Thankfully, my poor, violated Subaru is nearly rid of all fetid sputum and I am now prepared to recount the details of our day in Sewercuse and at the Empire State Brewing and Music Festival. We got into the city around 2 p.m. and had a late lunch at Blue Tusk, a pub and wine bar with 69 beers on draught (most served in 20 oz. imperial pints) and an eclectic menu with impressive cheese, meat, or vegetable and bread board appetizers. A definite destination for the casual beer drinker AND the connoisseur.
After lunch, we wandered around Armory Square and into Eureka Crafts, a long-time favorite of ours. This unique contemporary craft store is filled with amazing and peculiar ceramics, glass, jewelery, metal and wood from artisans across the country. Nearly every time we visit, we leave with a gift idea for some forth-coming occasion.
We meandered through a couple other shops and found an enormous dead bug before making our way over to the festival area.
The doors opened at 4:30 and pouring started shortly thereafter. A list of some of our favorites:
Jesse:
- Empire Brewing Company Cask-Conditioned IPA
- Middle Ages Brewing Company XIII
- Boulder Beer Company Sweaty Betty Blonde
- Rogue Dead Guy
- Rogue Mocha Porter
- Southern Tier Brewing Company HeavyWeizen
While Jesse was off sampling and sampling (and sampling some more), I got to hear some great music. Hot Day at the Zoo is a progressive 4-piece (guitar, mandolin, banjo and upright bass) string band from Lowell, MA. They were really high-energy and playful "zoo-grass."
Donna the Buffalo wrapped up the fun, albeit long, evening. DtB has been around for such a long time that they barely need any notes. They do awesome zydeco, bluegrass, country rock and folk jams; I love watching Tara Nevins on her accordion.I collected Jesse and closely monitored his wobbly walk to the car. The rest has been scooped, scrubbed, vacuumed, scraped, sprayed away. Next time we're driving Jesse's car.
