SeanMike

The Jai Alai is a great beer, and I can't wait to see the wailing of my friends who want it but hate crossing the river.

Earlier today Boundary Stone tweeted that you should "ACT NOW" against the Tipped Minimum Wage bill:

https://twitter.com/BoundaryStoneDC/status/402856058005114880

That set off some outrage, and Fritz Hahn pointed out that it's the RAMW's position:

https://twitter.com/fritzhahn/status/402889195645333504

I don't know anything about the bill at all. I'm about to start Googling. That being said, I'd be interested what other people think of this situation. My gut instinct is to support the bill, but it'd be interesting to see (for instance) what bars I visit that pay under the new minimum amount and which pay more...

EDIT: here's a link to the Washington City Paper article about it:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/looselips/2013/11/18/group-wants-a-minimum-wage-ballot-initiative/

Try getting 10 emails like this a day!

My average is pretty close to that. Hers is one of the few where the PR person responded. (And I got to tease Derek about it on Saturday night.)

Hopefully later today we'll have an official "policy" post on it on the site.

Probably the grandaddy of them all and longtime claimant to the title of World's Strongest Beer (until the relatively recent alcohol percentage wars got out of hand): Samichlaus.  I haven't had it in several years, but recall really enjoying it (and I'm not a general fan of holiday beers).

Samichlaus anecdote: one night, at the tail end of a long night of drinking, my friend Roy discovered that FireWorks had one bottle (or so) left of Samichlaus and ordered it for our group to share.

He and I loved it; two other members of our party directly blame the "Santa Claus" for making them throw up all night.

(And not the beers, shots, wine, etc., earlier in the evening...)

I haven't tried the Belle Meade yet, though their PR person did send us a "you should do a story on us, here's some pictures and descriptions" email that always pisses me off.

(If you actually READ our blog, you see we don't run that kind of story. We only do stories where we A: visit the distillery or B: run into a product THAT WE HAVE TRIED and like it a lot. I asked the PR lady if she actually read our blog and why she thought we should care and just got a "well, it's popular in DC, and Derek Brown likes it". Sigh.)

I am a huge fan of the Four Roses bourbons. In my opinion, they're some of the best values on the market. Same with Henry McKenna bottled-in-bond. I'll be doing a post on the blog today or tomorrow talking about that GQ chart and my experiences with the brands listed on it.

I had the Scaldis Noel the other night at Rustico in Ballston. Quite tasty, though that 12% really packs a punch.

Since he's not old enough, to everyone who made the SF BatKid's Make-a-Wish so awesome yesterday! 

Speaking of bev directors and NRG, is Steve Warner still with them?  I haven't seen him around in a while and miss him.

Last I heard he had left the industry completely.

Liked instantly for the "Potato Latke Porters" line.

I had a good bit of the Sam Adams Winter Lager the other night. Like most Sam Adams brews, it was solid - not "OMG SO GOOD" but solidly drinkable for a bit while eating wings and watch UVA scrap with VCU on the TVs at B-Dubs.

Why is this? 

Two things:

1. Their history of lawsuits. They're very litigious, it seems, about the Rogue name. I know there are times where you need to be, but they seem (IMHO) to go overboard with it.

2. The way they treat their employees. This came to light (to me) recently when they were trying to hire a new IT person. The skill and time requirements compared to pay were ridiculous, they bragged that they don't plan or budget, and on the site talking about the ad (I want to say Reddit, but I can't truly remember) a number of former employees described horrible working conditions.

Honestly, Rogue used to be good, but I've seen their representation compared to other "micro"breweries in this area plummet, and I'm fine with that. I'd much rather support ones that haven't tried to sue people I know, or aren't so busy trying to be hip and cool that they're abusive to their employees. There's no beer of theirs that I've had that I miss at all, and their spirits (again, IMHO) have always stunk.

It kind of made me feel good. I spent 5 years working as a cashier and bagger at a grocery store, and never had someone go off on me like that...

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/11/thousands_come_to_defense_of_clay_wegmans_employee_with_aspergers_syndrome_after.html

FYI, Chef Ed's last night was ... errr ... last night, according to Facebook/Twitter.

There are a number of bars that will have this beer on tap - for instance, the last few times I was at Ragtime they had it, and I'm pretty sure so did FireWorks - and that's just in Clarendon.

Too bad it's by Rogue...the only brewery I completely refuse to buy from ever again.

:(

I want to put in a kind word for our own Joe Riley of Ace Beverage (Joe, I'm sorry, I don't know what your official title is).

A couple weeks ago, I wrote Joe and asked him to assemble me a case of various upscale liquors, two of each so I could try one, and "bunker" the other; along with a few bottles of bitters for me to have just in case I ever decide to start making cocktails.

I named an approximate total price I wanted to spend, and he came up with what I believe is the finest selection of liquors in that price range that anyone could have concocted. If you want to begin (or supplement) a "home liquor cabinet," I would start by writing Joe Riley. While I picked up my goodies from him yesterday, we both agreed that we're a couple of grumps, basically misanthropes, but if everyone in the world was like Joe, there would be no need - he's one of the good ones, and I feel lucky to know him.

Cheers,

Rocks

Quoted in its entirety due to truth. Joe is Da Man.

I went to Dead Rabbit for the first time last night. The cocktails were quite good. We got there in time for the $1 oyster special (5-7 M-F upstairs, IIRC) and while they were good, they were rather poorly shucked.

Downstairs, it was hectic but kind of fun.

If anyone decides to head up there, give me a heads up so I can say hi.

Damn. I'll be up that way tomorrow, though probably wouldn't have stayed that late. How was it?

Doesn't the putting together that board game count as weightlifting? 

Well, I can use it to anchor my feet when doing sit-ups.

I had fun! I am having less fun today, but that may be because I stayed up until 2:30 AM drinking beer and putting together my new board game.

[Random thank you to all of our members.]

No, thank YOU, for not posting those nudes of me, no matter how artistic they are.

It's about 1.7 miles from Ballston according to Google, so I'm just going to walk down there leaving here around 5:25 or so. I'll see y'all there! (If I don't, I'll be the guy quietly sobbing in the corner about being stood up again.) Or I'll try to get a table - there's 4 of us right now?

Friday's dinner, Sunday's too!

Heh. Before reading this I had done just that.

Went there last night with Kara Newman and Amber Pfau (note: Amber picked up the bill, and she's a publicist for it - I was invited by Kara to join them). Adam was working.

The menus were gorgeous, the drinks delicious, I didn't think it was that bright down there, and we split some appetizers - fried dumplings, spring rolls, spicy cashews. I let Kara and Amber order (as I "wasn't hungry" until the food showed up) but since I haven't been to Doi Moi, I can't say if it was the same menu or not.

My meal at Rose's Luxury was one of the best ones I've had in quite a while. I showed up right at opening to go sit at the back bar with Bobbi, who I knew from Liberty Tavern. I also got to say hi to my friends Elizabeth (who is a server there) and Dave (one of the cooks, formerly of the Passenger).

I wasn't certain about it but decided to start with the pork sausage, habanero, and lychee salad. When it came I dubbed it the "anti-social salad" because I would've stabbed anybody who interrupted me from eating it. I've put a lot of things in my mouth this year but this may have been the single best thing of the year, I kid you not.

Bobbi sent me a single Malpeque oyster with dark and stormy granita. I'd had that at their pop-up at Hogo but it was better here - much better taste and "pop" to the granita.

Next I had the smoked peach baby back ribs. Since whenever I usually have ribs they are dry-rubbed I'm always surprised if they are sauced. Still, these were very tasty, just the right level of tenderness. Despite being better than so many other dishes I've had recently, they were the lowest point of the menu that night (which is like saying I got all A+s on my report card except for one A).

Finally, I had the pickle-brined fried chicken, honey, benne seed. Holy crap. That was some beautiful, delicious chicken, especially with a dash of Crystal hot sauce.

I accompanied these with a couple of their cocktails including an experimental one that all came out very delicious, and washed down the fried chicken with what I felt was appropriate - a High Life.

Seriously folks, get there. Eat well. Go with friends so you can order more stuff but don't let them steal your lychee salad.

Any time is fine with me. Also, Mondays are fried chicken nights there...just in case you didn't know.

(I haven't been to the Columbia Pike one so I'm quite looking forward to it.)