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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

On the Scene at the Dixon’s Art on Tap

Friday night was “Art On Tap” at the Dixon. A ticket got you unlimited beer samplings from around the world and food from local restaurants. There was a wine tasting for an extra $10.

One of the first beers that I tried was from Memphis Made Brewing. It was a light golden ale called Soulful Ginger. The beer was sweet but layered. There’s candied ginger and peppercorn in it and it was fruity with a tiny kick. Definitely worth trying!

I was excited to try 4Dumplings because I haven’t been there yet. The staff was on site rolling and making the dumplings by hand.

The dumpling was light and airy. The pork was well cooked and sweet. The sauce that was poured on top of the dumpling was refreshing and fantastic. I don’t know what it was, but it was definitely delicious!

The next thing that caught my eye was the Apple Ginger Hard Cider from Bluff City Brewers. If you’re expecting to taste the sweetness of an apple, this isn’t the cider for you! It mainly tastes like ginger and is more of a bitter cider.

My favorite thing by far at Art On Tap though was the “hops-icles” from CFY Catering. If you haven’t had them yet, you’re missing out! “Hops-icles” are pretty much adult popsicles that have alcohol in them. CFY Catering had two kinds this year.

The first one was chocolate pudding with Guinness. It was creamy, thick and yes, chocolaty. It tasted like a chocolate popsicle. I didn’t really taste the Guinness. It was refreshing to have during the night.

The second “hops-icle” was Blue Moon with Mike’s Hard Lemonade. It was lemony, sweet, and you definitely could taste the alcohol more in this one. It was my favorite thing. I knew I was enjoying it a bit too much when a guy passed me and said, “They’re stupid good, right?” Yes, sir, stupid good! The winner of the evening!

Here’s a list of some of this year’s Art on Tap featured selections: Dogfish Head, Ghost River Brewing, Bernoulli Brew Werks, Blue Point Brewing, Bluff City Brewers, Boscos Squared, Buster’s Liquors & Wines, Sweetwater Brewing Company, Goose Island, High Cotton Brewing Company, Memphis Brewer’s Association, Memphis Made Brewery, Southern Prohibition Brewing, Straight to Ale, Tallgrass Brewing Company, Wiseacre Brewing Company, and Lagunitas.

As for the food that was available to try this year, there was Rock ‘n’ Dough Pizza, One and Only BBQ, 4Dumplings, Gus’s Fried Chicken, Frost Bake Shop, CFY Catering, Celtic Crossing, CFY Catering and Boscos Squared. 

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

The Beer Flows

Chuck Skypeck, co-founder of Boscos and its master brewer with 18 years in the business, feels strongly that locally made beer should be available in area bars and restaurants. He says he finds it hard to believe that Memphis, a city of more than half a million people, has only two breweries — the small-batch operation inside Boscos’ Overton Square restaurant and Boscos’ main brewery on South Main.

That’s why Skypeck started Ghost River Brewing, a subsidiary of Boscos Brewing Company.

The Ghost River beers — Ghost River Golden, Glacial Pale Ale, Brown Ale, as well as seasonal beers, such as a German-style Hefeweizen and a Scottish ale — are draft-only beers and are currently being marketed to local restaurants and bars by Southwestern Distributing.

Ghost River’s beers are brewed with water from the Memphis Sands Aquifer, source for the area’s drinking water.

“Water is the main ingredient in beer,” Skypeck says. “Its quality has a big influence on how the beer tastes, and we have some of the best water available right here.”

The aquifer is a deep segment of saturated sand and gravel, which acts as a natural filter, making the water that trickles through it extremely pure.

“The great thing about Memphis water is its low mineral content,” Skypeck says. “We believe this is ideal water for brewing beer. If you want to change the beer’s character, you can add certain minerals to affect the taste.”

Beers brewed from soft water with a low-mineral content tend to have a milder flavor than those made from hard, mineral-rich water. In Europe, breweries were historically located on sites with consistent water supplies and a characteristic mineral makeup. This explains the many regional beers, and the tradition of adapting the recipes to the shortcomings of the brewing water. Acidic dark malts, for example, were used to neutralize the high alkaline levels of carbonate waters.

Today, the mineral composition of “brewing water” can be controlled scientifically to create a larger variety of beers. Craft breweries, such as Ghost River Brewing, however, treat the brewing water only minimally, if it all.

Ghost River beer is brewed at Boscos’ main brewery downtown. The brewery was inaugurated on New Year’s Eve 2007, when it turned out its first batch of beer, with kegs headed to the Boscos locations that don’t have a brewery on-site.

If you expect bottles rattling past on a conveyor belt, the earthy smell of beer, and foaming brews bubbling in a kettle, you won’t see that here. In fact, the brewery is reminiscent of a milking parlor, minus the cows (although a local farmer does pick up the spent brewer’s grain to use as animal feed). The brewery’s centerpieces are three stainless-steel tanks in which the beer ages for about three weeks. Each tank holds 50 kegs of beer, each a different variety, rotating between the Boscos signature beers and the Ghost River varieties.

“Beer is food, and as the focus shifts more and more to what’s available locally, we are thrilled to contribute a beer that is made in Memphis,” Skypeck says. “Many restaurants and bars that we talked to were excited about the prospect of being able to offer a local beer to their customers, and we hope Memphians will see Ghost River beer on tap at their favorite places soon.”

Although the beer will only be available in restaurant and bars, individual kegs for private parties can be purchased through Southwestern.

And while Skypeck is tapping the aquifer for water, he’s giving back, too. Ghost River Brewing donates a portion of the proceeds of every barrel of beer sold to the Wolf River Conservancy.

ghostriverbrewing.com

Mark your calendar and grab your steins for two upcoming beer events.

The Memphis Zoo is holding its second Zoo Brew on August 29th, from 6 to 9 p.m. Anyone who’s 21 and older can sample beers from around the world on the grounds of the zoo. The event includes appetizers, an exclusive pottery show by Hayden Hall, and live entertainment.

Price for the event is $10 for zoo members and $15 for nonmembers. For more information, visit memphiszoo.org.

Tickets for this year’s Art on Tap at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens will go on sale on August 18th. The event is on September 5th, from 6 to 9 p.m., and advance tickets are $40 for members and $50 for nonmembers.

All guests must be 21 or older to attend. Visit dixon.org. for more information.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

The Beer Is Near

Grab your beer stein: Two local events will be keeping beer enthusiasts busy in the next couple weeks.

During the Memphis Zoo’s first Zoo Brew on Friday, August 31st, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., visitors can sample beers from around the world. On tap for the evening are more than 20 beers from Southwestern Beverage Distributing, including Avery White Rascal, San Miguel, Singha Lager, Yazoo, and Murphy’s Irish Stout.

The evening will also include live entertainment from Jeremy Sharder’s Quintessentials and a sale of mixed-media paintings and sculptural clay pieces from local artists Susan Inman and Skippy Gronauer. Proceeds from the art sales will benefit the zoo.

Tickets for the event are $15 for zoo members and $20 for non-members. All guests must be 21 or older to attend.

Art on Tap at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens started 10 years ago with only 100 guests and 20 beer varieties. Today, the event has become the Dixon’s second-largest fund-raiser.

At this year’s Art on Tap on Friday, September 7th, from 6 to 9 p.m., more than 125 beers — microbrew, import, and domestic — will be provided by local beverage distributors as well as Boscos Brewery and the Bluff City Brewers and Connoisseurs. Blue Coast Burrito, Elfo’s, and Jimmy’s Chicago Style Pizza, Dogs, & Beef will supply the food.

Tickets are $25 for Dixon members, $35 for nonmembers, and “Young at Art” members are admitted free. All guests must be 21 or older to attend.

Fresh Slices Sidewalk Café & Deli, a popular neighborhood restaurant on Overton Park Avenue will open a second location in Cordova in September.

The deli is a family affair, started by Ike Logan and supported by his wife Willie and daughter Tasha. Although Fresh Slices is Logan’s first venture as a restaurateur, he’s been in the business for 35 years. “My dad started as a busboy at Bennigan’s, worked his way up to cook, [then] manager, and eventually became area director,” Tasha explains.

Ike Logan’s desire to have his own restaurant was strong, but it took the whole family to finally make it work. “We were trying to find the right location, and then one night at 2 a.m. after a party, I drove down Overton Park and saw this beautiful space,” Tasha remembers. “I called my dad immediately and made him get out of bed to look at the building right then.”

Fresh Slices has been on Overton Park for four years now, serving an extensive selection of sandwiches, burgers, entrées, and salads. While Willie Logan will reign over both locations, Tasha will lead the Midtown restaurant as her dad gets the slightly larger Cordova Fresh Slices off the ground.

Fresh Slices, 1585 Overton Park Ave.(725-1001). Opening soon at 8566 Macon

Circa is offering a special treat for diners who plan to take their family to see The Lion King, which is playing at the Orpheum through September 16th.

Between 5 and 6 p.m. on show nights, guests can enjoy Circa’s three-course Lion King Prix Fixe Menu for $30 per person plus tax and gratuity. Kids can select from the three-course Cub’s Menu for $12 per child plus tax and gratuity. In addition, valet parking at Circa is just $5, so you can walk to the Orpheum after dinner.

Your choices on the menu: lobster and crab bisque, the chef’s soup du jour, or a petite mixed salad for the first course; a six-ounce filet mignon bordelaise, grilled blackened fish du jour, or Tasmanian King Salmon for the main course; and fresh strawberry sponge cake or Circa’s “Il Diplomatico” (dark chocolate mousse layered with coconut rum cake) for dessert accompanied by a selection of teas or coffee. The kids can start off with a selection of fresh vegetables and fruit and then choose between chicken à la Lion King with potato purée, macaroni ‘n’ cheese, or a pair of beef sirloin sliders with pommes frites. They can end the meal with a choice of homemade sorbets or ice creams.

Circa, 119 S. Main (522-1488)