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Friday, February 6, 2015
Events Raise a glass, raise some cash at Farm Hands
Posted By Nichole Mondshein on Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 4:06 PM
Do you want to help make an impact in the Charlotte community? Do you like farming and agriculture? Want to be around individuals who care about the same things you do? Like to have fun, drink beer, eat great food and watch people win some cash?
This Sunday, Feb. 6, Triple C Brewing Co. will host the second annual Farm Hands event from 6-8 p.m. The goal is to help raise money for, and awareness of, Carolina farmers needing financial support to help grow their businesses. Keia Mastrianni, event organizer, says last year’s event sold more than 100 tickets and raised more than $1,500 for the local farming region.
Farm Hands, previously called Funds to Farm, is a community-centered micro-funding program for beginning farmers dedicated to supporting the growth and vitality of Charlotte’s agricultural community. It is a collaborative concept aimed at creating opportunities for Charlotte area farmers while fostering community and building awareness of the challenges that our farmers face.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Events Moo and Brew Festival on Wilson's World
Posted By Kimberly Lawson on Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 11:00 AM
If we weren't cool before, we're definitely cool now — Wilson of WCCB's Wilson's World likes us!
This morning, CL sales manager Amy Mularski joined our event partners (at Bang Bang Burgers) to talk about our upcoming Moo and Brew Fest. Moo and Brew is our inaugural burgers and craft beer festival, happening April 11 at the N.C. Music Factory festival grounds, benefitting Second Harvest Food Bank. We're hella excited about it. Attendees will indulge — or overindulge? — in samplings from 40 breweries, as well as tastes from local restaurants vying for the title of "Creative Loafing’s Best Burger." Entertainment will be courtesy of — drum roll, please — Langhorne Slim, Ancient Cities and DJ Overcash.
Here's the clip from WCCB. (Note to self: If you're hungry, the first few minutes will make you hungrier.)
You know you wanna come hang out with us. Get your tickets at mooandbrew.com.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Keia Is Hungry Eat This: Torta Cubana from Tacos El Nevado
Posted By Keia Mastrianni on Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 3:12 PM
I don’t do drugs anymore, but I will eat a torta to alter my state of consciousness. In fact, this is an experience best done with friends at Tacos El Nevado, the hole-in-the-wall Mexican spot down the glorious ethnic corridor that is Central Avenue. Best known for its tacos — authentic, inexpensive and the epitome of simple cuisine done right — Tacos El Nevado is a best kept dining secret in Charlotte. Though, if you want to get lifted, the torta cubana ($8.50) is your ticket.
Mouthful R is for Rhino Market & Deli
Posted By Sara Workman on Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 2:17 PM
Since opening just a few months ago, Rhino Market & Deli has experienced three major holidays — Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day — throwing owner Rob Rondolez quite the curve ball.
“If I would have opened in September, I would have had time to keep some steam going before all of the holidays fell on Thursdays, which was a negative for business,” Rondolez says. “There was two weeks where I didn’t even see my regulars.”
- Sara Workman
- Rob Rondolez
Despite the holiday hootenannies, Rondolez, who has been working 60-hour workweeks perfecting the place, says Rhino is off to a good start. “It’s more about where we’re situated than it is about how we’re really different.”
Friday, January 30, 2015
Beer Taking in the Olde Mecklenburg ambience
Posted By Jonathan Wells on Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 11:51 PM
It’s Wednesday, and the after-work crowd has arrived at Olde Mecklenburg Brewery. Twenty or so folks populate the bar, with another 40ish at long community-style tables. Switch the music from the current Lake Street Dive and feed me some more Fat Boy Baltic Porter, and I’ll have a hard time knowing what country I’m in.
Former carpet-warehouses shouldn’t feel like they’re carved from innenstadt Dusseldorf. Dark-kilned irregular-shaped brick forms the perimeter walls. Rich wood hugs on the perimeter. A soft glow flows overhead from spartan chandeliers and the same lighting temperature permeates through wall sconces. I lack only a fireplace in January.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Beer Experts share how to do Queen City Brewers Fest right
Posted By Sara Workman on Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 2:25 PM
As a girl who would rather drink a vodka-infused cocktail than a thick stout, the idea of hundreds of beer guzzlers huddled in a sports arena brings me back to my semester in Ireland, where I snubbed Guinness and tolerated Bulmers cider.
Kicking off another year of #cltbeer, almost 1,000 beer enthusiasts and hops newbies will unite for the fourth annual Queen City Brewers Festival at the Bojangles’ Coliseum Jan. 31.
With an abundance of local specialty brews at your fingertips, a beer festival can quickly — for folks like me, at least — become a confusing frenzy of novelty ales versus high gravity porters. So we turned to some experts to share insight for drinkers eager to partake in the first beer fest of the year.
- Courtesy Nils Weldy
- Queen City Brewers Fest 2014
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Events Make Queen's Feast your feast
Posted By Alison Leininger on Thu, Jan 8, 2015 at 3:14 PM
Twice a year, Charlotte-area restaurants go completely crazy and start giving away food. Ok, not really, but the semiannual Restaurant Week, running Jan. 16-25, offers diners the opportunity to get a three-course meal for $30 at more than 100 different restaurants, some of them among the city's best. That's a steep discount at places that may normally charge that much for a single, luxurious entrée.
Sounds too good to be true, but there's no catch. According to Chef Blake Hartwick of Bonterra restaurant, the business' focus is driving new diners through the doors. "We get a lot of new customers that come in again after Restaurant Week," he says. While the three-course Queen's Feast special applies to a limited menu, Hartwick affirms it displays the restaurant's typical quality and style. "It's still very Bonterra."
For many, Restaurant Week is a great opportunity to try out prominent local restaurants that may normally stretch the budget. But thinking strategically will help you make the most out of what can be a frenetic week in the Charlotte food scene.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Events Blind Tasting: Dining in the Dark dinner raises funds by mystifying diners
Posted By Alison Leininger on Fri, Jan 2, 2015 at 12:54 PM
As the year comes to an end, people across the globe light up the night sky with blazes of cacophonous fireworks. Cultures around the world have long used candles and bonfires to brighten the depths of winter. Yet one of Charlotte's first food events of 2015 invites to you step into the dark side for a night of adventure.
On Jan. 10, Good Eats and Meets of Charlotte presents Dining in the Dark, "a journey of taste, sound and touch" at Ballantyne Hotel. Centered on a multicourse meal by Executive Banquet Chef Michael Rayfield, the evening seeks to raise funds and awareness for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, by giving guests a taste of the darkness familiar to the visually impaired.
Usually I'd try to tempt you to a meal like this by dropping some ingredients or dish descriptions right about here. But diners will even be kept in the dark about the menu until after the last plate is cleared. Never fear though, Rayfield's team is unlikely to toss sheep eyeballs your way. "I'm giving them free rein," says Richard Gruica, the event's organizer, "but we try to keep ingredients pretty commonplace."
Monday, December 22, 2014
Eating Healthy Yes, Virginia, there is healthy fast food in Charlotte
Posted By Alison Leininger on Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 10:45 AM
'Tis the season for fun and festivities. For weeks we whirl between office holiday parties and sparkly New Year celebrations, with a stop for family gatherings featuring the annual retelling of Uncle Bob's "hilarious" flaming turkey story.
With all the dashing about, nobody could blame you for wanting to hunker down at home for a night and let someone else do the cooking. But that doesn't mean you have to order pizza or stop off at Bigbelly Burgers. Charlotte's local food scene offers plenty of tasty, healthy alternatives to mass-produced takeout meals.
A natural outgrowth of a family farm, Beverly's Gourmet Foods offers a wide variety of appetizing meal options. You can start your day with vegetarian breakfast quinoa, or start your dinner with a comforting black bean soup or spicy corn chowder. If you're tired of meat-and-starch holiday meals, try a casserole of roasted vegetables or some vegan stuffed peppers (note: no vegans were harmed in the making of this dish).
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Food News The Dilworth coffeeshop conundrum solved
Posted By Kimberly Lawson on Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 5:26 PM
A couple of months ago, I made a point to meet a new contact at the coffeeshop in Dilworth. Eight years in Charlotte and I'd never been to Dilworth Coffee — shameful! It turns out, as I pulled into the parking lot adjacent to Harris Teeter's, I actually still have not been to a Dilworth Coffee, as this shop was called Dilworth Espresso.
Last month, the Observer wrote about a legal battle between the quarter-century old Dilworth Coffee and Dilworth Espresso, which opened in July in the original DC storefront. A story like that lent itself to the obvious, awesome lede: "A fight is percolating between two Charlotte coffee purveyors over whether their names are so similar that customers will be confused."
Yes, as a thirsty coffee drinker that day in Dilworth, I was confused.
Today, the daily reports that both coffeeshops have dropped their suits, and the owner of Dilworth Espresso has agreed to change the business' name to Kenilworth Espresso.
Whew! Thank goodness. I'm happy to support any business who will caffeinate me, but it's nice to know what I'm walking into.
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Dish on this: Charlotte-based chefs join ACF Culinary Team USA 2016
As fall approaches, local chefs prepare for a culinary battle in Germany.
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Recipe: Roasted Vegetables with Dijon Béarnaise Sauce
Vegetables. Cheese. Béarnaise. These are things you're going to put in your mouth shortly after reading this.
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What's hoppening at Unknown?
I had to check out the brewery's inaugural Improper Glassware Night.
