One Barrel Brewing Company

After making a hasty post-dinner exit from Next Door, we decided to check out One Barrel Brewing Company, which was highly recommended to use by our Uber driver on our way to dinner.  Since we had nothing to lose, we mapped it out and made the 1-mile walk over.

What a cute little place.  We learned when we got there that they got their name because they are what they call a "nano-brewery".  They only brew beers One Barrel at a time, so everything on tap is VERY limited.

By the time we got there, it was pretty late, so we didn't mess around with tasters.  We each ended up getting our own drinks.  I ordered the Chai Town brown ale, and my friends ordered a Greg Hull Raspberry Lambic (named after a bar regular) and a stout,which I unfortunately can't remember the name of!  All were pretty good and unique!

I wish we'd gotten there earlier since their entire beer list looked interesting and considering their limited stock, I'd imagine the beer menu would be completely different the next time I visit!  I would highly recommend making a stop there when in Madison!

Next Door Brewing Company: Skip

We had high hopes for Next Door Brewing Company.  It was a short Uber ride from our hotel, and it was highly recommended by one of my traveling companions' beer buddies.  We had checked out the food menu and the beer list online, and it seemed like it'd be a good choice for dinner after we checked into our hotel in Madison.  

We should have known this wasn't the case, when we first walked in!

For one thing, there wasn't a host at the host stand.  Since we weren't sure if it was a restaurant-style brewpub (where the host seats you) or a bar-style brewpub (where you can sit wherever you want), we just stood there awkwardly until we were able to flag down someone who looked like they worked there.  

We did get seated fairly promptly, and my friend asked about their $2 Badger shots that they had on special, as indicated by a prominent sign on the wall.  We were told it was red and not very good.  Huh.  Interesting.

We then ordered a sampler of 4 of our choosing.  We decided to go with a variety including an IPA, a Red Ale, an Oktoberfest, and a Stout.  This is where Next Door broke a record: none of us liked any of them!  They were all pretty mediocre tasting, to be frank.  

Unfortunately for them, their food wasn't any better.  My friend and I both ordered their Cauliflower Saffron soup.  Just like the beer, it also tasted like nothing.  I thought perhaps I was overcritical of the soup, until I saw that my friend was adding salt and pepper to hers like crazy.  

In addition to the soup, I also had the world's smallest salad.  Perhaps I'd been spoiled, having been served ginormous salads at Horny Goat and Milwaukee Ale House.  I was definitely not impressed.  Unfortunately for my friend, she ordered the mac and cheese and ended up seriously burning the inside of her mouth (even though she had eaten her entire soup prior to trying the mac and cheese).  

Not a good experience all around.  We ended up not finishing the little tasters and just going to a different bar down the street that our Uber driver had recommended.  

Tyranena: A Fun Little Stop

Once we left Sprecher, our next stop was Tyranena, which was on our way to Madison.  Located in Lake Mills, WI, it's about 20 minutes from Madison with not much else around.  They have a super cute tap room and beer garden, and feature live music on Saturdays.

Their tap room only serves beer, but you're free to bring your own food.  They even have gas grills for folks to use!  They're even dog-friendly, as long as they aren't too many dogs already there, and your dog gets along with the house dogs.  They recommend calling ahead of time if you plan to bring your dog to verify the situation.  It's a pretty cool set-up, especially if you happen to be from around there and want to plan a cookout or picnic.

As it was, we were just passing by, so we didn't bring any food or dogs ;-)  We ended up getting their sampler, which featured 9 different beers (they choose which ones you get, unfortunately).  There were 10 beers on tap, so for good measure, we ordered a full beer of the one that wasn't included.

In general, all the beers were pretty good.  However, my friends and I all prefer boldly flavored beers, so we clearly weren't impressed with the lighter ones.  My favorites were:

1. The Imperial Maple Porter Aged in Bourbon Barrels
   This was the one not included in the sampler.  And it was delicious!  Glad we ordered it separately
2. Who's Your Daddy Imperial Oatmeal Porter
   Deeply flavored, thick and strong!
3. Rocky's Revenge
   Always a favorite of mine!

I also enjoyed their Bourbon Barrel Aged Suprise, the Bitter Woman IPA, the Chief Blackhawk Porter, and the Painted Ladies Pumpkin Spice Ale.

I would have preferred if they just sold taster portions of each beer, or at least let us pick which ones we wanted to try.  I guess I understand the concept of making people buy "The Sampler" that includes all the regular beers and omits the special ones.  But in our case, we really didn't drink the Three Beaches Honey Blonde, the Headless Man Amber Alt, and the Oktoberfest.  I could have told you from the start we weren't going to like those.

What a waste of beer.  I would have preferred if we could just do a sampler of the ones we wanted to try, and then maybe pick one of them to have a full beer from.  I'm guessing they would have sold us more beer if they did it that way, since we wouldn't have wasted our time tasting so many.  By the time we were done with the tasters and the 1 full beer we shared, we'd been there long enough and it was time to move on.

The live music was a nice touch and it was a cool ambiance.  I'd imagine it'd be hard to spend too much time here though, since there really wasn't much around.  You'd have to be staying pretty close by to take full advantage of what they have to offer!  I'd definitely come back, and maybe plan a cookout or picnic next time!  At least I know what beers of theirs I like now, so I can just order full beers of the ones I like!

Sprecher: Worth the Tour!

After lunch at Milwaukee Ale House, we checked out of our hotel then headed up to Sprecher.  We had actually tried buying tickets to their 3:15 tour but it was already sold out!  Since it was only a 15 minute drive from our hotel, we figured we'd still stop by, check out their tap room, and buy some beer.

WELL!  When we got there, we were informed the taproom was only for people who went on the tour.  You couldn't just go there and buy beer.  Booo!  But, the guy at the register told us to check ask the tour guide if there was still space on the tour (even though we knew it was sold out online).

Lucky for us he told us that!  The tour guide sold us 3 tour tickets on the spot and closed the door behind us.  I'm not sure if people didn't show up for the tour, or if we were just lucky he was lenient.  In any case, an extra 3 people didn't make it overly crowded, so we were in!  First thing he did was pour us all beers.  Ha.

The tour was pretty cool and our guide was funny, entertaining, and informative.  What more could you ask for?  Of course the highlight of the tour was the end when we got to go to the taproom and get tasters of everything.  They also had some light snacks for sale (which we took advantage of and bought cheese curds of course!  #becausewisconsin).

The unfortunate part of going on the 3:15 tour is that it's around 4 when you're done with the tour, and the tap room closes at 5.  Which means we didn't get to use all our beer tickets by the time it was last call.  Which was ok with us since we still had 2 more breweries to visit that day!  I would definitely go back and either drink faster or catch an earlier tour!

In any case, my favorite of the day was their hard apple pie, which I surprisingly enjoyed more than their Rye IPA and their stout!  What?!  Perhaps I'd been drinking a lot of beer that weekend already and found the Apple Pie light and refreshing?  In any case, I ended up going home with a few bottles of that, in addition to my favorite (the Abbey Trippel) and some stouts.

Milwaukee Ale House: A Nice River View!

Our 3rd stop on our 2015 Wisconsin Brew-venture was Milwaukee Ale House!

After our weird visit at Water Street Brewing the night before, we slept in on Saturday and walked over to Milwaukee Ale House around noon for some brunch.  Unfortunately, it looks like they only serve brunch on Sundays, since they only had a lunch menu!  Boo, negative one for them right off the bat!  

They made up for it thought!  We ordered cheese curds for starts again #becausewisconsin.  And a round of beers.  I had a squash stout, which was quite tasty!  I forgot what my friends ordered since I was busy enjoying my own beer.  I had another big ass salad for lunch, but this was admittedly quite a bit smaller than the one at Horny Goat the night before!  It was quite enjoyable, in any case!  

For dessert we shared this bottle of Barrel Aged Doppelvision.  Truth be told, doppelbock's aren't really my thing, but I still enjoyed this one.  Probably because I like bourbon, ha!  I think it makes all beers taste better ;-)  

I thought this was a cute spot overlooking the river.  It was also quite entertaining since there was an event going on, and boats kept passing by full of people wearing various costumes.  It was like a parade in the water!  

As we were leaving, we noticed there was a sign saying they offered 4 tasters for $7 or something like that.  If we had known, we would have ordered 2-3 of those so we could try more of the beers on the menu!  Something to keep in mind for next time!  I much prefer having smaller portions of more beers than a huge glass of one thing.

Stop 2: Water Street Brewery

The second stop of our 2015 Brew-venture was Water Street Brewery in Milwaukee!  This might not be a very fair review of the bar, since we arrived around 11:15pm, but for completeness sake, I wanted to share our experience. 

The bar seemed like it had a fair number of people when we walked in, which was a good sign!  We had just finished dinner at Horny Goat, checked into our hotel, and walked over.  Seemed like a good place to go!  We didn't order food since we'd already had dinner, but instead each got a ginormous beer.  

My friend got the Raspberry Weiss, which was surprisingly mild-flavored considering the color.  I thought for sure it'd be distinctly fruity.  But it lacked overall flavor.  My other friend and I ordered the Punch You in the Eye PA.  Yes, I'm pretty sure it was all because of the name.  Though I actually wasn't all that impressed with the selection, so that was the one that sounded the best to me.  The other beers on draft were a lager light, a bavarian weiss, a raspberry weiss, that IPA, an amber, and an Oktoberfest.  So, mostly things that don't taste like anything.  

In any case, I think the IPA was overall pretty mediocre.  I honestly couldn't even remember what I'd had until I took a look at a picture I took of the beer list.  Thank goodness for smart phones!  

Anyways, the weird part of the evening was when the waitress said she was getting off her shift so she closed out our tab.  She said we could continue to order from the bar.  Great!  This always happens at other places, so we didn't think it was a big deal. The beers were huge so it would take us a while to drink anyways so no big deal.  Until 15 minutes later we realized we were the only ones in the bar besides the bartender.  

Um.  Was the bar closed?  Was it just so uncool that no one was there besides the poor saps from out of town?  I think we were so weirded out about been the only ones there, we chugged our beers and go the heck out of there.  The area seemed dead anyways, so maybe we chose wrong when we booked our hotel!  

Anyways, I'd say the beer was ok, but if you want to check this place out, perhaps it's best to go during the daytime!  

Horny Goat: Always a Good Time!

Horny Goat has a special place in my heart.  Honestly, any time I'm heading through Milwaukee, I always try to convince my car-mates to stop here!  They have a really cool outdoor space (complete with firepits for when it gets cold out) along the river, and they're also dog-friendly!  So perfect spot to stop when you're road tripping with your pooch.  On top of their great ambiance and friendly service, their food's pretty delicious and so is their beer!  

This stop on our 2015 Brew-venture was no exception.  As our first stop of the trip, we got there for a late dinner, since we didn't leave Chicago after work (around 6:30pm) and of course had to traffic and construction!  But it was all worth it when we got there!  

We started with their cheese curd appetizer #becausewisconsin, which obviously we delicious.  For dinner, I ordered a big-ass salad which was about the size of my head.  It was huge!  To go with my salad, I had the Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter.  Which was AMAZING.  It was rich and dark, like drinking a dark chocolate Reese's milkshake.  In contrast, one of my friends had their Watermelon Wheat, which was quite refreshing.  My other friend had their seasonal Hornacopia pumpkin ale, which was very festive!  

For dessert, we had a giant cookie a la mode, and their Cereal Killer Breakfast Stout.  They complemented each other quite nicely!  

Normally I would highly recommend you going there, but I'm sad to say I found out they were closing their brewpub so they could focus exclusively on making good beer.  I guess we'll just have to try out their beer at other bars now!

Thanks for the memories, Horny Goat!  

Hello Old Friend!

Sorry I've been deliquent in blogging.  To be honest, I really haven't been cooking much at all.  BUT I've still been eating, so that's not an excuse not to blog about my food!  Now that the holidays are approaching, I'll plan to do some recipe experimentation in the future and give myself some good material to blog about!

To start, a couple of friends and I did a follow up trip to the Anti-Dark Lord Day trip we did a few years back.  This time, we visited Wisconsin breweries instead of Michigan.  We were able to visit 9 different breweries over the course of 48 hours!  I'm excited to write a recap of each one!  Stay tuned!

When you’re walking in Memphis. . .

For two city gals who’ve never really ventured south (except for the time I did the Mardi Gras Half Marathon in New Orleans!), we really knew nothing about Memphis except Graceland, and that song that everyone thinks was sung by Springsteen but wasn’t! Unfortunately, Graceland was a bit out of the picture since we were on a late traveling schedule and wanted to catch up. So we ended up just going to a few random spots that were near-ish to our hotel, while singing Walking in Memphis in the car. . . even though we were driving.

Anyways, as stop 2 of our Texas Road Trip, Memphis was *supposed* to be the stop we got to actually sight-see. However, after getting to Indianapolis late, and then having my friend’s parents abscond with the car for a while, we didn’t actually hit the road until about 5 or 6pm after a very late brunch! Which meant we pulled into our hotel in Memphis around 1am.

Being in a brand new city that neither of us had been to, crashing at the hotel when we got there just wouldn’t do. We had picked up some food on the road, so we weren’t particularly hungry. (Our on-the-road meal was clearly not memorable, since I have no photographic evidence of it. It might have been Cracker Barrel or some other place you only go to if you’re on a road trip!) But we wanted to experience Memphis at least a little, despite the fact that it looked totally dead when we arrived.

Indy: The Start of Our Starbucks Mug Obsession

The first leg of our Texas Road Trip was the shortest one- Chicago to Indianapolis. It was just supposed to be a short, starter-leg of our trip, where we would stop by her parents’ house in Indy to drop off some of her stuff she didn’t want to take with her to Texas.

However, it felt like the longest since my friend, who is perpetually running late, kept pushing back our departure time. First it was 2pm, then 4pm, then 8pm. I don’t think she actually picked me up at my apartment until after midnight! And of course we were both starving since we had expected to by in Indy by dinnertime!

Texas Road Trip

Next up on my “Things I did on my Summer Vacation” Report (aka my “Blogging Hiatus” Report): Time to discuss my TEXAS ROAD TRIP! Lots of food-themed adventures during that trip that I’d like to share. Plus, it’ll be good to keep those places in mind in case I’m ever around that way again!

Greenbush: The Hidden Gem of the Trip

I LOVE this place!

Bells: Arguably Our Most Fun Stop!

Third stop on our Anti-DLD Brew Tour was Bell's Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Directly south of Grand Rapids, I had thought for a half minute that I might just bike down to Kalamazoo while my friends drove. Unfortunately, the beautiful bike path that heads directly north of Grand Rapids, does not go south :( So I would have been taking my chance at roads that I'm unfamiliar with. Not the best idea for a solo cyclist! Which is how I ended up on the bike path heading north while my friends slept in that morning!

Founders: Bands, Bikes, and . . . Beer?

After visiting New Holland and checking into our hotel, the second stop on our Anti-DLD Brew Tour was Founders Brewery in Grand Rapids, Michigan! Since we had gotten a fairly late start and had already made a stop for dinner, we didn’t get to Founders until fairly late. That evening they had a couple of bands playing, and it was pretty crowded inside.

New Holland: So Many Beers, So Little Time!

First stop on our Anti-DLD Brew Tour was New Holland Brewery in Holland, Michigan! We went that Saturday, figuring is was "sort of kind of on the way" to Grand Rapids, where we had planned to spend the night. The plan was to grab dinner and a few brews at New Holland, drive to GR to check into our hotel, then spend the evening at Founders.

We ended up getting there later than expected, which meant we missed our friends who started eating/drinking without us! Whatever. We saw them on the street as they were leaving and we were going in. We didn't want to be rushed, so we ended up finding some seats at the bar and ordering some noms, as well as a taster of every beer on the ment. Yes, this menu:

Adventures of Anti-Dark Lord Day!

My first adventure after dropping off the face of this blog was to commiserate not being able to get tickets to Dark Lord Day at Three Floyds, only one of the greatest days of the year for a dark beer fanatic like myself.

Last year, it was sadly impossibly hard to get tickets. I had about 10 friends waiting by their computers when tickets went on sale, and only 1 friend was able to get one. They only allow you to buy two in the first place, and my friend actually didn’t get one himself; his cousin was the lucky one who scored two! So the rest of us were left with nothing but sadness, jealousy, and a free weekend!

Coffee and Beignets at Cafe Du Monde!

Right on Decatur Street in the French Quarter, across from Jackson Square is the famous Cafe Du Monde! We stopped by several times to enjoy their coffee and beignets over the course of our 4-day stay in New Orleans! We always left there over-caffeinated, with bellys full of fried dough, and powdered sugar all over our noses and pants :-P But we kept coming back for more! Sooooo delicious!

The beignets come out warm and covered with powdered sugar. There is no real way to eat them without ending up covered in powdered sugar, but it’s definitely worth it! It’s almost reminiscent of funnel cakes that you would get at amusement parks, except in the shape of warm dough balls. The outside has a crisp crunch to it, while the inside is warm and soft. Heaven!

I had my beignets with black coffee, though I think most folks order the cafe au lait. In New Orleans fashion, the coffee is served with chicory, which suits my tastes just fine!

The cafe itself is actually a pretty cool place to chill out and relax on lazy afternoons. You can sit in the covered patio, safe from the sunlight, or for Chicagoans like us visiting in February, there are plenty of park benches nearby you can sit on to soak up the sun. It’s definitely a nice place for people-watching, as it faces Jackson Park, which is often populated with artists, musicians, and carriages.

Central Grocery, Home of the Original Muffuletta

Honestly, I’d never even heard of a muffuletta until I landed in New Orleans! As we were meeting up with friends who’d flown in the night before, we decided the first order of business was to eat since we were starving from our flight. Our friends told us lunch definitely had to be muffulettas at Central Grocery. When we got there, I finally found out what this meant: ginormous circular sandwiches the size of a pan pizza on circular, sesame-seeded Italian bread, filled with various Italian deli meats, Swiss & provolone cheese, and a unique olive salad. Apparently they’re the THING to get when in New Orleans!

That’s when my skepticism kicked in. It looked like a small, family run grocery store with a deli counter, the type of place that would get confused if you asked for any modifications of their traditional-style offerings. However, I was told that this was a FAMOUS family run grocery store, home of the ORIGINAL muffuletta (it even said so in big signs everywhere) and that I HAD to have one even though I don’t eat meat. Since this was a trusted friend, I let him & another friend handle the situation as he sent the rest of us off to find a table in the back.

About a minute later, the helper friend came back with a giant package:

….which apparently had a giant, meat-filled sandwich inside:

She said they were still making the vegetarian one, so our other friend was still at the counter waiting for it. A good 10 minutes later, he finally came back bearing my sandwich (sorry for the poor picture quality; the lighting was not that great inside the store, but the pictures using flash looked even worse):

Apparently the sandwich assembly line was so efficient at making regular muffulettas that it was a big disruption in the production process to tell them not to put the meat in. My friend said that the counter guy who took his order had to go back there an make it himself, hence the long delay!

The sandwiches were so big, we comfortably split the two sandwiches between four people. Honestly, though, I can’t say I was all that impressed with the sandwich; however since they had to take out a main component, I won’t blame them that my sandwich was lacking. They compensated for the lack of meat by adding extra cheese, which, being mildly lactose intolerant, would not have been my number one choice for substitutions. I definitely would have preferred more of the olive salad instead! I can tolerate a slice or two of cheese just fine, but this much cheese in my sandwich makes me a bit queasy:

However, I definitely see the appeal of those sandwiches and would be curious to see what a better approximation of a vegetarian muffuletta would taste like. My sandwich definitely would have lacked the flavor and substance of an “original” since the salty Italian meats were merely taken out rather than substituted with something similarly substantial & salty. Perhaps in a future cooking challenge, I’ll have to make this sandwich myself with the arsenal of vegetarian deli meats I have at my disposal! Of course, I would have no clue where to find muffuletta bread in Chicago, so this might actually also become a baking challenge!! And let’s not forget the the olive salad, which I felt was probably the most unique thing about the sandwich, taste-wise. I personally hate olives, but didn’t mind them at all in the sandwich.

So yeah, if I do decide to take on this muffuletta-making challenge, it looks like I’ll have my work cut out for me, as a lactose-intolerant vegetarian who doesn’t habitually eat bread and hates olives!

An Urban Foodie Does the Big Easy

Laissez les bons temps rouler!!

I'd mentioned a few weeks ago that I was taking a trip down to New Orleans with some tri club friends to do the Mardi Gras Half Marathon, with one friend doing the full marathon! While the race wasn't my best, I had a great time while down there and got to indulge in some of the food and culture of the Big Easy!

Since it was my first time down there, I was left at the mercy of friends who knew the city. It was definitely fun trying out some of the more well-known establishments, but I'll admit it that without being in control of where we went, was hard finding vegetarian-friendly options that weren't completely boring. Plus, since the trip was centered around a long-distance race, it was also harder to be adventurous with food choices, especially the day before the race.

If I come back to do the race again in the future, I would definitely consider planning a week-long stay post-race so that I can more thoroughly explore and enjoy the city and its cuisine without fear of ruining race day! It would also be nice to explore the city again now that I'm more familiar with the layout. With more time, I would also be able to explore more veg-friendly restaurants (assuming they exist!)

Since this blog is supposed to document the "Adventures of an Urban Foodie", I thought this might be a good opportunity to take a short break from recipe-posting to blog about my Urban Food Adventures in a different city! Food definitely tends to be the center of most cultures, and I've found one of the best ways to explore a new city is to immerse yourself in its cuisine! So for the next few posts, I'll take you on my Urban Adventures in the deep south exploring the heart of the Big Easy via its stomach :)