Food Blog

Empty!

Don’t worry. I’m getting to all the fancy places I ate in while in Phoenix, but I did want to mention this place- Molly Brannigans in Mesa.

It’s an Irish Pub in a mall, but with the traditional look, complete with fine handcrafted woodwork and obligatory fireplace in the back. Behind the bar area was decorated with the usual Guinness toucans, Irish knick-knacks and walls of Jameson bottles, which disturbingly, were all empty. Brannigans is a small, supposedly family owned, chain with pubs in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada.

We didn’t eat here, although the menu had a few interesting things, like 6 kinds of boxty. I only mention this place because the Irish Whiskey list was as impressive as I’ve ever seen, but I was driving so I resisted the temptation. I got to sniff one.

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Droogle Drink Search Engine.

The 110 Best Distilled Spirits Currently Available in 2005! I had to go pretty far down the list before I found one I’ve tried.

The World in a Glass: Six Drinks That Changed History

Speaking of beer drinking, please people, let’s do everything in our power to make sure this abomination does not become popular.

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Ugh, look what I missed on my birthday – free beer given out by DB (popular New Zealand beer) on their birthday. Found at RealBeer.co.nz – “the leading source for beer industry information in New Zealand. The latest beer news, beer events, listing of New Zealand’s breweries, plus an online beer forum.” From their brewery list I’m glad to see the Shakespeare Tavern, where I lived during the spring of 1987 is still around and brewing. Looks like they just opened a nice boutique hotel on their top floors, which wasn’t that fancy back then.

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OK, so I missed Solstice by a day, but I’ve been busy.

Pictured is Berghoff’s Solstice Wit, a good beer to celebrate it. The description says “lightly touched with subtle hints of coriander and Curacao orange” which is pretty accurate. I personally hate fruit in my beer, but an orange seems to work with this one. My other favorite summer beer is Bell’s Oberon, wheaty and fruity, but it’s like milk, it must be fresh, and on tap.

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Can’t make it to your local pub? Blow an inflatable pub up in your backyard. “The pub is 40ft long, 19ft wide and 22ft high. It can be customised for use as a fully working pub, with room for a bar and 30 customers.” Found via Feed Me Drink Me.

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A break from my east coast reviews with some drink links.

A Beginner’s Guide to Malt Liquor Funny, but incomplete. The description for St. Ides says “Strictly for professionals. Never drink alone. Psilocybic. Liquid antimatter. Never mind about operating heavy machinery, you’ll have trouble lighting a cigarette. Good thing, too, cause St. Ides is flammable.”

Juice Taxonomy

Red Bull is running an Art of the Can contest

Downloadable beer logos

Metromix has a short, incomplete list of bars with fireplaces. If my beer-addled memory serves me right, several other Irish Pubs have fireplaces, such as Black Rock, Irish Oak, and Johnny O’Hagan’s. My local, Tommy Nevin’s, had a crackling fire going the other night. Nevin’s recently underwent a bit of a renovation, getting a tin ceiling to replace the nicotine stained white drop ceiling, mini-chandeliers for lighting, new bathrooms and new big screens to replace the hanging TVs in the pool/dart room. They’ve revamped the old Nevin’s Live space a few months ago (which means no more cheap live music), by putting in a new bar and 2 huge TV’s.

Unfortunately the tin ceilings make it painfully loud whenever big groups or hordes of college students invade, the chandeliers are glaringly bright and they’ve done the worst thing possible by installing an enormous Golden T video golf game. Fortunately the tin ceilings have a benefit – they serve to keep the bar relatively cell-phone free since it screws up reception.

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My favorite coffee got some press on WGN and on their website with the story: Chicago’s Very Own: Stewart’s Coffee.

Stewart’s is good stuff because you only need a tespoon per cup, instead of the usual tablespoon. I like the Hawaiian blend personally.

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Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day (but late for the parades and most people’s plans for a pub crawl) is my updated Lincoln Park Irish Pub map.

It takes much more than an Irish name and a neon Budweiser shamrock in the window to be an Irish Pub. By my definition a real Irish pub must have real Irish people in it – on either side of the bar. And by their definition that means real Irish – not Americans with Irish names. Some other requirements are: a two pour Guinness, Harp, John Power’s and Tullamore Dew, Tayto’s or Crunchies for sale behind the bar and a minimal amount or absence of TV’s. Extra points for a fireplace, live Irish music and Irish food.

It’s a minor update but I added two new places Mystic Celt and Galway Arms. Also I added 2 bars to the list of pubs outside the boundary of my map – The Pepper Canister and Poag Mahone’s. The Pepper Canister, one of my new favorite places has decent food, and a church like setting complete with votive candles and a ‘confessional’ in back. The name is taken from the nickname of Dublin’s St. Stephen’s church. Perfect for the pub-goer who drinks religiously. Poag Mahone’s is a cute pun on the irish “kiss my ass”. I haven’t been able to do any ‘research’ in it yet.

Here’s a review of Poag’s and Galway Arms. As usual Metromix has a slew of articles on St. Patty’s day stuff.

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Sean Parnell’s Chicago bar project has recently added the
Best of Chicago Bars 2002 . I agree with all his choices, although I would have added Celtic Crossing to the Best Irish Pub list.

Gaper’s Block has two recent bar features:

Searching for the True Chicago Dive Not only is this a nice peice of cultural research, it’s a glimpse into a world no hipster would ever dare to tread. By the Wiz of Odds.

Tapped Out Another nice research piece on tap rooms – “Tap rooms, even the nicest ones, are about drinking and nothing but. Which makes them, in this day and age, something of an anomaly, if not an outright anachronism.”

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I had heard about this from the bartender at the Maproom while sipping a Rasberry Tart from New Glarus – but I was in denial. New Glarus has pulled out of the Chicago market to satisfy the demand in Wisconsin. This article from Madison confirms it. I say let those cheeseheads drink Point and whatever Huber is selling for 9 bucks a case these days.

This means I’ll have to go back to the old days, when I had to cross state lines and bootleg back Sprecher. Fortunately Belgian Red cellars very well, so I’ll be picking up a case or two next time I’m in cheeseland.

Why did I not hear of or notice this sooner? Well I’ve been restricting my intake of beer to try to lose a little winter weight, but I should have been paying attention. I feel like hitting myself in the head with a bottle for missing the Real Ale fest for the second year in a row.

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