5 Seasons and the Start of Another

November 13 - 14, 2012

I  took a quick trip down to Atlanta to catch my favorite team, the Duke Blue Devils, in a huge match-up with the Kentucky Wildcats to kick off the 2012/13 college basketball season.  Thanks to my long-time friend and past contributor to this blog, Craig, for going along with me (even though he's an NC State fan) in place of my wife, Ashlee, who was staying with her mother due to illness.  Since Craig is a fan of good beer as well, we made sure to incorporate a bit of that into our trip as well.

We toasted the trip the night before at my house with a couple of pints of Bearwalker Maple Brown from Jackalope Brewing in Nashville.  I had gotten a growler of it at the Mt. Juliet Beer store after trying it at a new local establishment the day before called JB's Pour House over on the east end of Hermitage.  I also had a pint of Jackalope's Thunder Ann Pale Ale while at JB's.  While it's a nice place overall, and they boast at having 36 beers on tap, other than the Jackalope products, I can't say I was overly impressed with JB's overall selection.  That's too bad since I just heard our local WOW Wingery is closing in November 2012 which is very sad. That's the place where my friend Nate and I got our photos on the wall for drinking 50 different beers.  The owner and our friend, Brad, took great strides in bringing good craft beer to the area and we are going to miss it.  The place is becoming a "Piranhas Bar & Grill" and supposedly Brad will still be a partner and is going to try and keep the good beer vibe going, but we shall see since the Piranhas in downtown Nashville is terrible in terms of beer selection.

On to Atlanta....

I got a great rate at the downtown Hilton and it was just a quick cab ride over to the Taco Mac that is built into the Phillips Arena next door to the Georgia Dome where the game was being played for some pregame food...and beer...of course.  Taco Mac has an amazing selection of beer on draft and always something new and interesting. On this visit I had the Rogue Yellow Snow IPA (excellent!) and then Atlanta's own Red Brick Brewing offering, the Hoplanta IPA (also very good).  I had a sip of Craig's order, the Vanilla Gorilla Smoked Porter also from Red Brick and it was very tasty.



They closed off half the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to make a fairly intimate
early-season college basketball setting for the State Farm Champions Classic. 
Tickets were reasonable and we also got to see a great match-up of
Kansas vs. Michigan State in the first game for the same price with
MSU pulling the upset in a close game down to the wire.

It was cool to see ESPN's College Gameday broadcasting live before, during and
after the game.  In this shot analysts, Digger Phelps, (left) and Duke's own. Jay
Bilas, discuss one of the two games going on.  We even got on TV a bit as
Craig's family spotted us in the background a couple times during the pregame show.



Our seats were decent at about 50 rows from the court and on the aisle.  Except for the one annoying UK fan behind us, it was a nice set-up.

The win was sweet as a Duke fan especially given the fact that the place was overrun with UK fans and the especially-rude one behind us got a nice big serving of "Shut Up" delivered hot and fresh to him.




A little bonus we found on the way home in north Atlanta was the Big Wood Forest Preserve in the suburb of Sandy Springs.  We took a great morning hike through this lush and surprisingly large suburban oasis.



Our true reason for being in Sandy Springs was to have an early lunch (and a couple brews) at 5 Seasons Brewing before heading back north.  This is a nice brewpub with a large patio and deck that I am sure stay busy in the warmer months.  I had their seasonal Pumpkin Head Lager which was pretty good followed by a room-temperature serving (they were having cooler issues this morning) of the Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale which was actually very good.  Thanks to Groupon.com for the deal that brought us here as well that got us 4 beers and two appetizers for half price.

Dead Buffalo Soliders

October 20 - 22, 2012

Some friends and I recently took our 3rd Annual G.A.M.E. (Grown-Ass Man Extravaganza) trip to see the Tennessee Titans play on the road way up in Buffalo, New York.  We checked out Niagara Falls while we were in the area while staying just across the Canadian border.  There was also some pretty good beer found along the way as well.



Syndicate Brewing in Niagara Falls, Ontario, is a great little brewpub and was just a few minutes from our hotel.  Their Sinister Sam IPA was very good.  Their seasonal Pumpkin 3.14 (Pi - get it) was decent as well.  Their food was outstanding.  I know buffalo wings are famous just south of here, but the ones here are pretty darn good.



Go Titans and the MINIVAN BAR is now open!  Tailgating was a lot of fun in the suburban setting of Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY,  just outside Buffalo.  Notice the growler of Sinister Sam IPA"smuggled" back across the border from Canada among several other libations.

 

We took a ride on the famous Maid of the Mist to get an up-close and soggy look at Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of Niagara.  Even our rain ponchos were in support of breast cancer awareness.

After the game we decided to find some of the edibles that make Buffalo famous.  They say there are none better than at Duff's and I have to agree.  They were excellent.



The view from our room at the Double Tree Fallsview was pretty spectacular.  We also got a chance to go up in the Skylon Tower, silhouetted in this shot, for a bird's eye view of Niagara Falls.



The game was a  thriller with the Titans pulling out a win at the end of the game by a score of 35-34.  Our lower-bowl end zone seats were pretty good and the Bills fans for the most part were pretty good folks to us. The weather couldn't have been much nicer.

On our way back to the airport in Buffalo for our trip home, we stopped at the Lake Effect Diner for brunch.  I heard of the place thru the great Food Network TV Show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and it totally met our expectations with great food, friendly service and even some good beer - I had a bottle of the Oktoberfest Lager from Great Lakes Brewing over in Cleveland, Ohio, which was decent.

A few more beer notes:

I had a bottle of Lakefront Brewing's (Milwaukee,, WI)  Fixed Gear Red Ale at the Midway Airport in Chicago on our connection going to Buffalo.  It was OK.

Thanks to my friends Wayne, Chris and John for coming along on the trip.  Can't wait to do it again next season!

To San Fran and Back Again - A west coast trip and other updates

We took a trip out San Francisco plus a bit more of Northern California with several friends over the Labor Day weekend for an early celebration of my wife's birthday.  I had a few beer highlights on the trip but not as many as I planned since I just didn't have time to visit too many brewpubs while in the area.

On our first night there we had dinner at Magnolia Pub & Brewery on famous Haight Street near our rental house.  Their speciality was Belgium-style beers which I have said many times are not my favorite.  But I did try their Tillies Union Ale on tap which was decent.  They also had some "guest" taps and I tried the Bombay by Boat IPA draught by Moonlight Brewing over in Santa Roza and it was great.

A few other new-to-me beers that I had while on the trip was Stone Brewing's Cali-Belgiaque IPA at NOPA Restaurant.  I split this pint bottle with our friend, Roman, who lives out here which was good because I wasn't crazy about it.  I had a bottle of Napa Brewing's Lost Dog Red Ale at Napa Valley Burgers after a bicycle ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to the lovely seaside town of Sausilito.  It was decent.  On our last day there I had a bottle of California's Marin Brewing's IPA at Q Restaurant and Wine Bar, a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives recommendation.  The food was excellent and the beer was pretty good.

A couple of non-beer related items of late worth noting include:

I was able to catch a show from actor and comedian, Jay Mohr "(Bob Sugar is a child!") at Zanies Comedy Club in Nashville on Tuesday, September 25.  Thanks to my friend, Danny, for going with me as he filled in for my wife, Ashlee, who couldn't make it since she was in Chattanooga with her ailing mother.

I also attended the SOLD OUT Henry Rollins' show at The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville on October 12.  This was Henry's stop in Tennessee's capital for his Capitalism Tour which hit every U.S. capital before election day.  Whether you agree with his politics or not, you have to admire a spoken word artist who can go 2 hours and 40 minutes without an intermission or even a sip of water.  Amazing!  Thanks to my friends Mike and Wayne (filling in for Ashlee again) for attending with me.

Hill City IPA @ Good Dog, Chattanooga, TN
November 2, 2012.  Very hoppy!