Last year the first We ♥ Real Beer Craft Beer festival at the Old Biscuit Mill was a huge success. The follow-up happens this Sunday. Yes, the Summer Craft Beer Festival. The 2nd Coming. The Best Sunday Ever. Whatever you want to call it, it’s going to be awesome.
The gist is simple: R30 gets you entry, your own We ♥ Real Beer pint glass, plenty of beer stands, food vendors and some kickass live music entertainment. Beers from &UNION, Jack Black Beer, Camelthorn, Darling Brew and more. And on the food side, I know Jason “Wheat-at-the-Knees” Lilly from Jardine Bakery is making porchetta (rolled whole pig slow-roasted over a fire), plus there’ll be lots more on offer.
What the Angela Lansbury could be better than that?
Well, this: buy ten pre-sale tickets and bonus, you get them for the price of 9. And buying pre-sale tickets means you skip the queue, which was nasty last time. Purchase tickets at &UNION, Superette or contact @weloverealbeer on Twitter or email shaunfrancbond@me.com.
Easy, yes. Great, yes. But, wait, I have something even better than that… (okay, this post sounds like a Verimark infomercial at this point)
Free tickets!! Yup, I have five tickets to give away for this Sunday’s event. How to get them? Simply post a tweet with both #RealBeer and @foodie_za in it before 5pm this Wednesay. Five most interesting/obscure/creative/whacky/funny tweets get a ticket. Done.
We ♥ Real Beer Summer Craft Beer Festival
Sunday, March 20. Old Biscuit Mill. Noon – late.
There you have it. It’s about time someone threw something together that celebrated the love and joy that is Real Beer. If you have no idea what I’m referring to by the term Real Beer, these are naturally brewed beers made by independent brewers. Craft brews. No additives or strange ingredients. No mass global brands. Smaller is better. Think Jack Black and Brewers & Union. And a few other small but quality producers.
The craft beer scene in South Africa is definitely still infantile. Yes, we have the giants, but the little guys, well, they’ve got a long way to go when compared with the great microbrewery scene in the UK or US. The quality is there but the market is still tiny. The Real Beer initiative is one step in the right direction and this craft beer festival of theirs is certainly another. I’m really looking forward to this – it’s going to be one helluva fun night. Let’s all go and support the little guys. But do remember to drink responsibly, i.e. get a taxi there, because you know you’re probably going to stumble out when it’s all over. It is a beer festival, after all.
I can profess a deep love for Hudsons. I know they get stick for their bad fries (and let’s be honest, they’re not as good as they should be), but I really love the place. It has hip, urban cool written all over it. They crowd is vibey, if a little over the hipster line. The waitresses are pretty. The whole interior design and feel is great. And importantly, the burgers are good. The simple Cheeseburger with its balsamic onion marmalade is cracking. I have tried most of them, but always come back for this one (recommended in 150g size: it just tastes better).
A new reason to visit Hudson’s is the Lagerita. I saw this on the menu while dining at the bar the other night (something I also love). It said Margarita topped with Jack Black. Mmm, Real Beer and margarita… that could be interesting. I tried one. Kapow! What a hit! It’s like a beer shandy, with tequila. This is revolutionary. If Archimedes had discovered this in the bath, he would have screamed ‘Eureka!’ and run down the street naked. Of course he didn’t have tequila in his time, and found another perfectly adequate reason to do this, but my point is that I felt the same way when I had my first sip. The drink is so beautifully refreshing and tasty, you could drink them all night. Okay, it’s R39 for one, which is probably good. Any cheaper and the student population would be decimated. Wiped out. Death by beer and tequila. Can you imagine?
Anyways, I recommend going to Hudson’s and trying one. Or two. You usually have to wait at the bar, so why not. Yes, Hudson’s is always busy. And so what? If you like to dine alone in a quiet restaurant, then Hudson’s isn’t for you. But then if you like to dine alone, you’re probably overly eccentric, oversensitive, self-conscious and/or socially-stunted. Either way, get used to the ready-made-meal from Woolies – you’re going to eat a lot of them. Restaurants are for social eating. It’s not just about eating, but about the combination of good food, drink and company. Oh, and about lageritas. Well, from now it is. So go try one!
www.theburgerjoint.co.za
Twankey Bar is the soon-to-open champagne bar on the corner of Wale & Adderley streets. It’s still undergoing final prep before opening, but looks set to be a cool spot. I popped in to have a look and met the Beverage Manager, James Boreland. James is a “right geezer,” if I have to borrow his own phrase. A polished English gentleman of the old school order, he showed me the street level bar and lounge that will be a champagne and raw bar, serving several different types of oysters and a variety of bubblies, and other wines of course. But it was the beer and oysters he was most excited about.
“It’ll be the classic old Guinness and oysters bar here,” James explains as he gestures towards the long marble bar area, complete with soft-cushioned bar chairs (more than just stools, these things are comfy) as well as Jack Black and Guinness on tap, “We did an event here a few weeks back and the ladies were all ‘Oh no, we don’t like Guinness,’ but after I got them to try a sip with oysters – they couldn’t have enough of the two together!”
Upstairs is a narrow lounge area and in front of the bar more lounge seating as well. It’s part of the Taj Cape Town hotel, but there’s no connecting entrance so guests will have to come in from the street. I guess they don’t want it to become just another hotel bar, which makes sense somewhat (When was the last time Bascule was happening – 2005?).
The chefs were shucking some oysters when I left and I caught a last look at the bar before strolling out into the 100 million degree heat. Oysters and a pint would have been perfect actually. I’m looking forward to coming back here when it’s open…
Twankey Bar. Corner of Wale & Adderley St.
Attended the launch of this last night. A pretty cool initiative if you ask me. Two of the hottest beer brands in South Africa have teamed up to create We Love Real Beer, a collective aimed at sharing real, naturally-produced beers brewed by independent brewers. The brands are CSG (owners of the Brewers & Union and CSG ranges) and Jack Black. So no Castle anywhere. Perfect. Or Zamalek. Though I do like a Zamalek every now and then, usually it’s at a random hotel bar somewhere in the Karoo with plenty of the kort-pant brigade around and only just one to quench the thirst before a Karoo Martini (klippies & coke) is in order. But let’s be real, I’d rather be drinking a bottle of Steph Weiss or a Jack Black 9/10 times.
The launch was at &UNION, that centre of the luxury beer culture in Cape Town, and held in conjunction with the Beer Drinkers’ Union (“a collective of people united together to to enjoy real beer”). With all the formalities in terms of titles, speeches and unions, one might think this was a board meeting, but not so. The beer was generously flowing out the Jack Black tap, out the Brewers & Union bottles and down the throats of a thirsty beer-loving urban hipster audience. Pointy sneaker and plaid shirt clad folk sank the beers and wolfed down some ridiculously tasty sausages as well as the odd pretzel. Naturally I also scoffed down a pork prego in three or four bites, as one does.
It was a festive evening and the omnipresent Rus Nerwich came on later and with his trio banged out some great improv jazz. The vibe was convivial and tongue-in-cheek, yet somehow one feels that this could be the start of something the big guns in beer should be nervous about.
www.weloverealbeer.com
Damn you, Willoughby. Damn you, damn you, damn you. You see, I really hate malls. It’s not just an anti-establishment thing, but more of a pro-European, pro-artisinal thing. When I step into a mall, I feel like that one step closer to being a middle-class consumer with 2.5 kids and a mortgage. Not good. I know Willoughby’s makes good sushi – I’ve eaten here before several times, though not in the last year. In truth, you don’t need to eat here to know they make good sushi – everyone will tell you they do. Either way, I wanted to visit again which obviously meant going into a mall…
I happened to eat there on an enormous two-night beer-, red wine- and hooka pipe-induced hangover that made the ‘mall people’ even more entertaining this visit (when people walk in slow-motion, you can really pick up the details). Fuzzy as things were, the menu was simple and easy to use, and their cool wine-pairing tool is ingenius (wines are listed in numbered categories and next to each dish is a number). I was dining with a friend, and since we’d both eaten a fair amount that day already, the idea was to ‘just take it easy.’ Six oysters, some prawn dumplings, a tuna fashion sandwich and their gigantic signature Rock Spider Crazy Prawn Roll Thing* later, helped down with three carafes of Vondeling’s excellent Pinot Blanc, and we were taking it real easy.
Now I’m somewhat of a traditionalist, which for a long while made me assume the Japanese really only eat sashimi, drink only sake and frown upon anything else, especially these ‘new’ sushi rolls with mayonaise and sticky sauces. This was until I ate in an authentic Japanese restaurant in New York a while back and saw the Japanese wolfing down plates of fried udon noodles sprayed with mayonaise and BBQ sauce. From that moment on, salmon roses were okay by me. This Creamy Spider Rock Prawn Maki Thing was pushing it, but damn it was good. Possibly the best sushi roll I have had. The maki roll part is tasty, but the prawns are special – little ninjas of flavour that knock your tastebuds out. They’re sweet and really sticky, and by this I mean you could hurl one at the ceiling and it wouldn’t come down. Have you tried this? You’d be a fool to, since they’re so delicious you’d be standing on a bar stool in no time trying to get it down. The sushi roll went fine with the Petit Blanc, but would actually have been much better with a good beer. The CSG Raphael would have been a winner.
So, go to Willoughby & Co. Go directly to Willoughby & Co. Do not pass Paul Smith. Do not spend R2,000. Go directly to Willoughby’s and eat inside (unless you enjoy the Mugg & Bean style outside seating?) at the bar seating. And enjoy it.
www.willoughbyandco.co.za
*real name: Spicy Creamy Rock Shrimp Tempura on Spicy Maki Roll.
Who is the Foodie? It doesn’t really matter. Bacon is god. Wine cures anything. If you believe those two facts, then we’re going to get on fine. This means you have discovered the power of food to make life better. This knowledge is imperative to the art of living well.
