Bread and beer. Things I shouldn’t eat but happen to love. [Sidenote: there's a new bakery in Aspen on the mall under the Psychic called Annette's and the bread there is TO DIE FOR, so to speak, as I ate almost half a loaf and spent the rest of the night with sores in my mouth and farting. Sorry that's gross. But I'm pretty sure I can thank the high gluten factor for that. But there's sourdough...] Back to Easy Tiger, 709 E. Sixth Street, the long-awaited new bake shop and beer garden (this post has it opening in May … of 2011)  from the 24 Diner people.

The key players:

Bread: Artisan baker David Norman [creds: Grand Central Bakery (leading artisan bakery in Pacific Northwest), TriBakery (supplying NY greats such as Tribeca Grill and Nobu), Ecce Panis (NY, NJ) and Bouley Bakery (NY)]. Breads: baguettes, French country levain, rye bread, German pretzels, Danish, turnovers and more all day long.

Beer: Billy Caruso [creds: CIA graduate and 24 Diner sommelier] Cocktails, wine, unique bombers, and 30 craft beers on tap: local Real Ale and Jester King and boutique domestics such as Avery, Lagunitas and Ommegang.

Meat: Andrew Curren [creds: CIA valedictorian, worked for top New York restaurateurs Danny Meyer and Jonathan Waxman, nom for People’s Best New Chef from Food & Wine magazine/CNN’s Eatocracy, Top Chef: Texas] House-cured meats: housemade sausages, jerky, corned beef and pastrami, as well as homemade krauts, relishes and peperonata.

Decor: Veronica Koltuniak [creds: clients include Madonna, Courteney Cox, and Jennifer Lopez] The Royal Tenenbaums: “Turn-of-the-century building meets end-of-the-century kitsch.”

Seriously. Someone go and report back. I can’t put myself in another gluten coma.

easytigeraustin.com / twitter.com/EasyTigerATX / facebook.com/EasyTigerATX

Cooler than that even? Several breweries who haven’t released beer yet are using the festival as their target date to publicly introduce their first beers!

Tix are $8, sampling tokens appear to be $1.50/ea: eventbee.com/v/texascraftbrewersfestival

September 24, 2011, 2 – 8p / Fiesta Gardens, 2100 Jesse E. Segovia St. / texascraftbrewersfestival.org

21+ Event ID required at entry / Rain or Shine / NO chairs or coolers or glass or dogs allowed

The folks behind 24 Diner (seriously, could they stop doing awesome things so I could stop incessantly blogging about them??) are largely responsible for all this goodness, plus famous artisan baker David Norman. 24 Diner executive chef Andrew Curren’s Easy Tiger menu will include smoked and fresh housemade sausages, house-cured corned beef and smoked pastrami, as well as homemade krauts, relishes, and peperonata.

Billy Caruso oversees wine and beer (local, natch), and designer Veronica Koltuniak (clients include Madonna and J. Lo) describes the look and feel of the space as “turn-of-the-century building meets end-of-the-century kitsch.” The Royal Tenenbaums are her inspiration.

Who else can’t wait for the gluten-goodness of beer and bread in May??

twitter.com/EasyTigerATX / www.facebook.com/EasyTigerATX

Pecan. Porter.

That is all. Okay, fine, it’s not all, but the deal is that local brewery (512) is having their winter open house this Saturday from 2-5pm. You know after you’ve done harried mall runs for Christmas presents, you really need a beer. Why not make it a Pecan Porter?

With a champagne-like effervescence, Infinium, a collaboration between Samuel Adams and Weihenstephan, is the new new wine, or the champagne, or the new whatever, it’s downright good. It’s a lot fun: a sort of bubbly, very smooth, beer champagne.

Thanks to a sample bottle, I got the chance to serve Infinium a recent apres-ski party before it’s available. My guests, a mix of beer lovers and wine-drinkers, loved the new Infinium.

“It tastes like if you mixed champagne and beer.”

“It tastes better than beer but not sweet.”

Infinium is hard to describe. It’s made according to German beer purity law called Reinheitsgebot, meaning it can only contain malt, hops, water, and yeast. This is the first new beer under Reinheitsgebot in 100 years, and it’s made in partnership with the oldest brewery in the world, Weihenstephan Brewery, which was founded by monks in 1040.

Enough of the beer trivia, eh? Infinium is a dark gold color (beer!) with fine bubbles (champagne!) and a slightly fruity flavor but lots of malt body (beer!). It comes in a champagne-style bottle (champagne!) and is 10.3% alcohol by volume (both!).

The companies are heavily promoting Infinium as a champagne alternative for men to ring in the New year. They cite a Wakefield Research study that reveals that the majority of men would rather toast with beer than champagne. I love my chompers, but I wouldn’t mind toasting with a little Infinium either!

Available nationwide starting this week, you can hit the beer finder feature on SamuelAdams.com to find out where to buy your bottle of champagne beer champagne. Retail is $20 a bottle.

There’ll be drink specials, free food, music, and a washers tournament. The washer tournament will kick off the party at noon sponsored by Graham Barnes Distilling with drink specials from Treaty Oak Rum and Grahams Texas Tea Vodka (my FAVE ever).

Beer specials include a special cask of Lagunitas Brown Shugga, two types of special release Sierra Nevada 30-year Anniversary, Stone Russian Imperial Stout and (512) Brewing beer specials. The special cask of Lagunitas Brown Shugga will be tapped at 2 p.m. and the first 40 to be ordered will receive a free Lagunitas logo glass.

Pit barbecue including pork ribs, smoked chicken, beef sausage, shrimp boil, pulled pork and boudin balls, will be served until it runs out.

Live music artists including The Merles, Medicine Park and Jeremy Stedding will be playing from 1 – 5 p.m.

Also, the birthday party kicks off the new FREE Red’s Porch shuttle, a “veggie” bus which runs on french fry oil straight from the fryers. TIf you live in the 04 (or a three mile radius of Red’s) and have eight or more people, you can schedule in advance and the veggie bus will come pick you up, take you to Red’s for lunch or dinner and take you back to a location in your neighborhood. Red’s requires at least 24 hours notice to schedule the free customer shuttle.

Additionally, Red’s is introducing monthly pub crawls and brewery tours. $35 gets you transportation, brewery tours and beer tastings at the breweries and brew pubs, and an appetizer at Red’s when you return.

Red’s Porch, 3508 South Lamar Blvd. / 512.440.REDS / www.redsporch.com / @redsporch

I know little more than what the poster tells you: Base Camp Bar & Grill is apparently opening under new management with a bang, serving FREE BEER and live music for the price of a canned good. Mammoth stew? Just trying to capitalize on the bones all around …

6p, tonight, 11/19

The Aspen Winternational Audi FIS Women’s World Cup will be held November 27 – 28, 2010 on Aspen Mountain. Saturday at 10am & 1pm is the Giant Slalom, while Sunday at 10am & 1pm is the Slalom.

The weekend also includes the first Bud Light Hi-Fi Concert Series of the season at the base of Aspen Mountain on November 27. Talent TBD.

CuervoGames

Holy sign-me-up! The CuervoGames are coming to Austin. What are the CuervoGames? Exactly what you’d think … tequila-fueled Cuervo-themed American Gladiators-style competition with food, music and more.  Teams of four can compete in the Barrel Roll, where competitors climb a Mayan Pyramid to capture a series of flags at the top, the Waterfall Climb, where teams scale a 20-foot rock climbing wall as they’re drenched by rushing water, the Highwire Harvest, where they test agave farming skills 30 feet in the air, or in the Margarita Madness, a messy race against the clock to make the ultimate cocktail. Cuervo’s “Ride the Lime” offers an on-site challenge (think mechanical bull) and FREE CuervoGames gear as they cheer on their favorite teams.  The event will also feature a FREE performance by the Old 97’s.

Think that sounds awesome? The winning team will earn a FREE trip to Las Vegas on Halloween weekend for the CuervoGames National Finals.

Now that is awesome. For more info/to pre-register a team, visit Cuervo’s Facebook page.

Saturday, Cross streets of W. 4th and Guadalupe St, 4p-11p, complete schedule on Facebook.

Austin Beer Week

The first Austin Beer Week, a week-long celebration of craft beer and the craft beer community, starts this Sunday, Oct. 24, and lasts through next weekend, Saturday, Oct. 30. Check out the website for a complete, jam-packed schedule of tastings, food and movie pairings, multi-course dinners, beer education, socials, contests, and some Keepin’ it Austin off-the-wall events. Seriously, I can’t do the events justice. GO to www.AustinBeerWeek.com and pick some beer fest fun! (OK fine, I will recommend the Inglorious Basterds screening at the Alamo with German-style Live Oak beer)

The Austin Unscripted documentary project first contacted me via twitter–gotta love that–and once I found out it’s designed to capture Austinites’ thoughts about what it really means to keep Austin weird in a time of rapid growth and development, of course I was down. Sure, it’s sponsored by the historic preservation people, whom I sometimes disagree with when they encroach on personal property rights, but in general I’m down for talking Austin.

More details here: http://www.preservationnation.org/austinunscripted

Want to put in your 2 cents? Here’s a list of where they’ll be filming this weekend, stop by if you have a chance!

SATURDAY

SFC Farmers’ Market – Downtown / 9 AM – 11 AM, Republic Square Park

Torchy’s Trailer Park / 12 PM – 2 PM, 1311 S. 1^st

Hey Cupcake! – SoCo / 3 PM – 5 PM, 1600 Block of S. Congress

Cheer Up Charlie’s / What Is Austin? Happy Hour, 6 PM – 8 PM, 1104 E. 6^th

SUNDAY

Our Lady of Guadalupe / 8 AM – 10 AM, 1206 E. 9^th

Ebenezer Baptist Church / 9 AM – 10 AM, 1010 E. 10^th

HOPE Farmers Market / 11 AM – 1 PM, 414 Waller

PODER / 2 PM – 4 PM, 2604 E. Cesar Chavez

Renaissance Market / 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM, Guadalupe @ UT

Quack’s 43rd Street Bakery / 4 PM – 6 PM, 411 E. 43rd

VOTE FOR THE GORILLA RUN!

The Austin Gorilla Run is going to be awesome! Please vote for THE AUSTIN GORILLA RUN to WIN $500!! at this link:

That said, eating in Austin is easier than eating almost anywhere else. Take the ACL food court … (if I accept a sandwich, assume I’m not eating the bread) here is a complete listing, anything I won’t eat is strike-out-ed, but you can still read it and eat it if you so choose.

AMY’S ICE CREAMS psh that’s not healthy

AQUARELLE RESTAURANT & WINE BAR
Spicy shrimp sandwich

AUSTIN’S BEST BURGER – I could not find a damn thing on this … happy? no? what’s in the veggie burger? no idea.

AUSTIN’S PIZZA

BESS BISTRO – YAY! HAPPY LOCAL MEAT!

Fish and chips /Semolina crusted artichoke hearts / Steak sandwich / Fish sandwich

BEST LEMONADE

THE BEST WURST unhappy meat

BOOMERANG’S PIES
Thai veggie (vegan) fine, how good does that sound? yum.

CHILDREN OF THE KETTLE CORN delish, but no good for you

JUICEBOX (assuming no added sugar)
Fresh cherry limeade / Cucumber mint agua fresca / Pure coconut water / Sambazon acai smoothie

FREEBIRDS WORLD BURRITO

GALAXY CAFE

GARRIDO’S BURRITOS

GUERO’S

HYDE PARK BAR & GRILL

KERBEY LANE CAFE
All-natural sausage pancake on a stick

LAVACA ST. GRILL

LONESOME DOVE WESTERN BISTRO – no word on happy meat status but sounds delish!
Wild mushroom and tenderloin skewers / Truffled mac and cheese

MAINE ROOT

MANGIA PIZZA love, but need whole wheat. and spinach.

MIGHTY CONE
Hot and crunchy shrimp and avocado cone / Venison sausage wrap

OLIVIA not happy meat

P. TERRY’S BURGER STAND – HAPPY MEAT! DELISH VEGGIE BURGER!
Hamburger / Cheeseburger / Double cheeseburger / Veggie burger

PLUCKERS

THE SALT LICK

SNOWIE

STUBB’S BBQ

SWEET LEAF TEA

TIFF’S TREATS

TIM LOVE’S LOVE SHACK – again, don’t know if it’s happy meat?
Love Burger (prime tenderloin/prime brisket burger with Love sauce, lettuce, tomato, house pickles and cheese)

TORCHY’S TACOS

WAHOO’S FISH TACO
Blackened fish tacos

… so there you have it. Eat before you go if you’re as picky as me

Also, I highly recommend stopping by Uncle Billy’s for a to-go cup of beer for your walk down Barton Springs Road into the fest. It’s a $5 steal for a microbrew, and you just feel cool carrying a to-go beer down a street you normally aren’t allowed to carry beer down.