit about their new tasting room.
Nick and Victoria
What's wrong Dan?
The weather was great down at the Oceanfront, people were out and a lot of the shops had their doors open to let the fresh air in. After I parked I walked around and saw Nick and Victoria hanging out in front of Zeke's Beans & Bowls. Nick is one the owners of Zeke's that specializes in poke bowls and coffee--you probably figured that out by the name. If you're at the Beach, it's a must try. I love the bowls there. After chatting with them a bit I walked into the Back Bay, which is right next door.
Dan (chief brewer at Back Bay) was in talking to Ariel from Hoffman Beverage at the bar. I chatted with them a bit and then asked about seeing Josh, I was told he was in a conference call and would be right out to see me afterwards. I hung out a bit and talked some more, I eventually had to leave though because I wanted to make sure I could pick up Shelby from work. It was Friday and I'm sure she was ready for the weekend.
Perry at Yiannis
David and Me
We stopped home and I ended up running out for wine tasting. Friday nights are wine tasting nights for me. I visited Yiannis Wine Shop and Grape and Gourmet. I bumped into an old friend at Grape and Gourmet, David Sorey. We grew up together in the same neighborhood and have known each other since elementary school.
My Friday routine usually ends with me picking up sushi next door. So, of course, I swung by Misako for a take-out and chatted with Mr. Teng and Tammy for a little bit. I've told you this before, but they have a roll named after me there! The George Roll--it's good, seriously.
I gathered the wine, sushi, and camera and headed home after Misako. Shelby and I enjoyed picking through the hot and sushi bar box I brought home and opened up a good tempranillo.
Misako sushi bar
April's Cheap and Cheery
Grape and Gourmet have a monthly tasting event the second Saturday of the every month. This month in addition to the regular beer/cider line-up, Young Veteran's Brewing Co. of Virginia Beach volunteered to serve great, local craft beer to those who attended. Tom and Neil were both there earlier in the day but Neil had to run back to the shop.
Tom, Me, and Gabe
I'll post more later, check out the photos from the event in the mean time.
King Neptune Beer Bread
Today I headed to the Buy Fresh Buy Local Hampton Roads' Annual Meeting. They cover the organization's budget, positions and general business. Afterwards, there is a potluck!
Board members and supporters bring in dishes made with local ingredients. When I found out I was going, I busted out a couple of local cookbooks we have in the house: Dishing Up Virginia by the local godfather of food Patrick Evans-Hylton and Tidewater Table by Lorraine Eaton.
While I was looking through the recipes, I made note of a few I could possible swing for the event. Then Shelby came up with a great idea--why not make beer bread? This was perfect, I was already tight on time and local beer was readily available throughout the city. If you didn't know it, I'm also going to be writing for the Pilot's new local craft beer magazine HR Growler. Anything related to local beer is something I want to be involved in.
After I made the decision to make the bread I just had to pick a beer to use. The next day was Cheap and Cheery at Grape and Gourmet, a great local shop for beer and wine; I figured I grab something when we were there. I think the stars were aligned because when we went to the shop, John Newell of Two Fathers Beer Co. was there pouring his beer. It turns out he had one bottle of King Neptune IPA left in his cooler so I snagged it. The IPA would be perfect for the beer bread I was going to make. Great opportunity to give a little exposure to the area's newest craft brew outfit.
Now on to the beer bread.
I've never made beer bread before, but we've had it. I went online to find a good recipe to make the bread and after reading through several put together my own. The one I found at Dine & Dish is what I based mine off of, only making a few modifications. I pretty much followed the instructions word-for-word, the only difference was I used unsalted butter and I added aged Gouda from Richmond's Belmont Butchery. I'm going to copy and paste the recipe here for your convenience, but I please visit the original by clicking the following link. Thanks for the inspiration Kristen.
Tip: Place a catch tray beneath your bread pan, there could possibly be a little overflow. Especially with the butter in a loaf pan that was just big enough to fit the ingredients.
King Neptune Beer Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour (I used Ellison, VA's Big Spring Mill All-Purpose Flour)
- 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 12 ounces of King Neptune IPA (any beer you like actually)
- 1 stick Unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tbsp grated Gouda
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Sift all the dry ingredients together.
- Add beer and stir with a wooden spoon until well incorporated.
- Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and pour beer bread batter into pan.
- Pour melted butter over the top of the beer bread batter.
- Bake for 1 hour.
- Remove from oven and grate Gouda on top of bread as it rests
- Kristen says let it rest in the pan for 15 minutes before you attempt to remove it. I did as instructed.
Wine Tastings at Grape and Gourmet - 5 Oct 2013
Wine Tasting at Grape & Gourmet - 20 Sep 2013
Beer Tasting at Grape and Gourmet featuring Harpoon - 22 Aug 2013
Beer Tasting at Grape & Gourmet - 22 Aug 2013. Harpoon was featured tonight, they even had a decent pumpkin cider.
Food and drink from around Hampton Roads - 16 August 2013
Food and drink from around Hampton Roads. Friday, 16 August 2013. Handsome Biscuit House Soda and Stevie (biscuit), Bulgogi Pita from Panavoir, Wine tasting at Yiannis Wine Shop and then Grape and Gourmet. Cupcakes from Twisted Sisters Cupcakes.
Beer Tasting at Grape & Gourmet with Finch Brewing
Finch brewery out of Chicago was at Grape and Gourmet last night. Good beer, surprise sip at the counter was a Polish potato schnapps. It reminded me a little bit of black licorice.
Cheap and Cheery - April 2013
Cheap and Cheery April 2013. Grape and Gourmet tasting, Virginia Beach, VA
Wine Tasting at Grape and Gourmet
Wine Tasting at Grape & Gourmet - 22 March 2013
Friday night Wine Tasting at Grape and Gourmet. Virginia Beach, VA. The tastings are weekly: beer on Thursday, wine on Friday. A great way to try a lot of things you wouldn’t pick-up normally.
