Something Followed, Something New: Burial Beer (Asheville, NC)/Fonta Flora (Morganton, NC)

Stray Local, an Americana/Folk group based out of Wilmington, NC,
provided some toe-tapping music at Morganton's Fonta Flora Brewery

One thing that drew us to Asheville in the first place was their status as a craft beer mecca. Our first two visits, within one year of each other, introduced us to a nice swath of the area's craft brewers, including a very early visit to Wicked Weed Brewing, Green Man Brewing, Asheville Brewing, and the Brevard-located production facility of Colorado-based Oskar Blues.

You can expect a lot of changes with a four-year gap between the second and third visits, and sure enough, that turned out to be the case. Out of the big names, New Belgium and Sierra Nevada (as much as we tried, we couldn't make a companion trip to their Mills River location to pair up with our Chico trip a reality) have joined Oskar Blues as national breweries setting up shop in the area. Wicked Weed has also joined the big boys with their purchase by AB InBev in their so-called "High End" division, a move which shocked many in the craft beer world. And there are plenty of new breweries that have joined old guard members like Wedge, Highland, and French Broad.

With our time limited, we decided to drop by a brewery that impressed us greatly on our last visit and one brewery on the outskirts of town that has been impressing with their brews made from numerous locally-produced ingredients.

Going Off The Rails on the Wholesome Train: Acre

Looking back at that Columbus Underground "Best New Restaurants of 2014 List" that I had mentioned on a post last year on Bareburger, I noticed just how many of these restaurants have become or were regulars in our rotation.  Of course, there's local phenomenon Hot Chicken Takeover, but in addition I found the now (sadly) departed Double Comfort, the Brewery District hot spot Arepazo Latin Grill (I have blogged about their first two locations in Downtown and Gahanna), and Clintonville's Harvest Bar & Kitchen, an offshoot of the original Harvest Pizzeria in German Village.

Also on this list was an eatery that for some reason had for some reason slipped through the cracks in terms of a blog post in the locally-focused, fast-casual eatery known as Acre.

Ice Cream Chronicles (Year 3): In Search of Liquid Cold

In one of my favorite science-fiction/action movies ever in Terminator 2, liquid nitrogen played a positively shattering role in what turned out to be the penultimate scene before the finale. The film's antagonist, the experimental T-1000 shape-shifting, liquid-metal Terminator (played menacingly by Robert Patrick), unrelenting in his pursuit to kill the movie's young hero John Connor (Edward Furlong), gets a tanker truck's worth (a postively frozen -320.44°F degrees worth, that is) of this unique substance, which figuratively paralyzes it from moving farther.

The older Terminator model reprogrammed and sent back to protect Connor, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, takes aim at his now frozen-in-place nemesis with his gun and utters perhaps the most famous line in the movie, "Hasta la vista, baby." One big kablam! later, the T-1000 blows apart into hundreds of little pieces.

Little did I know then at the time of the movie's release in 1991, however, that liquid nitrogen could do far more tastier tricks. This chilly fluid helps the folks who run Piccadilly Artisan Creamery in the Cleveland area create some of the more unique ice cream in the state.

Don't Throw This One Back: Little Fish Brewing Company (Athens, OH)

On the outskirts of Athens, Little Fish Brewing is easy to drive past on
State Route 682, but may well be an easy place to bike to in the near future.

The name recognition and success of Jackie O's Pub and Brewery almost made it a given that the craft beverage business would grow in its surround climes of Athens, Ohio. Indeed, West End Cider, focusing on the cider and mead side of the ledger, opened their doors to the public in May of 2014. On the craft beer side, Devil's Kettle Brewing set up shop in the north side of this college town with the debut of their taproom this June. Shortly after Devil's Kettle's opening, fellow microbrewer Little Fish Brewing Company opened their doors to craft beer lovers in July, and we were able to check their facility during their recent first-ever bottle release.

Started by local Athens' residents Sean White and Jimmy Stockwell, Little Fish Brewing occupies a warehouse type building out on Armitage Road on the outskirts of Athens near the University Estates subdivision. This location lends something of a clue about one of the main points of focus for this brewery - sustainability with a local focus. While the brewery may not be the easiest to get to by car (in fact, you can easily drive right by it if you're not paying attention), a planned extension of a nearby bike path (set to end on the grounds of the brewery) provides incentive for those within biking distance to use pedal power for a visit. In fact, their menu sports a "Bike Beer" red ale, a nicely drinkable, gluten-reduced(!) quaff brewed to celebrate the new bike spur.

One need not fret if you do have to drive here, like us Columbus-based visitors: Little Fish sports a fairly large parking lot, with additional off-facility parking located within easy walking distance.

Little Fish's sports a wide-ranging beer list in the taproom portion of
its production space; food is provided by a rotating fleet of food trucks

Other hints of this same focus are seen on that very same beer menu: the brewery's branded hoodies and other clothing are touted as organic, various brews are brewed with locally-based producers such as the pilsner (corn from local organic producer Shagbark Seed and Mill) and Poisson Grand (a saison using honey from Faller Foods.)  In the back, a garden with a variety of fruit and berry trees and bushes are evident: plans are to use the fruit in future brewing ventures. This locally-oriented focus gets down to the bare basics of brewing: as noted in this article posted in relation to the Tenth Annual Ohio Brew Week in Athens, Stockwell's microbiology background will be put to good use to cultivate their own "bacteria and wild yeast to put in their...beers."

This garden also adds a family-friendly aspect to the facility, with lots of space for the kids to run and romp, benches for seating, a BBQ grill, and games (including perhaps the biggest-sized Jenga game I've ever seen in person.)  While at least half of the interior is devoted to the production-side of the equation, more seating is available inside. as well both adult- and kid-oriented games and toys. Using a model seen with a lot of Columbus-area breweries, Little Fish sports a rotating group of food trucks to provide grub for patrons (on the day of our visit, Cajun and Creole was the order of the day via the Cajun Clucker.)  In general, the whole vibe of this space is relaxed and geared toward person-to-person interaction.

Little Fish Brewing's bottle-released ales were the focus of our first visit

While Little Fish sports the gamut of beer styles, we as newcomers were interested in the tart and farmhouse ale styles being bottle-released that day in special barrel-aged versions and comparing it to their original renditions. In each instance, the aging from either cabernet and chardonnay barrels gave what we thought were already very solid renditions of a saison, berliner weisse and biere de garde much more complex and appealing taste profiles, and enough so to take home a bottle of each style. In addition, we sampled the previously mentioned Bike Beer as well as a tasty pawpaw rendition of a finalist for the our favorite-named beer of the year, the Reinheitsgewhat!? (a playful stab at the Reinheitsgebot, a Bavarian purity law that states beer can only be brewed with malt, hops, yeast and water.)

Little Fish may be relatively small in size; however, the brews we sampled this day and the family-friendly, relaxed atmosphere makes us think that this catch is a keeper for the longer term.

Little Fish Brewing Company
8675 Armitage Road
Athens, OH 45701
740-589-7364
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The Ice Cream Chronicles (Pt. 2): Jeni's From The Block

The Sign in front of Jeni's Clintonville location

In 2011, the San Francisco Bay Area was in the midst of a gourmet ice cream boom, led by the shops such as Humphry Slocombe, Bi-Rite Creamery and Ici.  It was during this time when I heard that Columbus' own ice cream maven and Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams founder Jeni Britton Bauer was having a book signing at Omnivore Books in San Francisco.

I had just been introduced to Jeni's line of ice creams earlier in the month during a visit of my then long-distance girlfriend and current spouse.  We had closed out a "date night" with a Jeni's "One Night in Bangkok" sundae, a gloriously delicious combo of bananas and Bangkok peanut ice cream, spiced with cayenne pepper, and topped by caramel sauce, whipped cream, cherries, chopped Spanish peanuts, and a fortune cookie.

My better half already was into making ice cream at home, and I thought a signed book would be a terrific surprise for her upcoming birthday.  Two thoughts crossed my mind: could I make it to the signing considering rush hour traffic and lack of parking (not a chance; incidentally, she still did get the book for her birthday courtesy of her mom) and could Jeni's actually make an impression outside of Ohio?

Well, three years later, we know the answer.  Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream pints are now available in stores across the country, including the Bay Area. Jeni's stores are now established in several major cities around the U.S.  Ms. Bauer has also just released her second book and is now in the middle of her second nationwide book tour.

Jeni's Mock Turtle Sundae honoring aviation pioneer Jerrie Mock

As hinted in my previous post, Jeni's has become one of my favorite Ice cream shops, with ten total retail locations in the Columbus metro area.  Their prices are on the higher end of the price scale as ice cream goes (just under $5 for two scoops to near $8 for basic sundaes; additional cost for sauces, waffle cones or their featured "Gravel" toppings.)   However, those prices have not stopped people from flocking to Jeni's stores to sample their often unique perennial and seasonal flavor offerings.

My spouse and I have sampled numerous creations from Jeni's and have rarely had a scoop that had a "hmmm, that's just okay" impression.  Over this time, both my spouse and I have made it routine to sample frozen confections from elsewhere, especially from shops in the San Francisco Bay Area.  We're both unanimous that Jeni's more than holds its own.

That got me to thinking: what ice cream shop that I've tried in my former stomping grounds did Jeni's remind me of the most?

After some thought, I gave that distinction to Humphry Slocombe, mainly for their own wild combinations that many would never figure would work in an ice cream. Interestingly enough, the owner of Humphry Slocombe, Jake Godby, was raised in nearby Zanesville (as detailed in this New York Times article), which only adds to this state's reputation for producing great ice cream.  However, the owners of these two nationally recognized stores take different tacks in regard to their frozen concoctions.

Godby takes a daring, more provocative approach in tweaking ice cream and food conventions in general; as stated in the New York Times article, Godby's "ice cream addresses two major grievances in the contemporary culinary scene: boredom with menus that all look the same, and irritation with the orthodoxy governing how we’re all supposed to eat (local, sustainable, organic, etc.)"  This notion is further reflected the over-the-top names/flavors featured at his shop such as Prosciutto, Government Cheese and the flagship Secret Breakfast.

In contrast, Bauer takes the more conventional (as gourmet ice cream goes,) more measured and more inviting approach. As she has stated in interviews such as this one for Scoopalicious, flavors which make the final roster are developed and tested via team effort, and has firm belief that adults and especially kids are open to new flavor ideas beyond the typical ice cream shop fare.  She is also firmly into sourcing locally at all her locations; for example, her Nashville location has partnerships with local brewer Yazoo and an excellent distiller that my spouse and I discovered on a trip into Kentucky, Corsair Artisan.

This measured approach is also reflected in the appearance of Jeni's retail stores, of which I have visited several.  Yes, each one has its own individual touches based on the architecture and structure of its housing building. However, there are certain touches ubiquitous to each one (chalkboard menus, neatly scripted and labeled ice cream descriptions and display cases, neatly manicured seating and working areas etc.) that lets everyone know that you just haven't walked into just any ordinary ice cream parlor.

Well, what about those flavors?  It's really impossible to pick out a favorite for me, so maybe it's more instructive to demonstrate my experience with a flavor that I would have looked at with a bit of askance in the past.  

After sampling the very nice Petit Saison by local brewer Rockmill Brewery for dinner, I had business over in Grandview Heights at local coffee roaster Stauf's.  When I passed by nearby Jeni's, the muggy conditions and mindset (I had had Jeni's newly released Pineapple Upside Down Cake flavor on my mind for several days beforehand) meant little resistance to drop by and sample one or two scoops.

Lo and behold, I had not known that Jeni's had also released a Saison with Sunflower Seeds and Flax flavor in collaboration with Rockmill.  I asked for a spoon sampler, and my tongue was coated with a wonderful cornucopia of sour, sweet and salty goodness melting around the unexpected but welcomed texture in the pepita and sunflower seeds.  This scoop was easily the taste highlight of the evening, and only confirmed that, indeed, Jeni's is doing something rather splendid.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams (featured locations only)
4247 North High St  (Clintonville - Google Maps)
Columbus, OH 43214
(614) 447-0500
- and -
1281 Grandview Avenue (Grandview Heights - Google Maps)
Columbus, OH 43212
(614) 488-2680
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