Meaty, Sweet & Boozy

What is it that they say? “Love what you do and you’ll never dread Mondays again.” I’m not sure if the quotation is right or who said it. Do memes get attribution these days? These are the challenges of writing in the modern era, I suppose.

Have I mentioned how lucky I am lately? Well it’s true. I am.

Yesterday I got to play with Yankee Distillers, Shmaltz Brewing Company, Chester’s Smokehouse, Candi’s Creative Sweets, and a handful of lucky members from the local Yelp community who scored a spot on the guest list for something I called the Booze, Beer & Bagel Brunch.

This is what happens when someone gives me a little bit of power. If you remember my complaints from the beginning of April, the Passover holiday was preventing me from eating bread and drinking beer or bourbon. So naturally, I created an entire event around those foods.

While that’s certainly a perk of the job, the thing I love about it goes a lot deeper.

It would be one thing to create an event where you bring together a lot of great local businesses, and have them each provide a taste of what they do. But what I love is being able to bring together businesses and have them collaborate in new and unexpected ways that last beyond one Yelp event.

Chester’s Smokehouse took Yankee Distillers bourbon and worked it into their breakfast sausage, and it was fantastic. I’m really really hoping that they will find a way to do this again.

But that was not all. They used the whiskey to cure bacon. And even the regular treats like discs of kielbasa topped with smoked blue cheese were fantastic for pairing with the bourbon and coffee based cocktail from Yankee Distillers.

This whiskey also found its way into chocolate chip cookies from Candi’s Creative Sweets. But I’m told that Yankee Distillers is also in possession of a cheesecake from Candi’s made with its rye whiskey which is being held for the release of the newest rye bottling, hopefully later this week.

The cheesecake I got to sample, which was made with Bailey’s Irish Cream, was a fantastic way to close out a boozy brunch. While part of me wanted more, I was glad that we had just a bite.

I may have overdone it a bit on the cured and smoked meats.

Which, by the way, may soon be made with Shmaltz beer as well. Beef sausages made with beer sound pretty tempting. But I would love to see Chester’s do some kind of pop-up at the brewery, serving grilled pastrami on rye. That’s right in their wheelhouse.

Speaking of Yelp-based collaborations, I was excited to see Cider Belly and Rare Form still working together. That was a great event too. But coming up this weekend, on Sunday, May 7 there is going to be a Cider Belly doughnut pop-up at Rare Form.

Now if we can only get Ian at The Flying Chicken to bring back that doughnut-battered fried chicken.

I’ve got to try and do more of these things. Thanks again to everyone who participated in yesterday’s event. Keep your eyes open on those Facebook pages for news of new releases, and if you pop into Chester’s, Yankee, or Shmaltz and see one of these collaborative products, please let me know.

Next stop, Tour de Burger. That’s already this Saturday. Don’t forget. There’s still time to RSVP. And beyond that, there is so much going on next week, it’s not even funny. Fortunately, I’ve scrapped my healthful diet for one rich in fatty smoked meats, which will give me the calorie density to make it through.

I’ll start exercising more this summer. After all, there’s yard work to do. That’s gotta be good for working up at least a little sweat. Right?