Beautiful, innit?
No, I’m not talking about the world-class selection of beers, I’m talking about the chalkboard itself.
That’s the board above the bar at Teresa’s Next Door as of around 4:40 this afternoon, as clean and neat and readable an example as I’ve ever seen, done by staffer Carissa Just with something called a “chalk pen,” a concept entirely new to me. I find it astonishingly near-perfect.
I stopped in at TND after a heads-up call from fine human being Matt Guyer while I was on the train back from Philadelphia alerting me that Dogfish Head Bitches Brew had just been tapped.
There’s been a lot of talk about this one, created in honor of the 40th anniversary of the original release of Bitches Brew, Miles Davis’ 1970 paradigm-shifting landmark fusion breakthrough. It is a big a bold dark beer which is three-quarters imperial stout and one quarter honey beer made with gesho root, an African shrub from Ethiopia which is used in a similar fashion to hops. I found it a nicely balanced and drinkable brew, perhaps a bit sweet on its own, but one I could imagine enjoying over a plate of fruit and cheese.
I’d been downtown to meet up with a new friend, the Rev. Kirk Berlenbach whom many of you have likely met and know as “Father Kirk.” We met for the first time at Nodding Head during Philly Beer Week and have been trying to get together ever since, finally pulling it off today right back where it all started.
We enjoyed a good conversation over two pints of Bil Payer Ale on cask (for me) and one of those and a glass of George’s Fault for him. We were joined for a stretch by main man Curt Decker and brewer Gordon Grubb. The later brought out a bottle of their Saison, an leftover from those packaged to send off to the Great American Beer Festival. Actually, as Decker explained, not really a left-over: “We always do some extra bottles to keep and open the week of GABF so we can taste what they are likely tasting at the judges’ tables in Denver.”
All in all, a good beery day, as good a one as I’ve had of late.
