Who Let The Dogs Out: Thirsty Dog Brewing (Akron, OH)/Brewdog USA(Canal Winchester, OH)

Having your business go to the dogs is hardly a bad thing if you're in the brewing world; in fact, it may actually be a boon to the bottom line. 

Recent travels to the Sacramento area brought me in contact with two very dog-friendly venues; my return to Buckeye State put my spouse and I firmly into the canine world with a trek up to Akron's Thirsty Dog Brewing and the debut event for Scottish-import Brewdog, who are setting up their distribution and taproom facilities in the southern portion of the Columbus metro.

First Impressions: "Looks like a pretty neat red-brick industrial facility."

Reality: Established in 1997, Akron's Thirsty Dog has some serious history embedded within its production facility, lying within the historic Burkhardt Brewery facility. Founded by Wilhelm Burkhardt in the 1870s, his wife Magaretha broke convention and guided the brewery after her husband's death in 1881 well into Prohibition. 

After surviving Prohibition through a combination of their soda pop, real estate, and commodities business lines, the company returned to brew its beer for another two decades under the Burkhardt name and for a few more years under the ownership of Cincinnati's Burger Brewing. In 1964, Burger closed the Akron facility, which sat idle until Thirsty Dog set up shop in the existing space.

A nod to the pioneering members of the Burkhardt brewing legacy on the doors leading to the bathrooms - replacing the standard men and women placards are portraits of Wilhelm and Magaretha themselves.

Larking For A Good Cause: Guest DJ at CD102.5

Confirmation, notes, and other important info for a guest DJ stint

In many ways, radio has gone the way of other old-school media forms like television and newspaper. Once the only game in town for miles around, radio has run up against competing forms of media, especially with the rise of the internet. In addition, the way music has reached the listening public has diversified, sucking away the listeners and the corresponding advertisement dollars.

This has lead to consolidation within the radio market. Indeed, it is hard not to hear a radio station identification on the hour without entities like Clear Channel, Cumulus or Disney being mentioned. In California, some of the stations I grew up listening to or learning about (The Quake KQAK or Los Angeles' KROQ) are now part of corporate entities for the most part. Numerous mom and pop-styled operations also now broadcast over that very same Internet, due to its relatively lesser cost.

From listening to those stations, I became involved a couple decades or so ago (both as a deejay and the news division) with a completely independent format station back in college (I'm happy to say my former home forges onward more strongly than ever, with even more antenna wattage and an actual record label promoting local music to its name.) Numerous sessions in the listening room to prepare for shows were invaluable in expanding my knowledge of music styles I had been unfamiliar with prior such as reggae, folk and hardcore. Only a huge case of "broke-ass-college-student" syndrome kept my record collection modest, but I am happy with what I was able to get my hands on during those halcyon days.

Startups and Serendipity (Pt. 1): The Commissary

Ever since I've moved to Columbus, I've become more intimately aware of and participated more in various crowdfunding efforts. These campaigns in general have ranged from the very practical (needed repairs on the food truck for local Jewish-inspired cuisine purveyor Challah!) to the fanciful (the tweak-your-nose-at-the-crowdfunding-concept Potato Salad campaign of Zack Danger Brown), from the getting your feet wet (the thriving Land Grant Brewing began as a Kickstarter effort under the Oval Brewing banner) to the getting your feet back under you (the Go Fund Me efforts related to the Ohio Deli and Union Street fires in Columbus and Athens, respectively.)

Two recent efforts that both the spouse and I have been quite enthused about involve both a startup and an expansion; this post covers the former.

The Commissary (which I wrote about in this previous post) founded by Kate Djupe, a vehicle that would assist local food-oriented individuals and businesses in starting up, enhancing, producing or experimenting with their product lines or services. The visibility of this campaign was by far less sexy in comparison with the high-flung lark of the previously mentioned potato salad effort, but the eventual groundswell of support pushed Djupe's vision to full funding.

Since its grand opening party in November of 2014, The Commissary has settled into its mission quite well, offering series of classes, pop-up dinners, community events, entrepreneurial and other informational meetings available to all interested parties, coupled with fully equipped kitchens and facilities to fit a variety of needs.

The murals that were still in progress at the time of the grand opening
party were more or less completed by the time of their Fat Tuesday
Po' Boy Party with Chef Lara Yazvac Pipia

The events we have been able to partake in since its opening have proven to be fun and tasty affairs. Chef Lara Yazvac Pipia, owner of Two-Top Consulting and participant in the opening day party Knife Fight (essentially, a variation of cooking competitions like the Iron Chef), provided some yummy goodness to folks on Fat Tuesday in The Commissary's Po' Boy Party pop-up dinner event. Diners were treated to their choice of an artichoke or oyster po' boy sandwich with all the trimmings (red beans and rice, a corn maque choux and bread pudding.) The event was BYOB, so many brought along some adult libations to enjoy with their eats.

Since it was our first time back since the opening day party, we took the chance to see what had been finished up since that visit (the wall murals for the food truck bay) and new developments only hinted at then (the special "Lab" where coffee-roasters and beer-brewers can tinker around with recipes or equipment.)

Dumplings? Why, yes please, especially if it's from Helen.

Shortly afterward, I got the pleasure of participating in a Dumpling Making Class, hosted by Helen Jiao of Worthington's Helen's Asian Kitchen. Helen was an engaging instructor and well-skilled in this fine art, pumping out variations of this creation with lightning speed (plus a few more not hinted at in the instruction sheets) during our couple hours in the kitchen. Many people's first efforts didn't go quite so well, but Helen was there to help and assist we students with a smile, an encouraging word and helpful hints.

Helen showed class participants that the seemingly simple dumpling
is a lot more versatile than one might give it credit for

I had filled up with a quick breakfast before the class, but it probably wasn't necessary considering the sheer number of dumpling variations that were either boiled up or fried from both Helen and her willing students. I definitely left there quite happy, knowing that I had a nice little culinary skill to use in the future, had a full tummy full of delicious dumplings, and had a delightful experience with Helen, courtesy of The Commissary.

For a list of upcoming classes, dinners and other events at The Commissary, please check out this link or check out their web-links below.

The Commissary
1400 Dublin Rd (Marble Cliff)
Columbus, OH 43215
E-Mail: feedback@thecommissarycolumbus.com
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