Fremont Brewing Puts Two of The Best Things in One Can For Pride
It's Pride week, which means celebrating of LGBTQ rights amid nearly nonstop drinking. To help you do both at once, Fremont Brewing presents Pride Kolsch, a light, refreshing, and perfect-for-summer lager that will raise money for LGBT causes (and hopefully get you pleasantly buzzed in a park, on a patio, or around a fire). The new brew is launched June 22 with a release party and Pride Kickoff Celebration at Fremont featuring two special infusions from 5 to 10 pm. Following that, it'll be distributed statewide in some very pretty 16oz cans and will be available on draft at the brewery as well. Proceeds from the beer go to Lambert House and Ingersoll Gender Center.
From their press release: "The vision behind Pride Kolsch is to create and foster an LGBTQ community within the craft beer world, to stand up for the safety and self-determination of this community, and to ensure that everyone can be proud of who they are, who they like, and what they drink."
Hell fuckin' yeah and happy Pride!
Burdick's New Taproom Now Open
In other fist-pump-worthy beer news, Burdick Brewing found a new home for their taproom and it's in South Park. Their first day open was Saturday, and henceforth they'll be open 11am-9pm Mon-Wed, 11am-10pm Thu-Fri, noon-9pm Sat, and noon-6pm Sun. Their original location was deemed unfit for service, due to a lack of drywall and an odd bit of health code that requires it, so I'm thrilled that my guy Max managed to right that wrong. And that he's doing it right on the booming main drag of our beloved South Park is just a sweet, sweet cherry on top.
The new spot looks kind of like every third wave indie coffee shop in LA, but in a way that somehow straddles the neighborhood's rapid gentrification, and its stolidly industrial roots. Indeed, Max's design sensibility has always been one of my favorite things about his brewery (though he did have help this time around). His commitment to free wifi and delicious, consistently improving brews doesn't hurt, either.
2120 Arrives in Amazonland
Amazon's weird spheres will have a new neighbor soon: 2120, a restaurant from the group behind Bellevue's 99 Park. It opens this Saturday June 24, Seattle Met reports. Apparently, they're big on the whole "address is the name" thing, as the new spot is on 2120 6th Avenue. Up to 60 diners will be treated to an up-close and personal view of the tech giant's futuristic balls from the restaurant's expansive patio, or they can retire inside to enjoy the restaurant's private dining room, set-apart alcove, and other seating areas optimal for conspiring to drive every brick and mortar retailer to the brink before buying them out.
The food will be the vaguely PNW fare we've all come to know and love, with a hint of Mexican influence thanks to executive chef Derek Bugge's "Mexican roots," the Met says. Dinners might feature, they write, "grilled octopus with sofrito and a honey-carrot puree, slow-roasted pork belly with tostones and smoked agave, [or] lamb tartare with chicharrón and poblano." Not sure what the thesis is, besides capitalizing on Amazon, but that all sounds pleasant enough. Grilled octopus, cooked correctly, is certainly a thing of beauty. Libations will be your typical craft stuff, although they've introduced the intriguing gimmick of punch on tap. Should the tech schemers require a bit of group refreshment, by way of team-building, they can order large or small bowls of whatever's on special, and experience the awkward, unifying joy of drinking sugary booze from a communal bowl.
From my first boss (also clearly an excellent mentor), here's the best and only punch recipe you'll ever need:
- Mix a 30-rack of Natty Ice, a handle of cheap gin, a packet of powdered limeade mix, and generous handful of lemon/lime/citrus wheels together in a decently fancy punch bowl.
- Don't tell anyone what's in it, because there's no way they'd know with all that sugary limeade mix in there.
- That's it. Get drunk.
Speaking of Cocktail Recipes...
Liberty's Brandon Weaver, who has a wonderful mane of curly hair and constantly wears funny hats atop it, won the Seattle semifinal of a United States Bartender's Guild cocktail competition. The national "Make it Exotico" competition, unsurprisingly sponsored by Exotico tequila, will take place at the famous Tales of the Cocktail festival in New Orleans, where Weaver will be representing our fair city against competitors from Nashville, Philadelphia, Denver, Portland, and Charleston. The drink he made to secure his passage was the Piñata Punch, which sounds like it makes for some pretty solid late June drinking:
Ingredients
1.5 oz. Exotico Tequila Blanco
.5 oz. Pineapple Juice
.5 oz. Lemon Juice
.25 oz. Green Chartreuse
.25 oz. Giffard Apricot Liqueur
.25 oz. Honey syrup (1:1 honey and water)Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake until frosty. Strain into a coupe and garnish with offset cucumber slices on the rim of the glass.
If you don't have those ingredients lying around the house, you can probably just go to Liberty and ask him to whip it up for you, as he's a fairly congenial dude. As evidence, a photo from the competition of him in his happy place—wearing a fancy hat, shaking a cocktail, and working behind a bar.
Congrats, dude!
