A Stop in for Some Gizzards

I grew up with fried chicken.  Fried chicken, greens of all sorts, black-eye peas, cornbread (not the sweet stuff), the nine.  Wash it down to the world's sweetest tea, and how I didn't spend my childhood obese is a mystery.  For this reason, when I see a mom and pop stand open up that caters to the southern cookin' crowd, I get very excited.  And the smaller the better.

So, when I saw D.D.s open up on New York Avenue where Sweet Melissa's used to be, I got really excited.  Sweet Melissa's was a place I hated to see leave because the food rocked and I loved the atmosphere.  Replacing it ain't easy.  Add to that, when you put a sign out that says "Best Gizzards and Livers in Town" you had better bring it.  

I mentioned to Mr. Rob the previous night that I had been dying to hit up some gizzards and to my surprise, he enjoys the gizzards too.  So we decided to hit D.D.s about 11:00 the next day.

Arriving at 10:50, they were just finishing getting set up and we were greeted by a fella behind the window, who introduced himself as Milton.  Very nice guy and he has that home-townie feeling that makes you feel comfortable, as if you're eating at his house.  Exactly what I was hoping for and already a great sign.  I ordered a 2 piece dark meat with 1/2 pound of gizzards, collards and green beans on the side.  Rob got the 2 piece white meat with 1/2 pound of livers, and ordered the same sides as I did.

First, I will say, the greens are not the filled with pork, dripping in fat variety that I am used to.  In fact, I couldn't find any meat in there at all.  The flavour was great though.  Very sweet compared to what I'm used to and something I will definitely be ordering again.  Green beans were good as well.

The 2 piece dark meat was fantastic.  A thin floury crust fried fresh as we were sitting there (don't go if you're in a hurry) and really tender meat.  The meat was also reminiscent of fresh-killed chicken, not the bleached clean type you find at fast food joints.  Not sure if I am right in this assumption, but I dig it.

Gizzards?  Phenom.  Flaky crust, nice and chewy.  Not tough or overcooked, however.  Perfect for what your asking for.  Gizzards are not for everyone.  Kind of a poor man's fried clam, but way better in my opinion.  Rob wouldn't let me have any of his livers, so I guess I'm outta luck there.

For my money, I love this southern food and the people who make it.  Great roadside atmosphere and very reasonable prices.  I'll certainly be back many times and I encourage anyone who has been curious about D.D.s to stop in.  Cheers!

Cupcakes and Charity

Doing things for other people has a rejuvenating effect on you.  Being a naturally pessimistic person, it helps me on a personal level.  It's also nice to be able to bring beer and animals together.  I find that beer people tend to be dog lovers and it's a natural tie-in to fund raise for animals under the beer platform.  This being said, I had a particularly rejuvenating and inspirational experience this past Saturday.

In addition to my other fun activities, I work with the Cornell Alumni Network to "pre-interview" students in the local area who are applying to Cornell University.  It's fun and I've gotten to meet some really amazing kids.  I was able to meet an applicant this past weekend that I really hope gets into my Alma Mater.

I was notified in plenty of time by the Alumni Network to contact the applicant and completely forgot about the request.  It wasn't until I received a reminder a week before my report was due that I realized that contacted the student and asked if we could meet.  She contacted me back almost immediately and gave some times we could meet.  It was a very busy week for me and my time was very short, so I asked if we could multi-task and meet up at a fund raiser I was doing for The Animal Rescue Konsortium, the animal rescue who we do our charity work with.

The reply I got was awesome.  It read:

Mr. Carpenter,

The fundraiser sounds great! Does 12 pm work for you?

I am a huge advocate for rescue animals, having three myself and certifying one as a therapy dog. On this note, I am the founder of Kate's Charity Cakes, a non-profit organization that sells homemade baked goods and donates 100% of proceeds to different charitable organizations. If you would like, I am willing to bake some animal themed cupcakes that you can sell for your cause. If it wouldn't tie in, since I don't know what is planned, then I look forward to the interview.

Thank you,

Katie Batchelor

What luck!  As it turns out, Miss Katie Batchelor not only offered to do something incredibly kind for ARK, but also gave me a great argument for why she should be admitted into Cornell.

As it turns out, not only did she create delicious pastries to donate for the fundraiser, she completely caught me and everyone else off-guard for the quality of the work.  Each one of the cupcakes she delivered was very highly detailed and were perfect for the occasion.  The cupcakes were unbelievably delicious and the buzz quickly got around the fundraiser about how great they were.  In the end, we sold every one for $5 each!  This is a windfall for ARK, who operate from a very small budget.  Needless to say, Katie's contribution will be felt for a long time.

It is easy to get bogged down in business and not see the kindness all around us.  Again, I have a terrible streak of pessimism that I have to beat out of myself every now and then and re-establish my childhood faith in humanity.  Coming across folks like Katie provides a great aid in doing so.

If anyone would like to show Katie some support, help her with her business, or shoot her a kind note to tell her you appreciate her kindness, her charity's contact info is:

Kate's Charity Cakes

KatesCharityCakes@yahoo.com

Here's to everyone at ARK, to the folks at Davinci for allowing us to hold our fundraiser there, to those who came out to support, and to Katie and her mother for doing such a kind thing for ARK.  Cheers!  

Boulder Beer Cold Hop at ABBEY

I finally, finally, finally got some Cold Hop local to me!  Drinking one as I write this and I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

For those who are not initiated - Cold Hop is Boulder Beer's release as a British Style Pale Ale, the brewery's description as such:

"With a nod to our founders' roots as homebrewers, we tapped into the expertise of an old chum, Charley Papazian, author of "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing".  Expanding on one of his favorite recipes by giving it our own twist, our brewers crafted Cold Hop - a cult favorite here at Boulder Beer Company.  Rich golden malts from Great Britain combined with rare, aromatic and flavorful Czech and New Zealand hops make up the backbone of Cold Hop, our modern take on British-style ale."

At 6.3% ABV and 46 IBUs, this brew is made with Willamette, Czech, Saaz, Hallertau, Hercules, and what is apparently a massive amount of Nelson Sauvin hops.  Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaah!  A grapefruit lover's sticky and resinous wet dream.  

We ran into this great brew on draft for the first time this year in South Florida and have been dying to get some draft in our local market.  Well, ABBEY hooked it up last night.  My Sunday is spent drinking on the Cold Hop.

Get down to ABBEY quick and ask for some of this unbelievable brew.  But don't ask for too much 'cause I need my fair share.  Cheers!

Bourbon Barrel Aged "Bad Moon Risin" at Davinci

Boulder Brewing made one of those serendipitous mistakes that turned into gold when they produced the "Bad Moon Risin'.  I place it in parenthesis because apparently the brewery was issued a Cease and Desist by a Maryland brewery who owned the name and summarily changed it to "Black IPA".  There was so little of it, who cares.  The point is that the original "Bad Moon Risin' was an unbelievably delicious and boozy 10% black IPA that occurred when a brewer accidentally placed some black malt on top of the Mojo Risin IPA and created this dark, roasty, hoppy brew.

No matter anyway, since we only got two 5 gallon kegs of it in Florida with no promise of it going much further than that.  If you remember, we reviewed this a bit ago when a select two bars got the early edition of Bad Moon Risin' and we drowned our happiness in its' deliciousness.

So I got word a bit ago that they had held some back and aged it in Bourbon Barrels.  Whaaaaaaaaat?

We distributed these two kegs to two of our favorite Florida locations - The Ale and the Witch in St. Petersburg and Cafe Davinci in DeLand.  Renegade Vinnie was lucky enough to work The Ale and the Witch event which actually occurred during the New Moon.  The second keg, the one at Davinci is laying in wait.  Keep your eyes peeled and "yaw eah to the groindstone" and we'll announce the tapping at Davinci.  Cheers!

Boulder Brewing Beer Crawl

After what seemed like years of planning (and a month of teetotalling prior), the Boulder Brewing Beer Crawl in downtown DeLand finally arrived.  Thanks to the generous donation of beer from Jeff Brown of Boulder Brewing, we were able to raise money for Mainstreet DeLand.

A few things about Boulder brewing if you're not privy: Boulder Brewing is Colorado's first microbrewery, having been established in 1979.



These guys have seen many, many breweries come and go.  Makers of the legendary Hazed and Infused dry-hopped ale, Boulder Brewing received the 43rd brewing license ever issued in the United States.  Not only is their beer great, they are also PACE Certified as a green brewery and take tons of steps to help save the environment.  In fact, every 6 pack of Boulder beer you buy, you can feel good knowing that the carriers are made from 100% recycled paperboard!  This company is truly a company that I feel very lucky to be affiliated with.

So we put together this little beer crawl to raise money for Mainstreet DeLand.  Mainstreet is the organization that is responsible for keeping DeLand vital and they do what they can to ensure people keep coming downtown.  A little-known thing about Mainstreet is that most of the events they carry on are money losers.  This being the case it's always nice to help raise money for them and help aid in those events such as Monsters on Mainstreet where the kids can come out and trick-or-treat during Halloween season.  This is also an organization that I'm proud to be a partner with and I'm always enthused at their activity.

We were able to involve 10 different location for the crawl and had 5 different beers to choose from.  This way, folks could cherry pick where they wanted to drink and we could ensure they could be in their comfort zone.  The 5 beers that we had ran the gamut of styles:  Hazed and Infused, Mojo IPA, Sweaty Betty Hefeweizen, Kinda Blue, and Singletrack Copper.

Thanks to the hard work put on by my buds at S.R. Perrott, we had a banner made for each locale that had the name of the restaurant and the Boulder Beer they were serving.  This way, people could just walk up and  know what was being served.  With some of the crowds that developed, that was a good thing.  The banners ended up beautiful and I was especially proud of the giant Boulder logos on them - but of course I'm biased.

The locations cover nearly the entirety of downtown:  Abbey, DaVinci, Bill & Frank's Brickhouse, The Elusive Grape, Casey's on the Corner, Issues, De La Vega, Mainstreet Grill, The Grotto, and Dublin Station; all took part and all poured massive amounts of brew!

I began my adventure losing a weight loss bet, but was comforted by a delicious gift of some brews that my buddy Mike at Dunedin Brewery gave me from his trip out west:  Fort George brewery out of Oregon.  We had cans of their Vortex IPA, the Cavatica Stout, and the Quick Wit, which was an unbelievable Belgian Wheat with lemongrass - Yum!

So me and my buddy Defran caught a little buzz at the house and then headed downtown for some brews.  First stop - Abbey for some Hazed.  I can't get enough Hazed.  The wonderful thing about this beer is that the heavy dry-hopping produces a massive floral aroma but the additional hops does not add bitterness so you get a huge nose, huge flavor, and and easy finish.  I absolutely love this beer.

Walking out, Steve was hooking up some Hoopla Pale Ale outside and I had to have a glass.  Another interesting beer.  This one was a collaboration beer between the brewery and Kyle Hollingsworth of the band The String Cheese Incident.  See video insert of the story behind Hoopla.  This is another that I love because you can have quite a few and not see palate fatigue on it.

Next stop was to Casey's to get me some Sweaty Betty.  In my opinion the most underrated beer in Florida.  This is an extremely flavorful bavarian wheat that has massive aromas of banana and clove and is so incredibly beautiful on draft.  It appears like you'd imagine white stained glass would when you put it in the sun.  A gorgeous beer with a gorgeous name.  I dig it!

And on to Davinci to have some Mojo IPA.  This one is a very citrusy IPA and at 7ish percent alcohol is no lightweight.  We do well with the Mojo and it always makes me look forward to the Mojo Risin' Double IPA that we get in January.  Awesome IPAs all the way around.

At Davinci we had a few glasses of whiskey, too.  Always my first love, I just can't say no to whiskey in any of its forms and when I see someone order a glass of Jack, I just hafta have one myself.  What can I say?  The point is, I was getting pretty loopy at this point and one of my favorite bands to watch in DeLand, The Republik.

So, a quick Singletrack at Issues and back to Abbey.  Singletrack is a neat little beer.  A very flavorful amber ale that just packs a ton of flavor into a very drinkable brew.  The Singletrack in glass, we head to Abbey and on to see some Republik.

This is a band that is definitely worth checking out.  They travel nationally, but play quite a bit in Florida.  I own one of their CDs that have their own material on it and they are quite good songwriters as well.  Talented band and they seem like nice fellas too.

Once inside, I settled back in with my Hazed & Infused and relished in how great my world is.  Great band, great night, great cause.  Very happy with how everything went and I'm proud of all involved.  Big thanks to everyone who took part.  Cheers!

Abbey's 6 Year Anniversary

Of course nearest and dearest to my heart is the first business that I ever owned, Abbey.  I opened Abbey in 2006 and sold it on January 1, 2011.  This bar has been the source of some of my life's greatest joys and greatest sorrows.  Abbey made me who I am today, for better or worse.  It will always be one of my greatest accomplishments and my greatest failures.  

Anniversary day is always one of my favorite of the year and although I don;t own Abbey anymore, the excitement is still the same.  This year, as a Renegade Rep, I get to affect the bar in a totally different way and this adds even more excitement to the event.

This year I get to represent some of my favorite breweries in the world, many of which I was serving the day we opened our doors.  Newest in this mix is the legendary Trappiste beer, Chimay.  We began working with Chimay just two days ago, so adding it to our repertoire right before Anniversary day sends chills down my spine.  On this day, I get to serve Chimay to some of my favorite people not as their bartender, but as a representative of the very company that moved many of them into beerlover-hood.


From the Renegade standpoint, our beers have a great showing this year.  On draft, we have Boulder Hazed & Infused and Kinda Blue, Chimay Cinq Cents, and Lazy Magnolia Jefferson Stout.   Very nice!

Among all of the other great things about this day, this is also always a day that allows me to see some people I don;t get to see very often.  It always brings out the old friends and it reminds me of how much I miss all of them.  In particular, I was over-joyed at hearing that my good buddy Harris English was gonna visit for a bit.  Harris was a salesman for our local Bud guys, Quality Brands, back in the day.  Those guys were awesome and I made great friends with most of them.  The irony that a place that is diametrically opposed to Anheuser Busch becomes best of friends with the very guys who sell it is testimony to how much our local guys rocked and what fans of craft beer they are.

What Harris didn't bother to tell me was that he was going to be bringing a world of vintage beer deliciousness with him that was going to get my day started with a bang and inevitably finish with an ouch.  Among the good stuff he brought was:  2 year old Old Horizontal Barleywine, a 2008 and 2011 120 Minute IPA, 2 year old Golden Monkey and V-12, 4 year old Midas Touch, Barrel Aged Brrrrrbon, and a 2008 Double Black Stout.  Additionally, I had been hanging onto some bottles of Cascade brewing Cherry and a batch 1 Ommegeddon.  Not a bad way to start a night of drinking.

Needless to say, once we were finished working on these bottles and passing around some samples, the buzz was working just right.  Just as we had finished the last sample Harris brought and were about to open the Cascade Cherry, Bobby and Ryan from Daytona Beverages walk in and we continued to work on the bottles we had opened.

In addition to the aforementioned brews, on draft were St. Bernardus ABT 12,  Merry Monks, and Golden Monkey which would allow you to put together a flight of Belgian and Belgian-Inspired beers.  As anyone who knows me well enough already knows, it is the Belgian Brews that really get my motor humming and to see a Belgian-Inspired beer flight brings tears to the old eyes.

Before I knew it, I had lost track of time and had to arrange the giveaways we had prepared from Chimay, Hobgoblin, and Monty Python Holy Ail.  We had supplied glassware to give for those who bought draft of Chimay and had some raffle prizes of Monty Python, Hobgoblin, and Xingu T-shirts.  T-Shirts for small breweries always go over well and the Monty Python line is great because they have girly tees as well as the standard men's t-shirts.  Not many breweries offer tees for girls and they always light up when they see that some are made for them.

All in all, it was a great night, we sold a lot of beer, and I got to visit with people that I don't get to see as much as I would like.  I wish you all the same good fortune that I have had with some great folks.  Cheers!

ARK Fundraiser at Davinci

For those of you who don't know, the Renegades work closely with an animal rescue group, Animal Rescue Konsortium, which is a no-kill shelter for animals.  These kind folks are all heart and no funding, so we try to include some fundraising whenever possible.  In this case, Mr. Dan Reed at Davinci allowed us to do an entire day of fundraising; giving us some live music, space to bring animals for adoption, and allowed us to do a hot dog eating contest.  Very cool of him and we raised some decent funds to help keep the animals alive.

To start, I received a call from Mr. Terry Jorgensen who let me know that he had an emergency and couldn't make it, but left a check for the cause under the door at Davinci.  As it turns out, he left a VERY generous donation and it became a great start to a beautiful day.

Additionally, Mr. Jim Campbell offered up his musical services and played the event gratis.  He also brought some musical guests with him and they all through out some great tunes.

Add to all this, Casey's On The Corner donated the hot dogs for the eating contest AND donated $1.00 to the cause for every dog sold.  We are very lucky to have folks like this who are willing to help out a cause, especially during an uncertain economy.  

We auctioned off some of the limited prints and some rare brews, including a Westvleteren 8 that drew in a $25 donation from West Costa who also picked up a print for $50.  Very generous of him.  

All in all, we were able to generate $1002 for the animal rescue and made some great connections for volunteers to work at the center.

If you'd like to help ARK in any way, please contact them and offer whatever you can.  I have included the link here to their website and you can follow from there.

http://arkfl.rescuegroups.org/

Cheers!