Luscious Labor of Love

While it's no secret how much I love writing about food, from the farmers who grow it to the cooks who put it front of us at our favorite restaurants to how to make it at home, I'm also crazy about beer, wine and cocktails and our local crew of brewers, winemakers and distillers. Here's a write-up I did for a recent issue of MIX magazine on David Shenaut, plus the recipe that didn't make it into the magazine. The perfect cooler for a summer gathering, it's simple, light and refreshing.

Acclaimed bartender David Shenaut has left the Irving Street Kitchen to work for the McMenamin's Zeus Café in the new Crystal Hotel downtown, where he's planning to shake things up with his signature Souracher cocktail. Named after a brilliant kitchen staffer he worked with at Brad Root’s eponymous restaurant in Camas, Washington, who liked to end his shift with a combination of lime juice, Campari and whiskey, Shenaut was intrigued enough to spend five years perfecting it. He describes it as “incredibly balanced and packed with flavor, with both masculine and feminine qualities.” I call it irresistible.

The Souracher

3/4 oz. Campari
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
3/4 oz. rye whiskey (100-proof)

3/4 oz. Carpano Antica
1/2 tsp. rich Demerara sugar syrup (2:1; no heat)
Spicy ginger beer
Ice cubes

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: Collins
Garnish: long lime peel

Shake first 5 ingredients with ice and strain into a Collins glass filled with an Ice spear or large ice cubes. Top with ginger beer and garnish.

Frisco Road Trip, Pt. 1: Getting There

Road trips are a journey of time and mind, where daily life is put on hold and all that's important is the journey. Months ago I heard that a major exhibition of the work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo was coming to the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco and, since I'm a huge fan of her work, it was not an event I was going to miss come hell or high water.

Rather than jumping on an airplane and 90 minutes later landing at our destination, shuttling to a hotel, going to the museum and heading back home the next day, we decided that we needed some time out to watch the countryside whiz by, stop to eat when we felt like it and maybe visit some friends (or make new ones). Plus this way we could stop at the shrine that is Jack's Grill in Redding, have lunch with a writer friend in Sacramento and take as long as we wanted in the city before heading home again.

The key was renting a car rather than hauling our old Volvo wagon down and back, so we went for a compact, high-mileage Toyota Corolla that would get over 30 miles per gallon and still allow Dave, at 6' 4", some head and leg room. Throwing our gear into this simple 4-passenger jet, we headed out mid-morning, stopping for lunch in downtown Roseburg at McMenamin's Roseburg Station, the renovated central train station. Nothing spectacular food-wise, of course, but my spinach salad and Dave's burger were decent and allowed us a quick break before climbing up through the mountains and down to Redding.

Read the other posts in this series: Paying Our Respects, Resting in Redding, Schmoozing in Sacto, Home Away from Home, Off on the Right Foot, Choosing Chinese, The Ferry and the Hog, The Point of It All, and The Last Meal.

Beer Blast With A Few Busts

When we first moved to Portland, there was nothing we liked more than a good festival. And there were plenty of them. Neighborfair promoted the blossoming development of the city's neighborhood associations and the social service and improvement projects they undertook, regularly drawing 250,000 to 300,000 people to Waterfront Park over a weekend. The Zoo Concerts filled the performance lawn by the elephant display on summer evenings, and got so popular they had to be split into two nights. And Artquake shut down SW Broadway, the main street running through downtown, for a weekend to celebrate local artists and arts organizations.

Neighborfair is long gone, the zoo concerts now feature a very un-Portland-like "VIP Upgrade Program" where you can reserve a blanket (which you get to keep) on the lawn and waltz by the hoi-polloi (i.e. the rest of us) waiting in long lines for a spot on the grass. And the art festival has moved to the tony Pearl district and has been renamed Art in the Pearl.

I bring this up because yesterday we went to McMenamin's Edgefield for the somewhat lugubriously titled Oregon Bounty Fresh Hop Beer "Tastival." Even though I now find myself allergic to crowds, it seemed like an opportunity to sample some of the state's prodigious output of microbrews. And Dave and our neighbor needed a DD so they could imbibe freely of the samples offered.

Out of the 21 beers offered, we sampled 13, eliminating the other eight because we'd already tried them or just didn't get around to them before we pooped out. By far the best was Elemental Ale from the Pelican Pub and Brewery in Pacific City with it's extremely fresh, flavorful and gripping flavor of hops. Others we liked were Rogue Ales' Hop Heaven and Roots Organic Brewing's Hoppipotamus. By far the worst were Twisted Sister and Step Sister from Sandy's Karlsson Brewing Company, who should be arrested for beer abuse for the undrinkable messes of competing flavors they chose to bring.

My advice for those thinking about attending future event would be to go on the early side, since they ran out of several beers (like the Elemental) by mid-afternoon as the crowd grew. And the events are cash only, so don't expect to use your plastic.

Details: Full Sail Brewers Dinner; four courses and a special beer pairing. Every Thursday through Nov. 29; 4-8 pm; $20 includes beer. Full Sail Brewing Co., 506 Columbia St., Hood River. More info online or phone 1-888-244-BEER.

Fresh Hop Beer "Tastival" at Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene. Oct. 20; noon-9 pm; free. Ninkasi Brewing Co., 272 VanBuren St., Eugene. 1-877-764-6527.

Fresh Hop Beer "Tastival" at Deschutes Brewery Lower Warehouse in Bend. Oct. 27; noon-7 pm; free. Deschutes Brewery, 399 SW Shevlin-Hixon Dr., Bend.