Highland Brewing Co., out of Asheville, NC and thus fairly local, makes a number of beers that I would describe as “awesome”. One of my favorites is the Black Mocha Stout, according to their website “Highland’s most robust beer.” Year-round, but particularly in the winter when it’s chilly, I love drinking stouts. Rich, robust flavors [...]
Shortly after moving to Blacksburg, VA in 2007 for grad school, I began wrangling some close friends into going drinking with me every week. I called it Drinking Club, and used it as a vehicle for meeting new people; any person I met that I thought I might like was invited to Drinking Club. It [...]
After a long, boring day at the office, I frequently like to stop at one of the few bars in Blacksburg that I still enjoy, The Cellar. Besides being quite hip for the area AND having breathable air since the smoking ban, The Cellar also sports a fully decent beer list, particularly of bottles. And [...]
I have always wanted to have a job that allowed me to make ostensibly educated suggestions to the patrons of the establishment, like a bookstore or record shop with employee suggestions. Suggesting something that someone else ends up liking is in some way better than liking it yourself. So when I see employee suggestions, I [...]
As part of my epic food and booze tour of Chicago with my lovely girlfriend, I had occasion to both dine and imbibe at a fantastic if a bit pretentious “gastropub” in River North, The Publican. Featuring raw oysters and an in-house charcuterie as well as a full line of gourmet entrées, all backed up [...]
Left Hand Milk Stout: An ode in free verse Lo! ‘ere I gazed upon your wine-dark depths, ‘Ere I nuzzled your rich and frothing head, ‘Ere my nose had been graced, With the sensate pleasure of your heady potency, ‘Ere I was bless’d (As the starving masses were bless’d with manna in the desert) Bless’d [...]
Dining with my girlfriend at iconic eatery Kuma’s Corner today on the north side of Chicago (home, incidentally, to one of the top 2 best burgers I’ve ever had, with Ray’s Hellburgers in Arlington, VA), I had occasion to try a Gumball Head by 3 floyds, a brewery in Indiana. The beer was very light [...]
This post is a duplicate of one on my former site, muchtooscrawled.com. That site is no more, and this is the only post of any real quality, so I thought I would copy it over. Everyone loves Python. I particularly feel encased in Python’s womb-like warmth and comfort when I am trying to do client-side [...]