Tornado Room, and my first rack

With garish come-hither neon signage, dark cozy interiors, and northwoods carcass chic all speak to an era long-gone where men wore pinstripe suits and poured hooch in the back bar. I'm shocked that the Tornado Room wasn't used n Public Enemies, I can easily imagine Johnny Depp's Dillinger charming the pants off some girl in the uber-cool bar.

Having visited twice, each time I've been excited by my entree. I've had the pork with sour cherry reduction and most recently the lamb with mustard, garlic, bread crumbs and mint. The pork was sweet and tart, tender cut dripping with fatty evil. The leftovers became an awesome sandwich, the sweet pork balanced by a salty English hard cheese on a baguette. The lamb was an inspiration. Crunchy burned mustard/breadcrumb on one side, silky lamb falling off the bone on the other side. The mint pops up like a beloved guest star during various sublime bites. There were no leftovers for this one and I let Drew gnaw on the bones after I gnawed until full.

Oysters Rockefeller was well done, but not special. The casear salad was real- real anchovy loveliness. Fatty nummy brussel sprouts were a welcome side.

Booze: The wine list is short, and not super fantastic but its certainly not crap/chain style with only one or two producers per varietal- it was not well rounded and not the usual merlot/cab/chard show. The lamb was safely paired with a semi-sweet rose (too safe, I should have gone for a light/sweetish red), the pork was accompanied by a malbec that was a little dry and tart- appropriate for the sweet/tart/fatty pork but with enough fruit to not be completely opposite. The cocktails were pretty neat in the cool recessed lighting bar. A ginger infused bourbon, peach liquor/brandy and a little lemon was a nice Southern style treat, the Vesper was strong and bracing. One cocktail during a trip last summer consisted of fresh basil, strawberry puree, and rum.

You've got red on you

When I think of the Red Eye brewing company in Wausau, my second thought beyond great beer is...nutella calzone.

Back up. My first intro to this place was beer served at the Old Fashioned. The Bloom and Scarlett 7 (a wit and dubbel) were exceptional, and when I found out the brewery was within 3 hours and near a good hike- off we went.



Everything tastes a little better after exercise, its a bit like beer goggles except you don't wake up next to someone you feel the need to gnaw off your own arm to escape. Pizza and beer are my two big post-exercise cravings, and I'm a sucker for wood-fired pizza. The bbq chicken, red onion, smoked gouda, and cilantro pizza was our selection. Red onions added that bit of sweetness, the cheese and toasty crust offered up the extra smoke, and of course the bbq did both- not exactly super complex flavors but they were exactly what we expected and wanted. The crust was perfect (go wood ovens) and the ingredients fresh. We also split the lobster cakes with avocado remoulade. Not impressive, but not horrible. The sweet delicate lobster was a bit overshadowed by the oil leftover from frying, and the remoulade was bland.

On to the beer: between the two of us we tried almost all of them. The Thrust is a US IPA that is very crisp, refreshing, and if course full of citrusy/piney US hops but still has a discernable malt backbone. Very nicely done, but its not a standout. The Bloom is a Wit with considerable wheat in the aroma and taste, along with the coriander/orange/perfumy spiciness to be expected. A great summer quencher, I could drink this one all day. A seasonal nut brown was on tap which excited the beer geek in me because the brewer specified it was a Southern Brown. A Southern Brown is not brewed with fried chicken or cornbread- imagine a Newcastle, with a less bitter finish, less hop flavor and aroma, with slightly more caramel/toffee/and sweetness. It was creamy and smooth with hints of fruits. Very nice, and we took some home in a growler. The Scarlett 7 was also a favorite of mine- dubbel style with full on dark fruits (plums, raisins, currants), molasses, bready/biscuity malts, almost chewy texture but still smooth enough to drink way too much. Sneaky alcohol and no the prettiest to look at, but a damn good beer.

Last but not least: the calzone of evil with chocolate and nutella. I mean, there's really no way to screw this up. It was so good Drew tried to steal my portion and I almost stabbed him with my fork. Do. Not. Steal. My chocolate evil.

Great taste 09: the quickie

This year I volunteered and even got a snazzy guayabera with my name on it. I 'ran' the beer and cheese education session. This pretty much meant that I shook hands with people, played bouncer to douchebags who were mean to my volunteers, and handed out beer and cheese. Dan from New Glarus gave a great talk and made some good pairings- it was a pleasure to meet and listen to him.



As busy as I was, I didn't take notes nor did I drink as much but I will mention some favorite brews. Real ale tent: Bluegrass Brewing chocolate rye porter, Fat Heads' Collaborative Evil, New Albanian: Beak's Best, Malcolm's Old Setter Ale, Hoptimus IPA (best advertising ever), Surly: Ash-Aged Cynic, Tea Bagged Bitter, Kuhnhnens' Cherry Belgian.

The real ale tent was a big haunt of mine this year, I arrived early and watched the guys and girls tap the casks. I was allowed/encouraged/dared to tap a bunghole (seriously its the hole on the top of the cask that gets tapped first to release CO2), there is footage of this somewhere of my tapping it, air blowing out, then the beer bath. In my first 30min of the festival, I was covered in beer. I also got to be all beer-groupie and meet one of the cool local lady brewers, Jaime of Dells Brewing/Moosejaw. I also got to meet a New Albanian brewer, who told me that the awesome Malcolm's Old Setter Ale was waiting for two years, it was full of alcohol warmth, sweet caramel/toffee malts, gasoline, butter, dark fruits.

Non-cask beers of note and remembrance:
B. Nektar Meadery- Buckwheat Mead
Blue Cat- coriander and orange US wheat
Lakefront- Rosie kriek lambic



Overall, an awesome time. Again. I'll take an even more active role next year, this is really a premier beer event and the small numbers make it all that much cooler. I only saw a small number of stupid shit, a few drunk vomiting, almost fights, outfits that should not be...but as a long-time veteran of DragonCon; this was Sunday school.