“Mug Shots”
From 2009 – 2011, I wrote a column for Louisville Eccentric Observer (aka LEO Weekly) called “Mug Shots.”
If I recall, it was Cary Stemle’s idea (ironically, we now both write for Food & Dining Magazine), but alas I did not survive Cary’s humorless successor, who somehow was made uncomfortable by my recurring pattern of mercilessly abusing Anheuser-Busch/AB InBev.
The column reprinted here inspired a promotion between my New Albanian Brewing Company and Brendan’s, a pleasant but long since departed pub a block down from Bluegrass Brewing Company’s flagship location on Shelbyville Rd. A preview of this event follows the mug shot, as originally published at my Potable Curmudgeon blog.
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Beer: Why not for breakfast?
You don’t need to climb to the top of the nearest mountain for a consultation with the resident guru to know this: you can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.
I’m not referring to hair of the dog (lower case), although Hair of the Dog (upper case) remains a respected small-batch, high-gravity Oregon brewer of beers that just might succeed in curing a hangover when judiciously consumed during the morning hours after a long evening’s debauchery.
But this isn’t where I’m proposing to go this week.
Given that even the most amateur of drinkers can imbibe all night, eventually see the sun rise, and then trundle off to Waffle Steak for a bleary prelude to crashing, Mr. Mug Shot is all about vigorously raising the bar, and as such, it is my pleasure to inform readers that revolutionary plans are afoot to stage the first local breakfast food and beer pairing – and to do it chronologically, in the morning, at breakfast, and not later in the day.
Just bring a designated driver, and leave Count Chocula at home, although a purely redundant case might be made for corn flakes and American cream ale.
Okay: To be honest, I’ve no idea whether this pairing idea is original, or if it has been done previously. It probably has, although I take pride in the ability of my coterie of friends and customers to plumb the length and breadth of fermentables, and foodstuffs, to uncover crazed new combinations, and their suggestions (below) already form the basis of a germinating concept.
Moreover, the overarching aim in establishing food and beer pairings for breakfast is to liberate beer from its hackneyed “something ice-cold to drink after work” tradition.
I’ll never forget arriving in Munich after...Read more
