Subject: Beverages

• Pairing Off: Microwave Popcorn

  November 12, 2008

• Pairing Off: Turkey TV Dinners

  Photo: Patrick Michels There are, essentially, two rules to Thanksgiving—well, three if you include football: turkey and lots of it. Of course, not everyone makes it to the big family gathering. Police and firefighters must remain on duty, truck drivers and…um…others, may find themselves stuck with a TV dinner and a bottle of, well, whatever goes with microwave turkey.

  November 19, 2008

• Pairing Off: Grilled Cheese

  For a brief moment I regretted this week's pairing. Not only did my first attempt turn into a smoldering slab of charcoal--oozing orange stuff and damn near sending the smoke alarm into a shrieking fit--but the wine experts I consulted gave me a right grilling."What cheese," asked Lin Sellman of Goody Goody's Addison store. "What kind of bread? With butter or without butter?"Geez."But that's the beauty of grilled cheese," Ben Wilemon of Farpointe Cellars in Frisco chimes in. "You pair to the che

  January 14, 2009

• Hophead Extra: What Does Beer Have In Common With The Blind Salamander?

  Photos by Benjamin Lewis Some people consider it uncouth to begin drinking before 5 p.m. Thankfully, you won't run into any of those spoilsports at the "Blind Salamander Day" tour and tasting at Rahr & Sons brewery tomorrow from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. I took my first tour of the brewery last weekend and sampled the brewery's newest product, Blind Salamander. For some reason, I had the idea that the tour would be very academic and dry, with thirsty tourists suffering through detailed explana

  January 16, 2009

• Pairing Off: General Tsao's Chicken

  Forgive us if we've discussed this popular dish before--which we have. But the general does outrank Colonel Sanders and his non-spicy, unsticky, broccoli-less chicken. Although the spelling may vary, just about every Chinese restaurant with a delivery option cooks up some form of General Tsao's. Typically it's built around fried meat, a sweet and sour "wine" sauce, vegetables and those explosive little dried chili's. Some kitchens prefer a tamer version, however--emphasizing the sugary red

  January 21, 2009

• Hophead: Forget Wine. Try Beer With Your Next Meal.

  Good pies and strong beer. --Poor Robin's Almanack, 1695 (but don't leave out good beef and strong beer, good fish and strong beer, good cheese and strong beer, good ... well, you get the picture.)Maybe I'm just projecting, but it seems that beer is getting a bit more respect these days. With all due respect to my colleagues at Pairing Off, I say a good beer can go just as well, if not better, with a gourmet meal--or an order of General Tsao's chicken--as a much pricier wine. Oceanaire Seafood R

  January 22, 2009

• The Black Pearl

  Dallas just got a new coffee house, and it's a jewel. Well, more like an irritating piece of grit that someone molded into a jewel. The Pearl Cup Espresso Bar & Coffee Shop, the latest on the local independent java scene, opened this month on the still renovating side of North Henderson Avenue. The space is what you'd expect in a modern coffee bar: sleek, but accented with enough brick and wood to conjure beatnik ghosts, as well as displays by local artists. A long bar gets you close to t

  February 25, 2009

• Pairing Off: Frozen Fish Sticks

  Patrick Michels/geishaboy500More than any other "normal" food we've paired with wine thus far in this series, fish sticks scared the bejeezus out of the experts."God," mutters Jim Fleming of Sigel's Elite, shaking his head. "Oh, man," exclaims Majestic's Scott Loudder at the thought. "You come up with some odd ones."But when you think about it, frozen fish sticks are merely a combination of two potentially wine-friendly dishes: fried fish and fish cake, a Japanese favorite probably best served w

  February 25, 2009

• Grounded In Italy

  Nancy Krabill, owner of Snider Plaza's gourmet shop Flavors From Afar, took off for Italy late last fall. And what she brought back from Trieste was much better than a silly t-shirt...and we consider any tee from Italy that doesn't say "Juventus" a waste. But that's an aside. Krabill returned from her jaunt with two new rare coffee beans...by which I mean a lot of two different styles of bean.She doesn't sell coffee brewed from these exotic grounds. Nope--using the same business model as those

  February 27, 2009

• Burning Question: Why Don't Women Drink Whiskey?

  Candleroom bartender Kevin SteinA bartender told us years ago that the sexiest thing a woman can do in a bar is to order good scotch and sip it neat.Hmm...guess we're not the only ones a little past our prime.We seem to recall hearing this from a staff member at the old Whisky Bar--a rather appropriate setting, but also something we can't seem to confirm no matter how hard we rack whatever remains of our gray matter. Our editor keeps referring to "research"--apparently a well-known concept, for

  February 27, 2009

• 10 Questions: Jay Liddell

  Patrick MichelsThe Dallas-based brand ambassador for Macallan's single malt Scotch line is charged with an important mission: introducing whisky to a younger generation...of drinking age, of course.Before moving to this city, he spent seven years in the Big Apple as an events manager (with a small but steady role in One Life to Live). He admits that he was a bourbon fanatic until someone introduced him to the water of life. Now this University of Florida grad drinks Scotch every day. It's the ki

  March 6, 2009

• Wine Rocks

  Rock stars plus alcohol can add up to a lot of things. But when you add organic grocery stores to the rock and booze equation, the sum must certainly change, right? Guess we'll find out when Maynard James Keenan makes an appearance at the Whole Foods Market in Plano from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., March 23 where he'll be signing bottles of wine from his 80-Acre Arizona Stronghold Vineyard. You could write this off as just another rocker's vanity project, but Keenan is an honest-to-goodness vintner. T

  March 19, 2009

• Wines For Everyday Purposes? So We Can Cross Scope Off The Grocery List?

  Hopefully the fact that Black Oak's initials are "B.O." is just an unfortunate coincidence. Beverage distribution behemoth Ben E. Keith is branching out with another vino offering. And unlike the distributor's inaugural label, Solemar, it's not one they make themselves. The family-owned Chateau Diana, located in the Dry Creek Valley region of California, offers three brands. First described in the press release is the "quick to market and value driven" Black Oak, which offers a Cabernet Sauvigno

  March 27, 2009

• Killian's California Red...And White

  Souverain's Winemaker's Reserve Cabernet, one of the wines to be featured at Jasper's tomorrow night.Beer pairing dinners have been the rage of late, but apparently some people still do things the old-fashioned way. Kent Rathbun's Jasper's (7161 Bishop Rd., Plano) is offering a four-course wine pairing dinner with Ed Killian--good name for the maker of a mass produced "Irish" red beer, although he's really the head winemaker of Souverain Winery in California's Alexander Valley. The dinner is $75

  April 7, 2009

• A Big Mix-Up

  April 9, 2009

• Handle The Proof: Losing Our Way In Margaritaville

  pdphoto.orgThis is the sort of thing Dallas does to a margarita.Bartenders should be allowed to tweak cocktail recipes. Creativity, after all, is what sets one place apart from another.Thus when mixologizing a particular cocktail, some may prefer to make the drink stronger, some sweeter. One might add basil where the other chooses mint--all acceptable, to a certain extent. The mixed drink category is, however, susceptible to horrid shortcuts--particularly when it comes to that Tex-Mex staple, th

  May 29, 2009

• Have a Cuppa

  November 20, 2008

• Beer Is Good

  October 16, 2008

• Pairing Off: Cheez Its

  Patrick Michels/Petroleumjelliffe, via FlickrOne thing that becomes clear, as we move through this series, is that pairings can be a bit fussy.The nonchalant approach of discarding a specific recommendation in favor of something easier to find within the same style doesn't always work--at least not when you're dealing with beasts such as processed food. And people who truly understand wine aren't always thoroughly familiar with, say, Spam. Or with this week's subject: Cheez It crackers.Notwithst

  April 29, 2009

• Handle The Proof: Mint Juleps

  Few bartenders know how to make a decent mint julep and few people order the bourbon cocktail. There must be a connection.But which came first? It's a perfect cooler for blazing summer days (which seem unlikely to arrive anytime soon)--icy fresh, with a wicked punch--and one closely tied to the American south. Not all that difficult to make, either...if you don't mind a little muddling.The julep consists of sugar, mint and a lot of bourbon. Obviously it's similar in nature to the wildly popular

  May 1, 2009

• Salum's Offers Free Bites, Drink Specials

  The raspberry martini, one of Salum bartender Leann Berry's specialty drinks.Some may consider the term silly, but Leann Berry is a proud mixologist. Whatever you call the bartender--right down to "hey, you"--say it to Berry during Salum's happy hour 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays.She'll serve margaritas and other tequila cocktails. A rotating selection of mixed drinks--all sans sweet-and-sour--will be featured each week for $6 apiece. Owner/chef Abraham Salum will also be at work,

  May 6, 2009

• Pairing Off: Orange Chicken (From A Grocery Store)

  Patrick MichelsWhen asking about dishes considered unsuitable--or at least unusual--for wine, the experts generally push me toward something fruity and acidic.Makes sense, really: these are the two elements most capable of battling excess salt, wallowing fat and other banes of wine pairing. So when I approached the woman at Majestic on Oak Lawn looking for something to go with orange chicken from a bag picked out of a Tom Thumb frozen food aisle, she almost immediately (after the raised eyebrow

  May 13, 2009

• 10 Questions: James Tidwell Of Four Seasons

  He was the 100th American wine professional to earn the title of Master Sommelier, but that's not the only thing Tidwell can be proud of.After graduating from LSU with a degree in international trade and finance, this son of a small town preacher set off for culinary school at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America. He and Barbara Werley of Pappas Bros. are, in fact, the only CIA grads to earn Master Sommelier designation. Tidwell also founded the Texas Sommelier Conference with Werley's

  May 29, 2009

• Handle The Proof: Maker's Mark Bourbon

  Handle The Proof is our weekly exploration of spirits, cocktails and the culture of fine drinking.Despite the inroads of craft and single barrel brands, bourbon still suffers from somewhat of an image problem. Once when I ordered a round of Booker's in some Uptown bar, for example, a woman snapped her head around in disgust."Bourbon," she grimaced, "smells like old lawyers."Kevin Smith, master distiller for Maker's Mark, understands the impulse for comments like this. In the years after Prohibit

  June 12, 2009

• Hophead: Camping Out In The 'Broo-er's Festival' Tent At Bonnaroo

  Mark C. AustinHophead wasn't the only one thirsty for beer at Bonnaroo last weekend. Hophead spent a four-day weekend at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The music, comedy, people-watching and general chaos of the thing made for an outstanding trip. But one of the highlights was the accompanying "Broo-er's Festival," a biergarten featuring some 20 brewers ranging from tiny local outfits to Anheuser-Busch. As it turned out, two personal favorites from the bash are

  June 18, 2009

• The Weather Is Vine

  Last night, Channel 8 Meteorologist Greg Fields and Rick Boyer of Robert Mondavi hosted a small dinner at Abacus to introduce the legendary California brand's new Solaire line of wines. Boyer, who is gearing up for his 32nd vineyard harvest later in the year, is the winemaker behind the new Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay and Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon...but we were interested in another question entirely: why was a baby-faced local weather personality hosting the party?

  June 24, 2009

• Handle The Proof: A Little Moonshine

  Brian StansberryMoonshine has a reputation not always deserved. Some people, after all, take pride in their craft, however illicit.Yeah, some of it reeks of burnt quinine and poisonous residue. The word brings to mind hardened heroes like Junior Johnson and others hauling jars of dubious spirit. And it's difficult not to think of Ozark (or Appalachian) backwoodsmen lazing on a porch surrounded by jugs bearing that notorious 'XXX.'Maybe I just learned too much from Looney Tunes...But over the yea

  June 26, 2009

• Hophead: Brooklyn Beer In 'The Brooklyn Of Dallas,' And A Question For Local Beer Lovers

  At the Kessler groundbreaking ceremony last weekend, a music critic was overheard calling Oak Cliff "the Brooklyn of Dallas." It's not a new sentiment. According to an 1890 flyer by Dallas Land & Loan Co., "Oak Cliff is to Dallas what Brooklyn is to New York." Whether or not the analogy is accurate, it seemed appropriate to try an offering from Brooklyn Brewery on a recent visit to Eno's Pizza Tavern. Though Eno's beer selection isn't huge, it offers 20-something microbrews, making

  June 25, 2009

• Cheap-o Vino

  Interest you in a stack of wine?Summertime wine buying often leads to an irksome game tug-of-war between your mind and your wallet. You love your friends (well, most of them anyway; at least you want to be nice in hopes you'll get something out of them someday), and you don't want to serve them swill until they've had a few and can't tell the difference.But we're not talkin' high-end entertaining here. Vacation days and impromptu gatherings call for something cheap and chic, and we've found a

  July 8, 2009

• Handle The Proof: Breaking The Mojito Rules

  Patrick MichelsLazare's mojoto lineupThis current generation of American drinkers couldn't really care less about tradition. They shirk the classic cocktails in favor of trendy new flavors: pomegranate martinis, green tea margaritas, acai vodka and tonics or whatever the anti-oxidant of the month happens to be.Despite my frustration with such fads, I must admit to a quiet suspicion. Bartenders in the Gilded Age really didn't have bottles of pomegranate juice to play around with. Nor could they p

  July 17, 2009

• Hophead: 'Liquid Aloha' From Kona Brewing Co.

  Jesse Hughey When you think about brewing hot spots, what come to mind? Some obvious international destinations include Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the Czech Republic. As for the U.S., craft breweries are everywhere, but we think of the West Coast--especially Portland and Seattle. There's always (for better or for worse) St. Louis and Milwaukee, too. But Hawaii? Believe it or not, the state actually has a few well-respected breweries, including Mehana, Waimea and Kona Brewing Co., the lat

  July 23, 2009

• Kids Eat The Darnedest Things: SodaStream Homemade Soda

  Mikal Beth HugheyCarbonating water with the SodaStream machine.  We hear lots of things in this office, such as last week's notice of a "New and Fun Drink Idea:" the SodaStream home soda maker. Well, while the idea of making soda at home was new to me, it's not exactly a new idea to the world, sez Wikipedia (sorry--breaking our rules for the sake of a quote): the forerunner of the modern SodaStream, the "Apparatus for aerating liquids" (doesn't quite roll off the tongue like "SodaStream," d

  July 24, 2009

• Hophead: Yes, Southern Star Can

  Jesse Hughey​Two weeks back in this column, Oskar Blue made a pretty convincing case that high-quality beer need not be kegged or bottled to taste great. In fact, as commenter Paul Hightower pointed out, you can find a Texas example of high-quality craft beer that comes in cans. And no, that's not a reference to Pabst Lone Star. Southern Star is a new brewery that began production just over a year ago in Conroe, some 45 minutes north of Houston. The company makes just a handful of beers, inclu

  July 30, 2009

• Peanut War

  August 6, 2009

• Sips And (Sound)Bites And Almost Fist Fights

  Back to school, with drinking--and threats--allowed: a panel discussion at the drinklocalwines.com conference.​This past Saturday, a sold-out crowd gathered at Le Cordon Bleu Institute of Culinary Arts in North Dallas for the first-ever DrinkLocalWine.com Conference. Hosted by website founders Jeff Siegel and Dave McIntyre and the Texas Department of Agriculture's Go Texan program, the event drew wine makers, wine writers, bloggers and enthusiasts from far and wide for discussions on the topi

  August 17, 2009

• Handle The Proof: An Oregon Grappa

  ​Most people first encounter grappa in the form of a cheap, punishing brand--the taste of cleaning fluids and jet exhaust being the gentler characteristics.Generally it's also their last encounter with the spirit conjured from the pulpy leftovers of wine pressings. That's right, the unique flavor of grappa (or marc in France) comes from pulverized grape skin, split seeds and the occasional scrap of bark or snip of grape leaf collectively called 'pomace' in the wine trade--and it can turn into

  August 21, 2009

• Hash Over: Rum Causes Gas (And Fire), Chuy's Honors Fire, Free Pancakes For Kids And More

  Jeff McInnis​You've mastered the mojito, drubbed the daiquiri and conquered the Cuba libre. You're ready to take your rum "mixology" to the next level. How about tossing in a dash of liquid nitrogen? Former Top Chef contestant Jeff McInnis will be slinging liquid nitrogen-infused Don Q rum cocktails at Lambert's Steaks, Seafood & Whiskey (2731 White Settlement Road) in Fort Worth 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday. The demonstration is part of a Don Q rum tasting event. We're already sold. Any rum

  August 24, 2009

• Quit The Day Job, Open A Tea Cafe In Carrollton--Sounds Like A Plan

  Karen Kitchen, Benjamin Andrade and owner Charles Dean Bowen of Tea Thyme & Tisane.​Say you wanna open a restaurant. You envision yourself cooking and smiling and rainbows are shining and somewhere in the distance a chorus of angels is singing. Or a chorus of Harleys--depends on what makes you happy.Anyway, you get the idea. We all know it ain't that easy--but have you ever stopped to think about how hard it really is? Food business is a complicated endeavor. It would help if you had s

  September 2, 2009

• Gloria's vs Mattito's: Margarita Massacre

  Alex Flores​Dallas has always seemed a little confused about margaritas--even though the cocktail was reputedly invented by a local (albeit during a Mexico vacation).Perhaps it's just a misunderstanding of semantics. You see, 'cocktail' is generally a drink consisting of three or more ingredients, all of which either come through on the palate or somehow enhance one of the other flavors. A 'mixed drink,' on the other hand, uses fruit or Coke or another beverage to either completely or partiall

  September 3, 2009

• Handle The Proof: Why I Hate The 'Mixology' Trend

  ​Nothing against Victor Tangos. Their bartenders make very good cocktails and they steadfastly--last I checked--refuse to use the word "mixologist." Their drink recipes, however, require precise measurements. Even though they wield this precision to create updated versions of the fizz, the Champagne cocktail and other classics, this puts them in the same league as those despised professionals mixing an ounce of pomegranate and two ounces of organic cane sugar syrup with...you know how it goes.

  September 11, 2009

• Grapevine Uncorked

  September 17, 2009

• Pairing Off: Pork Rinds

  Patrick Michels/foodistablog​Each week, Pairing Off attempts to find just the right bottle of wine to go with ordinary food.There's gonna be a moment when you think "this is the low point--it can't get any worse." Of course, intellectually you know it can get much worse. But the little speech, however mistaken, helps you cope with the situation.Some months ago I went through this process when pairing wine to pan seared Spam. "Can't get worse," I said to myself at the time. Yet this week I had

  October 7, 2009

• Handle The Proof: What To Drink On A Day Like Today

  ​Great. The full force of Texas winter is upon us...for a day...in October.Another month and Europeans will start seeing mulled wine stands open. Decades ago these probably held a big, steaming pot of red wine spiced with cinnamon, vanilla, cloves and other seasonings. Nowadays, of course, you find commercial-sized stainless coffee pots.Not the same charm, but it's still good stuff: gluhwein in Germany, glogg in Scandinavian countries, svarak (pronounced sfarzhak) in the Czech Republic...Other

  October 9, 2009

• Hophead: Brooklyn Brewmaster Says In Food Pairing, Beer Is The Answer

  Jesse HugheyBrooklyn Local 1 with honey-pepper salmon.​Brooklyn Beer brewmaster Garrett Oliver's visit to Whole Foods yesterday afternoon was first and foremost a cooking demonstration with beer pairing suggestions. But as Oliver described how the flavors of each brew complemented each course, he kept returning to a central thesis: When it comes to food pairings, beer is superior to wine. "Sommeliers' number one question they're asked isn't about, say, 'What's the soil content in Napa Valley?

  October 15, 2009

• Handle The Proof: Which Liquors Burn?

  auntcrazy.com​You still see a flaming shot every once in awhile. For the most part, however, bars wisely consider the close proximity of of fire and alcohol to be a generally bad idea.Why? An Australian bar owner related a story about the time some riotous types ordered a round of B-52s and excitedly slammed glasses to the bar before drinking. The resulting fiery spray ignited bar napkins and a few nearby patrons. Local bartenders generally speak of incinerated eyebrows or other such minor dis

  October 16, 2009

• Hophead: Notes From Flying Saucer's Fourth Annual Fall Beer Festival

  ​A beer tasting event like last Saturday's Fall Beer Festival at the Fort Worth Flying Saucer is an easy way to try several new beers at once, hang out with fellow beer people and see a lot of hilarious T-shirts. However, as I discovered, it's also an easy way to get a bad impression of a beer for a multitude of reasons that are no fault of the brewer's. Saturday's festival in the Flying Saucer parking lot featured two dozen beers from American craft brewers, separated into East Coast, West Co

  October 22, 2009

• Handle The Proof: Sidecar

  ​In my school of thought--and keep in mind, it's not a very well attended school--cocktails born in the heyday of gentlemanly drinking are to be revered. Drinks such as martinis, old fashioned and the great sazerac came from an era when even the prettiest glass carried a big, stiff belt of alcohol and Singapore sling was about as silly as could get...well, except perhaps for the monkey gland.The sidecar came along in the midst of this creative spurt. It started, most say, with a bartender in P

  October 23, 2009

• Hophead: Beer Across Texas Guides Brew Lovers To The Lone Star State

  ​Fort Worth's Paul Hightower may make his living as a technical writer, copywriter and indexer, but one of the great passions in his life is beer. On his Dallas Craft Beer Examiner blog, he is a relentless and well-informed cheerleader for the best beers available in North Texas, whether they're brewed locally or abroad. Writing a guide to Texas brewers would seem an obvious choice for a textbook author with such an extensive knowledge of the subject. As it turned out, though, his friend and f

  October 29, 2009

• 7-Eleven vs Barefoot: War Of The Wines

  Alex Flores​Yesterday it came to our attention that 7-Eleven planned to introduce their own wine brand, priced at a Thunderbird-like $3.99 a bottle--that's right, $3.99 for .75 of Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon in glass with a real artificial cork. No screw-tops for wine this fancy.They call their brand Yosemite Road, as it is cellared by the Yosemite Road Vineyards in Livermore, California--somewhere between San Jose and Modesto, in other words. But local 7-Elevens already stock a Modesto w

  November 5, 2009

• Handle The Proof: Blended Scotch Whisky

  ​Generally when people sit down to discuss whisky, the conversation settles around the single malts of Islay, Speyside or the rare and unique brands from Campbeltown. But the overwhelming majority of scotch whisky sold around the world consists of blends--up to 50 different malts making up a single bottle. Indeed, the best known labels are blended: Ballantine's, Johnnie Walker, Teacher's, Dewar's, Famous Grouse and the like--which rather makes sense. Historian and novelist Reay Tannahill once

  November 6, 2009