Author: John Klyce Minervini

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Love Pop on South Main; Bleu’s New Lounge

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

There isn’t any furniture at Love Pop Soda Shop. That’s right: no tables, no chairs, no display cases. Instead, they’ve got 700 white plastic milk crates. Milk crates to sit on, milk crates to rest your glass on. The bar is actually a long row of — you guessed it — stacked milk crates, topped by a smooth wood panel. You really have to see it to believe it.

You might think that such an arrangement would be the product of necessity, a last-minute fix for a shop that didn’t have the time or money to buy proper furniture. Far from it. The design, by Memphis-based brg3s architects, is actually pretty nifty.

Think about it. Turn a milk crate on its side, stick an LED light behind it, and what do you get? A stylish, semitranslucent display case. Like Legos, Milk crates are cheap and infinitely rearrangeable.

Justin Fox Burks

More important, the design reflects the simplicity of Love Pop’s concept: Do one thing. Do it well. As you may have guessed, Love Pop serves soda — more than 200 varieties and counting — but you won’t find any Mountain Dew around here. Instead, they focus on small-batch bubbles, the kind of pop that is produced like craft beer.

A good example is Simpson Springs Sarsaparilla ($3) — a close cousin to root beer. Whereas the ingredient labels on most corporate sodas read like a chemistry textbook, this 100-year-old recipe, produced at a mom-and-pop shop in South Easton, Massachusetts, includes just four ingredients — and one of them is carbonated spring water.

And the taste? It’s like A&W Root Beer without the jet fuel (high-fructose corn syrup, phosphoric acid, sodium benzoate, etc.). I am no shill for soda, but Simpson Springs surprised me. It’s rich and smooth with undertones of vanilla and sassafras.

Co-owner Mignonne Wright says she dreamed up Love Pop back in 2005, when she and her son, Brendan, were on a road trip through the American West. While driving down Route 66, they happened on a place called Pop Soda Ranch, and Brendan says he thought he had died and gone to heaven.

“Back then I was an 8th-grader,” Brendan explains, “So the idea of over 600 different kinds of soda — that sounded like the best thing in the world to me.”

Wright says she wants Love Pop to be an all-ages hangout, the kind of soda bar that will be refreshingly new to millennials and comfortingly familiar to baby boomers, nostalgic for the lunch counters of the 1950s and 60s. At the grand opening on Saturday, they will give out free ice cream to make floats. How many kinds of ice cream, you ask?

“Just one,” says co-owner Taylor Berger. “Vanilla. We figure you’ve got enough choices with 200 kinds of soda, so you shouldn’t have to stress about ice cream.”

Love Pop Soda Shop, 506 S. Main

www.lovepopsodashop.com

Over at Bleu — the restaurant in the Westin — they’ve updated their lounge with new paint and furniture. And there’s a brand-new tap system for beer. But the real news at Bleu isn’t the lounge. It’s the revamped menu by chef Ana Gonzalez.

A ball of energy with a tight ponytail, Gonzalez comes to Memphis by way of Colombia. After attending culinary school at Johnson and Wales, she went on to work at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and the Peabody’s Capriccio Grill. In the three months since she came on at Bleu, she has given the restaurant a bold new flavor, emphasizing small plates that feature fresh, local ingredients.

Take the Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp with Polenta Cake ($8). A pair of tiny towers draped with micro-greens from Memphis’ Green Girl Produce, it’s Gonzalez’s mischievous take on shrimp and grits. (Grits and polenta are essentially the same thing; the only difference is the type of corn used and the fineness of the grind.)

Drizzled with deliciously vinegary barbecue sauce, Gonzalez’s shrimp strikes the right balance. At the top, there is the fresh taste of micro-greens like radish and daikon sprouts. In the middle, the plump richness of shrimp and bacon. And at bottom, the crisp crunch of fried polenta. The best part? It’s inexpensive, so you can order a second round.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Live on the Scene at the First Annual Taste the Flavors Brew Festival

CREDIT: John Klyce Minervini

John Klyce Minervini

On Saturday, the Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee hosted the first annual Taste the Flavors Brew Festival.

Last year, Ghost River Brewing co-founder Chuck Skypeck raised a few eyebrows when he suggested, in an interview with the Commercial Appeal, that Memphis might not be able to sustain its new crop of craft breweries.

His reason? Black people don’t drink craft beer.

“There are about a million people in the Memphis area, Skypeck began. More than 60 percent of them are African-Americans who…largely prefer higher-end alcohol (if any alcohol at all) to beer.”

Oh really?

I decided to run that comment by Trevor Thompson. Besides being black and loving craft beer, Thompson is the CEO of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee. On Saturday night, his organization hosted their first annual Taste the Flavors Brew Festival. Held at Just For Lunch, the event gave Memphians a chance to sample delicious local brews while raising money for those who suffer from Sickle Cell Anemia.

John Klyce Minervini

From left: Steven Whitney and Trevor Thompson

“Really, it all goes back to exposure,” said Thompson, sipping from a glass of High Cotton ESB. “I think it’s true that African Americans have historically participated in the craft beer movement at lower rates. But already tonight, I’ve had two people come up to me and tell me how much they love this beer or that beer.”

For those who don’t know, Sickle Cell Anemia is an inherited blood disease that primarily affects people of African and Caribbean descent. One out of every 350 Memphians has sickle cell, and the crowd at the event—which numbered about 150—was equal parts black and white.

When I caught up with Claire Gentry, she was enjoying a cup of Ghost River’s Honey Wheat Reserve.

“I’m usually a light beer kind of person,” confessed Gentry. “You know, Bud Light, Miller Lite, Michelob. But I liked it! It wasn’t heavy at all, and it was kind of sweet.”

Taste the Flavors featured three Memphis breweries—Ghost River, High Cotton, and Memphis Made—plus a few beers from farther afield—notably Schlafly and Lagunitas. And hey, what’s beer without some food to wash it down? Texas de Brazil was serving steak, and Aldo’s Pizza Pies brought some of their addictive garlic knots with vodka cream sauce.

The event was conceived and chaired by Steven Whitney, an enterprising 23-year-old at the University of Memphis. Whitney, who works with sickle cell patients at St. Jude, says he has always had a passion for craft beer. Combining those interests gave him an opportunity to help introduce craft beer to Memphis’s black community and while helping sickle cell patients in the process.

“Craft beer is blowing up here in Memphis,” says Whitney. “So I figure, let’s knock down the walls and bring everybody in. I mean, why not? It’s a huge untapped market.”

John Klyce Minervini

The event gave Memphians a chance to sample delicious local brews while raising money for those who suffer from Sickle Cell Anemia.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

A Cuppa Joe with Reverb Coffee’s Jeremy Harris

Everybody has an aha moment. For the Apostle Paul, it came on the road to Damascus. For Reverb Coffee founder Jeremy Harris, it happened one night in a tiny village in the Dominican Republic.

“I was having dinner at a friend’s house,” recalls Harris, “and our hostess brought out this old metal cafeteria tray covered with shot glasses. And I was like, what is this old lady doing?”

The shot glasses, it turned out, were full of espresso—but not just any espresso. The coffee had been grown and roasted right there in the village. The espresso was brewed on a stovetop with brown sugar, and the flavor, says Harris, was out of this world.

“I’d never had that level of coffee before,” he continues. “I thought, you know, why don’t we have this where I live?”

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Why, indeed? When he got back to the States, Harris bought a home roaster, and in April 2013, he started selling his beans commercially.

His concept is simple: teach Memphis to brew better coffee. That means doing lighter roasts (darker roasts obscure delicate origin flavors) and shortening the time between roasting and brewing.

In practice, that involves roasting smaller batches and delivering them to stores more frequently. I tried a cup of their Ethiopia Lekempte, which was rich and smooth, with notes of citrus and berry.

Want to try Reverb Coffee? Chances are, you already have. (Hint: it’s in the beer.)

Back in January, Reverb partnered with Memphis Made Brewing to produce Reverberation, a Belgian-style coffee stout. The first run was such a hit that—Happy Turkey Day!—they’re bringing it back at the end of November.

If you prefer your coffee the old-fashioned way, you can pick up a one-pound bag of Reverb at Cash Saver or Miss Cordelia’s. Or hey, they brew it fresh at Avenue Coffee, right around the corner from the University of Memphis.

But hey—can you keep a secret? Like seriously, just between us? Word on the street is that Reverb is getting its own coffee shop in December—and it may or may not be somewhere in Cooper Young. Shh!

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: Orr Restaurant and the Tannoor Grill.

What do you get when you cross a Middle Eastern kebab joint with a Brazilian steakhouse? The answer, more or less, is the new Tannoor Grill — and it’s not as outlandish as you might think.

In a traditional churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse), waiters serve diners at tableside, carving slices off meat-laden skewers that have been roasted over an open fire. If you think about it, a kebab is kind of the same thing. All right, the spices are different, but essentially it’s just more meat on a stick.

As concepts go, Rio-meets-Rafah is inspired. Tannoor owner Shadi Alrammal says he got the idea while he was a student in Montreal, working as a server in a churrascaria. Originally from the West Bank, 37-year-old Alrammal moved to Canada in 2002 and Memphis in 2007.

“One day,” he remembers of his time in Montreal, “the chef didn’t come in, so I volunteered. I said, ‘Guys, I know how to do this!'”

Tannoor’s signature dish is “the Turnstile” ($29.95). When you order it, you will be approached by a series of handsome young waiters carrying swords. Intrigued? Just wait, it gets better. The swords are impaled with eight different meats. Beyond steak and lamb — standard fare at a churrascaria — there are also Middle Eastern specialties like shish kebab (skewered beef) and shish tawook (marinated chicken).

The meats are deftly prepared, but for my taste, the shish tawook is best. Before being grilled, the chicken is marinated in a yogurt dressing with lemon and garlic, which lends it a tangy piquancy. The flavor is rounded out with a bevy of Silk Road spices, things like cumin and oregano, that give it a bit of heat.

Tannoor Grill

When it comes to beef, Alrammal says that his customers prefer a steak that is medium to medium-well. But if you are of the opinion that red meat should be served red — or at least dusky pink — just let your waiter know. The chef is happy to send out a sword with some medium-rare steak on it.

Of course, there’s more to Tannoor than just meat. The fatoush salad is loaded with fresh flavors — tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, olives, parsley, and toasted pita chips — and served with a delicious yogurt dressing. I was curious about the dressing — was that tahini in there? Perhaps some dill? — but on this particular point, Alrammal was keeping his mouth shut.

“Oh, you can’t tell everything,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye. “Sometimes you’ve gotta keep your secrets.”

For Musa Ali, owner of the new Orr Restaurant, the road to Memphis has been a long one. He grew up in Nasiriyah, a city of squat brick buildings and lush date palms in the south of Iraq. But he had to leave in 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein began bombing the city.

“It still hurts, man,” Ali confesses. “I don’t like to talk about it.”

For the next six years, Ali and his family lived in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia. At last, in 1998, they were given refugee status in the United States.

On October 1st, Ali opened Orr at the corner of Summer and Mendenhall. For Memphians, it’s a rare and tasty glimpse into authentic Iraqi cuisine.

Start with the basics. At Orr, the falafel fritters ($5.99) are donut-shaped, so that they are cooked evenly throughout. The result is herbed and delicious: brown and crunchy on the outside, green and fluffy on the inside.

But let’s face it: you can get falafel in just about any country within a day’s drive of the Euphrates River. If you want to taste something specific to Iraq, try the Lamb Kowzi platter ($12.99), a regional delicacy.

Served on a bed of long-grain rice, the Kowzi comes with a green salad and a small bowl of fasoulia (white bean soup). The lamb itself — a jumbo leg flavored with raisins and roast nuts — is cooked very slowly, first braised for a period of hours, then flash fried. The meat is lovely, dark and sweet — just like Jaddah (Arabic: “Grandma”) used to make. But be forewarned: Because the dish takes so long to prepare, once they run out, they’re out.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

A Taste of the New Menu at Sweet Grass

Fried oysters

  • Fried oysters

Did you hear? Sweet Grass got a new menu, and chef Ryan Trimm says it’s all about fall:

“I always love the first burst of fall produce,” Trimm confesses. “Butternut squash, pumpkins, collards, mustard greens. Right now I got brown crowder peas coming out of my ears.”

Who could resist an invitation like that? So yesterday, I flung a warm scarf over my shoulder and headed down to Cooper Young for a taste. It all started with a cocktail.

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Old Orchard

  • Old Orchard

The Old Orchard ($8)—a concoction of apple-cinnamon whiskey, orange bitters, and lemon peel—is just the thing to warm up a chilly autumn afternoon. It’s sweet but not too sweet, with deliciously dark notes from the bitters and lemon peel.

Next, we tried the Fried Oysters ($12), which—besides looking good in photos, see above—also happen to be compulsively edible. They’re served with pickled squash slaw and a lemon crème fraiche that’s good enough to eat with a spoon.

But the real show stealer was the Dirty Pig Fries ($13), a recipe that Trimm brought over from the menu at Southward, which closed last month. Mixed into a haystack of thick-cut french fries, you’ll find braised pork shoulder, sautéed onions, pecorino romano, and sriracha—plus a spicy mix of collards and mustard greens.

Dirty Pig Fries

  • Dirty Pig Fries

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s duh-licious. Like fancy poutine or chili-cheese fries for grownups. And it’s got greens in it, so it counts as a vegetable, right?

“Oh, definitely.” Trimm confirms.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Sweet Grass without some tasty local produce. Sure enough, the butternut squash is from Hanna Farm in Luxora, AR. The collards and mustard greens are from Woodson Ridge Farms in Oxford, MS. And the braised pork shoulder is from Newman Farms in Myrtle, MO.

But wait—what’s that you say? Ryan Trimm is starting his own CSA in November? Who told you that? You certainly didn’t hear it from us *wink*.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

A Visit to Eighty3’s New Patio

JKM_Eighty3_Patio.JPG

Did you notice? The weather this week has been perfect. Lows in the 50s, highs in the 70s, crisp and sunny with a steady fall of autumn leaves. Perfect weather for a pumpkin beer or a bowl of butternut squash soup.

Or heck, dinner on the patio. Am I right?


To celebrate the season, my editor and I decided to meet up for appetizers at Eighty3’s new patio. The restaurant, named for its address at 83 Madison Ave., opened in 2011 and has since become a go-to for bold, Southern flavors.

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We started with the Eighty3 Signature Skillet Cornbread ($8). It was sweet and lightly spicy, with an appealing, crisp crust. The accompanying honey-jalapeno butter was tasty, although I wish there had been more of it.

JKM_Eighty3_Cornbread.JPG

Then came the Eighty3 Chopped Salad ($12), hold the bacon. It was crisp and fresh, crammed with fall flavors: onions, apples, avocados, tomatoes, and corn. The dressing was light and tangy, and the gorgonzola cheese added a piquant note.

Last was the Hummus Plate ($11). The addition of garlic-marinated white beans to the usual garbanzo mix gives this hummus a light, creamy texture, and the pita chips seemed to be home-made.

JKM_Eighty3_Hummus.jpg

The patio itself was cozy and well-lit, like something you might encounter in New Orleans’s French Quarter. Somehow the heat lamps seemed to know what temperature it was (is this possible?). They would switch on as the temperature got cooler; as a result, the patio stayed warm well into the night.

Meanwhile, outside the window, pedestrians and cyclists rolled by on South Main St. Altogether, it was a great way to spend a cool fall evening.

Categories
Food & Drink Food Reviews

Alton Brown Live at the Orpheum

Back in the 1990s, TV cooking shows were all over the map. The recipes were often untested — think limp tacquitos and runny quiche — while the format managed to be both dull and uninformative. Then Alton Brown came along, and the kitchen has never quite been the same.

Brown started out directing commercials and music videos. (He was actually the director of photography on R.E.M.’s trippy video, “The One I Love.” Make of that what you will.) After attending culinary school in Vermont, he created the concept for Good Eats, his path-breaking cooking show, which he described as equal parts Julia Child, Mr. Wizard, and Monty Python.

The results were pretty tasty. Good Eats ran for 14 seasons on the Food Network, won a Peabody award, and made Brown a food icon. Its signature style — funny, fast-paced, and heavy on science — has been widely copied and changed the way we think about food.

Since wrapping up Good Eats, Brown has written several books and appeared on shows like Iron Chef, Cutthroat Kitchen, and The Next Food Network Star. Now he’s taking his show on the road. In “Alton Brown Live! The Edible Inevitable Tour,” Brown brings his signature mix of culinary science and tomfoolery to the stage, complete with standup comedy, cooking demonstrations, and live music.

The Flyer recently caught up with Brown to talk about splash zones, gassy sock puppets, and the Food Network executives who wouldn’t take his calls.

Flyer: So, let me get this straight. At the live show, there are splash zones?

Alton Brown: Long story. Basically, when we started doing the tour, we ended up shelling out about 150 bucks a night to people to help cover their dry cleaning. In the end we decided it would be cheaper to just hand out ponchos.

Back up. Why do I need a poncho?

There are two very large, very unusual culinary demonstrations during the show. One of them tends to produce a large amount of airborne particulate matter. Not because I want it to — it’s just a byproduct of getting this particular experiment done. And we have found that in certain theaters, some of that particulate matter tends to settle on people in the first couple of rows.

Can we talk about the sock puppets?

Anybody who’s a fan of Good Eats will recognize the yeast puppets. They’re really gassy. All they do is produce gas, so they have to express themselves through gaseous emissions. Let’s just say that 7- to 9-year-old boys really love the show.

When did you start cooking?

I got pretty serious about cooking when I was in college. It was strictly to get dates. I had a fairly miserable social life, and I found that girls who wouldn’t talk to me otherwise would occasionally come within range when I offered to cook for them.

What dishes were a hit with the ladies?

Really, anything French. I remember, I got a recipe out of Bon Appetit called Sole Au Gratin Florentine, which sounds very impressive. Of course it’s nothing but fish with spinach and cheese sauce. But anyway, that one went over pretty big.

When did you make your pitch to the Food Network?

I never made a pitch. Honestly, I never got the opportunity. The short version is that I couldn’t get a meeting. I had been told to give up, that the execs at Food Network were not interested. But then somebody saw part of my pilot [episode] online, and all of a sudden they were interested.

Are the people who wouldn’t take your calls still working at Food Network?

(Laughs) All gone. All gone. That’s kind of the sweet part of this. Yeah, all the people who said no to me are gone. I don’t know where they are now.

Your onscreen persona can be pretty diabolical. Is that really you?

Yes and no. If you’ve watched Good Eats, that’s pretty much me. If you’ve watched Iron Chef, that’s me busy and in a hurry. If you’ve watched me on any competition show — Next Iron Chef, Food Network Star — that’s a gruffer, more professorial version of me. And then, my game show persona on Cutthroat Kitchen — that’s the evilicious, diabolical, James Bond villain version of me.

You’ve said that eggs are your favorite ingredient. How can people start cooking better eggs today?

I’m a big fan of hard-cooked eggs, but I don’t boil them — I bake them. And that always seems to befuddle people. They’re shocked that you can put an egg in the oven, and 30 minutes later, it comes out perfect. But for me, it’s all about texture. It’s a much creamier egg white, and you never get that nasty line of blackish green around the yoke. [To find out how to make Alton Brown’s Oven Eggs, visit youtube.com/altonbrown.]

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Tea and Honey

CREDIT: John Klyce Minervini

Eyleen Farmer isn’t the kind of person you’d expect to meet in the back of a police car. With her stylish glasses and sunny demeanor, she seems less like a felon, more like a schoolteacher or life coach. And yet, on August 19th, there she was, riding through South Memphis with Lt. Chris Moffat.

“It was so interesting,” remembers Farmer. “I heard language that I’ve never heard before.”

In case you’re wondering, Farmer — the associate rector at Calvary Episcopal Church — didn’t commit a crime. Rather, she was doing research for her new project, a nonprofit that will provide jobs and workforce training to former prostitutes. On her ride-along with Lt. Moffat, she ultimately met six women who were charged with selling their bodies.

“What I learned,” Farmer says, “is that nobody is doing this by choice. Nobody, when they are a little girl, says this is what I want. Down to a woman, they were victims of rape and abuse. I remember one girl actually said she was doing it to pay her MLGW bill.”

In Farmer’s nonprofit — called, for now, Friends of Thistle Farms — former prostitutes will be paid to grow herbs and keep bees. They will then process, package, and market what they harvest, in the form of consumer goods like herbal tea, honey, and lip balm.

Meanwhile, the women will live at the Community of St. Therese of Lisieux, a two-year residential program where they will receive healthcare, drug treatment, and counseling. It’s a model that Farmer is borrowing from Nashville’s Thistle Farms, which has helped hundreds of women and raised $13 million dollars since its founding in 2001. Chris Girata is the rector at Calvary, the church that is incubating the new nonprofit.

“We can wax poetic about changing lives all we want,” says Girata. “But the reality is that these women have bills to pay. They need a job. With this program, we can say to them, stop selling yourselves, and start doing some honest work — today.”

Last week, I donned a pair of white polyester coveralls and went with Farmer to feed the bees. We were accompanied by John Burruss, the vicar at Annunciation Episcopal Church in Cordova. Annunciation, which has partnered with Calvary on the project, will host both the beehives and the herb garden.

“For a long time,” says Burruss, zipping up the hood on his beekeeping suit, “we had been wrestling with how to be better stewards of our 11 acres. Like, how can we deepen the community’s connection to the land? How can we be more sustainable with our resources? As soon as Eyleen told me about this, I knew it would be a good fit.”

At first, Friends of Thistle Farms had just two beehives, which they purchased. But they got some pennies from heaven last month when two additional hives were discovered in the belltower of Calvary’s Memphis cathedral. Professionally relocating the bees was an expensive, daylong process that involved vacuuming up nearly 100,000 individual insects. But Eyleen Farmer took it as a sign that she was doing something right.

“It was impossible not to think of it as a God thing,” remembers Farmer. “I don’t wanna get too woo-woo about it, but it was thrilling, frankly.”

For now, Friends of Thistle Farms is still in development. Both the garden and the beehives are tended by volunteers, and Farmer says the first women participants won’t join until 2015. But this week, the nonprofit is holding its first fundraiser: a tea party called Scarborough Fair.

At Scarborough Fair, attendees will be able to purchase half-pint jars of the nonprofit’s first honey harvest. There will also be a tea brew-off, in which participants compete to see who can prepare the tastiest herbal blend. The event (details below) is free and open to the public, although there is a suggested $20 donation.

Going forward, Friends of Thistle Farms hopes to work with the district attorney’s office to help former prostitutes expunge their criminal records. Because, they say, housing and workforce training won’t count for much if these women can’t get a job in the real world. It’s an ambitious plan, but I still had one question: Why does Farmer feel compelled to do this work?

Before becoming a minister in 1994, she explains, she also served as a hospice chaplain and an administrator at an incest survivors group.

“I met these women,” remembers Farmer, “whose sense of self-worth had been shattered, but who, despite their brokenness, had a longing and a determination to be whole human beings. And I found that so inspiring.

“What I learned,” she adds, “is that we’re never too broken to become whole again. There’s nothing anyone can do to put us beyond redemption. And I want to be a part of that healing in these women’s lives.”

Scarborough Fair at 3342 Waynoka. Sunday, October 19th, 4-6 p.m.

calvarymemphis.org/herbsandbees.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Hats Off: Kelly English Named Ole Miss’s 2014 Outstanding Young Alum

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It’s been a banner year for chef Kelly English. His Grizzlies-inspired “Beat Yo Ass” Shrimp were featured in ESPN Magazine, and he was invited to do cooking demonstrations as a part of the Sports Illustrated Tailgate Tour. As if that weren’t enough, now English is winning an award from his alma mater, Ole Miss.

At Saturday night’s homecoming game against the University of Tennessee, English will receive the University of Mississippi’s 2014 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award. Each year, the award is given to a recent graduate who has shown exemplary leadership in both his career and his service to the University.

The Flyer recently caught up with English to talk about home ec, hangovers, and the science of good tailgating.

Flyer: Congratulations, Kelly! How’d you feel when you found out about the award?
Kelly: I was pretty floored. I was like, you know that I put salt on food, right? There’s a lot more important stuff than what I do. But no, it was a huge honor.

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When you applied to Ole Miss, did you know you were gonna be a chef?
I started as a pre-law major. But I was paying my way by working in kitchens, and eventually I figured out that I liked that work a whole lot more than the idea of going to law school. Once I figured that out, I changed my major to Hospitality Management.

Except back then it was called Family and Consumer Sciences—so I basically have a degree in Home Ec.

What do you remember about college?
Oh gosh. I love where I went to school. My friends who went to other schools used to call it day camp; it was just such a serene and perfect place. And safe! I lived there for five years, and I never kept a key to my apartment.

So you were a pretty studious guy?
Let’s be brutally honest here. If you ask me about my college experience, studying would not be the first thing that came to mind. If I had to describe my college experience in one word, that word is “hung-over.”

Let’s talk about the Sports Illustrated gig.
It’s pretty sweet. It’s in conjunction with Sports Illustrated and Go RVing, where we go to different college campuses and do demos before games. I did one at Ohio State, the University of Iowa, and the University of Nebraska. I’m doing one at the UT-Alabama game next weekend. But I definitely took into account Ole Miss’ schedule, so I wouldn’t have to miss any home games.

What food tips do you have for tailgating?
When you think about tailgating, you’ve gotta think about a couple things. First, you’ve gotta think about how long the food can last. It’s gotta be something that tastes good from 11am until 3pm, and it’s sitting out the whole time. Second, you’ve gotta make it as easy as you can on yourself. Because the worst thing you can do, as the host, is stand in the kitchen all day.

What are you bringing to the game on Saturday?
I still have to figure that out. Grits with pork grillades we’ve done a couple times. Composed salads are always great. We did a pumpkin and carrot salad with country ham. Things that people can pick up with their fingers. You don’t want things that people need a fork for. That’s what’s so beautiful about crackers and dip.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Gotta Try This: Wiseacre’s Holy Candy Belgian Dubbel

Holy_Candy_Label.jpg

As the Flyer gears up for tomorrow’s Cooper Young Regional Beerfest, we decided to wet our whistle with a seasonal favorite from Wiseacre Brewery. After a successful debut last year, Wiseacre’s Holy Candy is returning for a victory lap in 2014.

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To get the scoop on the beer, I caught up with Wiseacre’s resident Teller of Tales/Captain of Industry, Kellan Bartosch. Fresh from last week’s win at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver—Wiseacre’s Tiny Bomb took third place in the German Pilsner category—Bartosch was feeling fine, and decided to join me for a tall one.

“Part of me was actually hoping we wouldn’t win,” reflected Bartosch, “because I knew we’d have to go out and party a bunch more.”

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Holy Candy is a Belgian Dubbel: a complex, spicy beer traditionally brewed by Trappist Monks. But whereas the monks usually add a bit of candy sugar for sweetness, Wiseacre decided to use fig puree. That’s how they came up with the name Holy Candy.

“Last year,” remembered Bartosch, “my brother Davin and I were eating some figs, and he was like, hey, this is what Jesus would have eaten if he wanted candy!”

You might think that adding figs would result in a sweeter beer. Well, yes and no. The yeast actually eats up most of the sugar, so Holy Candy is pretty dry. The result is a nice, fruity opening—think plums and raisins—with a clean, dry finish. Bonus points if you can taste the faint notes of white pepper, a gift from the yeast.

Bartosch recommends pairing Holy Candy with red meat. (“I actually think it’d be a good burger beer,” he mused.) He also envisioned a spinach salad with cranberries, walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette—which was more than I could bear on an empty stomach. In the name of the yeast, the malt, and the holy fig, I tossed off my beer and headed home for supper. Amen.