Craft Beers: Doing the Numbers

My three sons are craft beer enthusiasts. Their father is not because my beer-drinking days have past, and because, I don't get it. I'll never be able to use the phrase "mouth feel" when referring to a beverage. They do.

But I like the "movement," the kind of 60's back to the garden, do-good-things-for-the-love-of-it kind of approach with a little of anti-establishment, anti-monopoly religious zeal thrown in. Tell a craft beer guy you'd prefer a Budweiser and you'll soon feel like the proverbial sinner at the church picnic.

From the June 7 The New Yorker Magazine post:

"As of March, the United States was home to two thousand three hundred and sixty craft breweries, the relatively small, artisanship-oriented producers best known for India pale ales, porters, and other decidedly non-Budweiser-esque beers. These beverages have become so popular that craft beer now represents thirty per cent of Costco’s beer sales..."

I believe it. When I was in Philadelphia a couple weeks ago I bought beer for my boys at the local corner market. Years ago the display shelves would have been lined with six-packs of Miller, Coors, and Bud, now they are lined with single bottles of craft beer with names like Dogfish, Victory, and Sierra Nevada. Hundreds of labels all neatly stacked in rows. Never mind that each bottle costs about three bucks each, and never mind that I used to buy a 12-pack of Natural Light for $5.97, this is what the 20 - 40 year old beer drinker is drinking.

Of course, Budweiser is paying attention and like any corporate bully will be looking to buy up the profitable bits of the business and some craft brewers will be looking to cash out and cash in. This is America after all. When I was 18, I never imagined the Beatles could be anything but revolutionaries, but I have heard the instrumental Musak version of "You Say You Want a Revolution" in a JC Penney's shoe section. It ain't right but it happens.

What I am saying is one never knows how something like this will mature, but however it grows up we can all enjoy a return to quality, to small business, big dreams, and the big adventure, and if I had half a chance I'd jump in with them. If you like numbers and charts the New Yorker has some catchy interactive charts with numbers for all kinds of artisan beer categories.

Click here: BEER

The Glazed Donut Sandwich.

"Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess."

 So said Oscar Wilde and Dunkin' Donuts is hoping he's right.

On June 7, DD is taking their new donut sandwich nationwide. A glazed-donut-egg sandwich. What could be better for breakfast? Forget the IRS scandal and Benghazi. This is important stuff.

I love Dunkin Donuts. I like their coffee, donuts, breakfast sandwiches and overall vibe. I miss their diner-style stores with bar counters and stools and old guys drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, reading the paper, and enjoying a donut. But that's the old Dunkin Donuts. The new Dunkin' Donuts has a healthier more hip kind of cuisine, like the glazed donut and egg sandwich.

Yes, I will be trying one as soon as I can.

The only Dunkin Donuts I know of in the Fort Worth area is here: Precinct Line Rd, Hurst, TX

La Colombe, Di Bruno's, Village Whiskey, Dogfish beer, and Rittenhouse Square

Sorry for a food post on Philadelphia but I have just returned from attending my son's graduation so you get what I get I guess.

Anyway, if you do find yourself in the City of Brotherly Love's Center City area let me make these suggestions.

Coffee: the best cup of coffee, espresso, or cappucchino in town, or on the eastern seaboard is La Colombe. I say this for many reasons, the first being, of course, an honest cup of hot coffee. But equally, it's a real place, real baristas, real wood chairs on a hardwood floor.

La Colombe keep things simple because they try to do one thing well: coffee, and they haven't turned the store into a retail gift shop that also sells coffee (Yes, that's you Starbucks), and they sell croissants from a local baker who cares about doing croissants well. As a friend of mine said, "at La Colombe, the coffee comes first, the customer second."

There's no menu, no chalkboard, just get in line and order your standard coffee drink of choice and all God's chillen' are happy. Cash only.

http://www.lacolombe.com/

La Colombe

Di Bruno's
I love this place. They have some of the best sandwiches in town. And cheese, and fish, and desserts.
http://www.dibruno.com/

Di Bruno's

Reading Terminal Market
Want the best pulled pork sandwich in Philadelphia? DiNic's.
http://readingterminalmarket.org/

Village Whiskey
Maybe the best 8 oz. hamburger money can buy. Made from grass fed beef. The bun is perfect and the Duck fat french fries aren't bad either.
http://villagewhiskey.com/

And while I'm at it a little love for the Rittenhouse Plaza-Warwick hotel. Old-fashioned hotel service. Great newly-renovated rooms, friendly staff, and reasonable rates for the location. Rittenhouse Square is the only place to stay if you the love the hum of the city.
http://www.radisson.com/philadelphia-hotel-pa-19103-6179/paphily

The Wall Street Journal agrees, by the way: Rittenhouse

View of Curtis Institute of Music from my favorite bench in Rittenhouse Square

Last thing. If you get to the beach: Don't forget Dolle's Salt Water Taffy and and DogFish Beer from the original pub in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Late Spring at the Beach

Selling the sizzle...again.

One of the artforms of the times in which we live is advertising. Philosopher and social commentator Marshall McLuhan called advertising "the greatest art form of the twentieth century," and "the cave art of the twentieth century." These axioms reveal a subtle criticism and warning to our audio-video age even while recognizing advertising's influence.

But if you're going to do advertising and do it well one would be wise to learn from the masters, and one of them is Apple, or Apple's ad agency.

It's not easy to create a memorable ad but to create one that gets people to act, to actually go out and buy the product, as Apple does, again and again, is something to appreciate.

Here's their latest:
 


No mention is made of gigabytes, mps, or pixels.

Fort Worth Bike Share. 300 Bikes, 28 Stations. Up and Rolling.

 

I participated in the Fort Worth Bike Share launch this last Earth Day, Monday, April 22. Yes, I said Earth Day, and yes, I was there with the green and environmentally conscious. And no I wasn't sporting a red bandana and rolling my own (not that there's anything wrong with that). I kept a more or less low profile.

I hear my libertarian/conservative friends snickering in the background. That's alright, I can take it. I'm still a card-carrying Republican, wary of government intervention, taxes, and handouts, but this, this is different, and what's a measly million dollar grant from the Fed's anyway? Besides, one of the great things about old age is not worrying about every activity in life being logically consistent with all the others.

This was an enjoyable kick-off. I like that the city is supporting and encouraging bike use, walking, and trolleys, and anything else to make Fort Worth a city that people actually live in and not just drive in and out of.

There were about 500 people at the launch including 300 volunteers like myself riding the bikes to their docking stations. I really enjoyed it. I hope it works and grows. And congratulations to the folks at the T for everything they did to make this happen. It's what makes Fort Worth a good place to live.

For information go to: http://fortworthbikesharing.org/