Posh Pub Pairings

Don’t try this at home.

In fact, don’t try this at Bohanan’s Bar, either—at least not the way I did it.

I’m talking about my marathon sampling of all three of the new beer and booze tasting packages at Bohanan’s Bar. In the course of, oh, an hour and a half or two. I didn’t start out to do it this way, but somehow, things just kept coming….

The tastings are a collaboration between the bar and kitchen at Bohanan’s, with Executive Chef Heather Nañez, Chef  James Williams, Head Bartender Timothy Bryand and Bar Manager Carlos Faz all in cahoots. What they’ve come up with is a trio of  pairing “flights” celebrating beer, tequila and single-malt scotch—all matched to foods that are either cozy or confrontational, but in every way worthy of contemplation.

Tasters leery of the notion might do well to start with the beer flight and its cheese companions. There are five beer-cheese pairings in this session, and my favorite happened to be number one, pitting Hopus Bitter Belgian Golden Ale against a brie goat cheese and pumpkinseed pesto. It helps that the hoppy beer is superb, but the creamy cheese and the pesto each played with the ale in different, rewarding ways.

Another favorite was Flight Four consisting of Orval Belgian Pale Ale with Brillat Savarin triple cream brie and a chutney blending sundried and fresh tomatoes. There’s a great, creamy head on this beer, and a spicy nose to boot. A hint of basil in the chutney was unexpectedly brilliant with the beer.

One match that didn’t make it for me was a Chimay Trappist beer paired to a Chimay Trappist cheese. Should have been a slam-dunk, but perhaps it was too obvious—or maybe it was the star anise scenting the accompanying, rehydrated apricots that didn’t work with the beer’s clove component. What did work very well was the salt in the salted cashews and the sweetness of the Texas honeycomb with Samuel Smith Oatmeal English stout and a St. Andres Brie in Flight Five. With its aura of chocolate and toasty coffee, this beer and its companion cheese was almost a dessert course.

The tequila tasting takes a different approach to pairing: there’s one food item stacked up against two different tequilas in each flight. (There may be only three flights in this case, but you definitely get your money’s worth.) Flight one consists of two blancos—Siembra  Azul (delicate and faintly peppery) and Hacienda del Cristero (bigger and absolutely great on its own); a cocoa-crusted mango brochette is the foil. The next two flights explore reposados and añejos with salmon ceviche and a mocha-infused mousse respectively. The Siembra Azul label is the common thread between all flights, and the reposado is definitely worth seeking out in the marketplace. Among the añejos, the French-oak-aged Casa Noble stands out—but so much so that it nearly wants to be alone with its cocoa powder and spice.

Surprisingly, I don’t think I’m flagging, and there are six single-malt flights to go. Suck it up and stick it out…I swear I didn't finish any glass or plate. Well, almost none of them.

Logically, the scotches are arranged in order of age, from a heathery, 10-year Auchentoshan to a 17-year Bowmore lightly redolent of the smoke and peat of Islay. Profiteroles, bittersweet chocolate galettes and toasted filbert biscotti constitute the sweet pairings; seaweed-cured bluefin tuna and a brined and cold-mesquite-smoked pork tenderloin are among the savories. The pork and the smoky Bowmore were exquisitely complementary, but my favorite of the lot was the 15-year-old Springbank with the filbert biscotti; as the tasting sheet claims, the nuttiness of the Scotch is enhanced by its partner, and the two add up to far more than the sum of their parts.

The beer pairing will set you back $50. Both the Tequila and Scotch encounters are $60. This is clearly a commitment, but the experience is worth it. If, however, you prefer to spend your pocket change on creative cocktails, some of the bar staff has just come back from the Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans. This yearly boozefest pulls together both producers and practitioners from around the country and the world. Scotches were hot this year, and rum is said to be enjoying a comeback. With cocktail legends such as Dale De Groff in attendance, surely the bar boys brought back some new ideas. Just belly up to the bar to find out.

Where I'll be tomorrow: The Farm's Rock and Roll Garage Sale

'Cause I know you care, not so much about my schedule as helping keep a unique asset to SA's music scene open. You're just that kind of people. Matt Ahern's struggling to keep the doors open at local recording studio and former music venue the Farm (311 Howard St.), so he's holding a fund-raising sale there tomorrow. We'll be there to bargain hunt and interview Ahern about the Farm's future. Watch for the story in Wednesday's issue.
Info, straight-up plagiarized from the Facebook event page follows:

Very Vinho Verde

Yes, it’s summer. We need to deal with it. Here’s one way: vinho verde.

If you have just enough romance language knowledge to be dangerous, you might now be thinking that I’m talking about “green” wine. Yes, and no. The green, in this case, refers to youth in this thoroughly delightful wine from the northwest corner of Portugal. We can all remember youth, can’t we? A time when nothing required too much investigation, and all (or at least much) was right with the world. No, I don’t yearn for it, but I don’t mind in the least recalling days without the pressure of deadlines, relationships, global warming….

Enter Casal Garcia. One of the privileges of maturity is that people do assume you know something, however useless, and will send you stuff to prove the point. The promoters of this classic vinho verde branco (you’ll understand why adding branco, or “white”, is necessary later), sent me a couple of bottles, and this is what I think about the first: It may be non-vintage (many are), but the lively wine in the bottle is much like the lacy label—light, lightly spritzy, full of herbs such as tarragon and blossoms the likes of, oh, let’s say, peach or apple. Drink it quite chilled, don’t ponder, do congratulate yourself for appreciating a wine retailing for well under $10.

The other wine in the shipment actually had a cork—and a vintage date. It was the Aveleda Fonte 2009 Vinho Verde D.O.C. Also a tad bubbly, at least upon pouring, it did exhibit a little more complexity: more herbs, maybe a little melon. But I’m not sure that I didn’t appreciate more the simpler bottle. Okay, it’s a toss-up. Both would be good at poolside, at a picnic under the cypresses lining a Hill Country river (assuming you could keep the wine very cold), as a warm-up (or cool-down, maybe more appropriately) to a simple summer dinner of cold salmon, potato salad and fresh fruit with a squeeze of lemon.

There’s another VV I’ve been tasting lately as well, this at the Saturday events at Saglimbeni Fine Wine. It’s the equally affordable Santola Vinho Verde, and in this case, the green also comes in pink. (Both, also available at Central Market, retail around $7-$8. ) I do like the straight, white vinho verde from this producer, but the rosé version, a relative newcomer on the market, is sensational. "Juicy" was my first impression—the juice reminding me of strawberry, raspberry, whichever you prefer. And, of bubble gum—but only in a good way. Assuming there is a good way. The added skin contact in the rosé means that you might even hitch this wine up with cold roast chicken, sausages with a little spice…or, let’s get real, just with your desire to drink something refreshing on a ridiculously hot summer day. As I said, not too much scrutiny.

Trailers Without Trash: Weissman's Latest Project

He’s at it again.

Fresh from a half Iron Man in Napa, Andrew Weissman hit the ground still running with the inking of a contract for his latest project. No, it’s not the Olmos Park location you might have been hearing about. (More on that another time). It is, in fact, a park of a totally different sort.

A trailer park, in other words. On a plot of land that slopes toward the river at Ave. B and Jones Ave., and in the shadow of the long-abandoned shell of a future residential complex, Weissman is going to arrange three trailers—“Airstreams,” he says, or others inspired by taco trucks. They’ll be clustered around a shaded outdoor dining area that will also sport a kids’ playscape.

“There’s blacktop now, but we’re going to soften it up with brick pavers, crushed granite, planting…we want it to look organic,” he says.

The circling wagons themselves will each have a specific menu focus. One will serve eco-friendly disposable bowls of anything from braised pork to bubbling soup—all at $5 so “we can get sophisticated or simple.”  Another will dispense wine and beer—“as many wines by the glass as possible, with some bottles stuck into tubs of ice.” And the third will, of course, provide dessert and espresso. (Among many other things, Weissman is obsessive about good coffee.)

The compound setting, in the shade of an old oak tree, will encourage traipsing from trailer to trailer, but should be equally amenable to a stop-and-grab given the planned availability of onsite and street parking. The site’s one apparent disadvantage is the lack of access to the new, Museum Reach portion of the River Walk.

“We want to be open for lunch and dinner from Wednesday through Sunday—maybe as late as 1 a.m. some nights,” he volunteered—hopefully. And if La Gloria’s night-owl plans materialize, perhaps a late-night locus will develop in the Pearl precinct. We don’t all go to bed at 9:30.

No timeline was given for completion (these things always take longer than one hopes), and neither was a name offered for the culinary compound. “This is uncharacteristic of me,” says Weissman. “The name is usually first.” We think it needs to play on trailer trash, but its opposite, trailer treasure, is truly lame, so we’ll keep thinking. Just something to engage the mind while on the EFX machine working off braised pork, wine, dessert…

Regis Shephard Memorial information

There are, thus far, two memorial services in the works for Regis Shephard.
Here's the info, Facebooked by his cousin, Latoya Jenkins.

A memorial service will be held for Regis at St. Philips College, Watson Fine Arts Building Theatre, 1801 MLK, San Antonio on Monday, Aug. 2 at 10 am.

Also funeral services will be held on Tuesday, August 3 at 10 am at First Baptist Church, 202 SW Avenue B., Seminole, TX. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Also, at the St. Philips memorial, there will be information about a scholarship fund being set up in Regis's name, and how to donate. I will keep y'all updated on that.

I spoke to Regis's oldest brother Roderick a little bit ago, and he says the family is in shock and grief, but that he's been "just overwhelmed by the response...we had no idea he was so well-loved and important to so many people in San Antonio."

Blue Star Contemporary Art Center has offered to host a memorial gathering, also. If you have any interest in participating or helping to orchestrate this, please get in touch with me at sfisch@sacurrent.com

Drawing above is "Regis", by his friend Nate Cassie, from a series entitled "Be Careful What You Wish For." 2009 charcoal on paper, 48"x42"

Two things you should do tonight

#1 This'd be a bargain even if it didn't benefit one of the cooler places in town. Watch for our story next week on the status of one of San Antonio's only true hippie havens, and I mean that in the best way possible.





#2 This one features some of the most talented rock musicians in town covering one of last decade's best albums for free, so even if it sucks you win. Supposed to start promptly at 11pm, so don't miss "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart."

Last Minute art opportunity. Get to work!

I'm too bummed still to write anything about this, so here's the press release.

SF

Planned Parenthood seeks Art exploring Families

for Group Show at Southwest Art and Craft Center

What:             Call for Entries for “Family”: A Group Art Show.

                        Planned Parenthood invites entries from artists working in all mediums whose work reflects notions of families in all their forms. The show will be curated by Barbara Justice and Adriana Barrios of Justiceworks Studio. A grand prize of $500 will be awarded at an opening reception on October 15.

Who:              The Planned Parenthood Trust of San Antonio & South Central Texas

When:            Deadline for Entries: August 31, 2010

                        Exhibit dates: October 15 – 31, 2010

Where:           Southwest School of Art and Craft

                        Russell Hill Rogers Lecture Hall

                        Navarro Campus

                        1201 Navarro

Why:              For many years Planned Parenthood has worked with area artists to express the organization’s meaning and mission. All works submitted will be considered for reproduction in Planned Parenthood printed and online materials.

Regis Shephard 1971-2010

Regis Shephard died this afternoon. He was 39.







I met him in the mid-90s, at the Wong Spot (the old one on Cevallos and South Flores), we were both just out of college, kinda — I'd dropped out of UT, but he had graduated from Tech and was getting his master's at UTSA and was already teaching at St. Philip's.

Regis had his shit together! He was a grownup masquerading as a twenty-something kid in shorts and graphic t-shirts back then, wearing his hair in short dreads and his grin was crazy infectious. And he was handsome, and friendly. His laugh and his hug were fantastic.  His drawings, whoa, charcoals of distorted faces and cartoon-villainous black men in rage and despair, or Stepin Fetchit-ized, or thwarted fantasies of naked white girls and weed, all his sharp, sad satires on desire and violence. Powerful, muscular work, immediately accessible but deep, scary and ominous, passionately idealistic, while funny as all hell.  As more people in the arts saw more and more of his work, you began to hear "Regis Shephard is BRILLIANT" all over. Regis Shephard is: The man, a star, gonna be huge, you should see the one he has up now, etc. We weren't just amazed by his art, but everybody loved him, too.

After 9-11, he made a show called What is Really What  in reaction to the country's fear and rage at the time. A show about the human toll war takes, not in terms of military losses or physical injuries, but the collective stain conferred on us all by our hatred. There were also some 9/11 WTC tower images online somewhere at that time, but I can't find them right now. I was living in New York then. I e-mailed him after looking at the tower images on the internet, told him how good and valuable I found this work, how close he was to the feelings emanating out of NYC. I wasn't writing about art, then. I was a comedian. Regis replied, was gracious and funny.

When I got back to San Antonio, Regis was no longer wearing shorts or dreads, was a sober academic, having put his own work aside to chair and coordinate the art department at St. Philip's. We Facebooked back and forth. I interviewed him for this story about the art departments in community college.

He'd been sick, a virus that affected his heart. Walking pneumonia, trips to the ER.  I called him up and we talked about how  he was healing up, feeling better, dreading but determined to change his diet, trying to slow down and relax more.

I was always thrilled to run into him at openings, see his work, we always made promises to hang out more but were too busy.

Regis's dear friend and mine, Nate Cassie, who also worked with him at St. Philips, called me at 6:02 and told me Regis had died. My heart sped up and my hands went cold. Nate told me Regis had been at work, had collapsed, taken to the hospital, and was dead.

I asked if it was his heart.
Nate said "we don't know yet."

We talked about how Regis was from Seminole, Texas, a tiny town way out west between Lubbock and Midland/Odessa, and how his family would likely hold the memorial there. We talked about doing a memorial here too. I'll keep you posted on that.

The paper comes out tomorrow, and we didn't have time to include him in this week's issue. We got the news after the paper was in production. But in next week's issue, we'll be writing about him, and showing some of his many incredible images.

Meanwhile I'm stunned, and sad, and confused, and can't quite believe it. I keep thinking maybe it's not true, somehow. He called Lawrence Welk an OG on my Facebook page on Saturday. And his last status update, posted about 5 pm yesterday, said "Art Time!"

Art Time.

Please feel free to leave comments here, or on his Facebook page.

Trip Advisor Touts Las Canarias.

Tripadvisor.com rates hotels, restaurants…you name it; “reviews you can trust” is their tagline. And though our kudos go out to Las Canarias for coming in at #1 on their survey of 1390 San Antonio restaurants (!), we suggest that a few words of caution are in order. (More on Las Canarias, a restaurant nevertheless worthy of your attention, below.)

Of the nearly 1400 restaurants listed, it should be mentioned that the last one that actually has a customer review is #902, Sultan Café & Grill. (Admittedly, this is already quite a lot.) Many are closed (Le Rêve and Las Leyendas, for example), and some are actually hair salons, jewelry shops and day-old bakery outlets. After Las Canarias, the top ten list includes, in order, Ernesto’s Mexican Specialties, Chama Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse, Fogo de Chao Churrascaria, The Guenther House, Schilo’s Delicatessen, Las Ramblas, Chris Madrid’s, Boudro’s, and Biga on the Banks. Burger Boy on St. Mary’s tops Liberty Bar, Francesca’s at Sunset, and Pavil Restaurant and Bar. And while we don’t believe you have to be fancy to make the top ten, please give us a break. Il Sogno at #43?  You gotta wonder.

But, as we said, nevertheless: This wouldn’t be our top ten, but Las Canarias would certainly be a contender. You could find out for yourself by starting with lunch in the light-filled dining room on the River Walk, or you could pony up for a romantic dinner. But we have another suggestion: Executive Chef John Brand is doing a special wine dinner on July 22 to showcase the wines of Palmaz Vineyards. It’s a return of the not-so-prodigal-son event in that Dr. Palmaz (he of the heart stent patent) left San Antonio to make it very big in the world of California wine, and though the family has been back before, this should be an especially festive occasion. We realize this is short notice.

The menu, however, includes some very tempting items. The roasted beef marrow with oxtail marmalade (no less) and Meyer Lemon salad. Or perhaps you might respond to the hand-foraged mushroom risotto paired with the 2005 Palmaz Cabernet Sauvignon or the local, Menzies Farm lamb shoulder and shank with dandelion greens, heirloom tomato tart and the 2006 Cab. The dinner concludes with the Palmaz Muscat Canelli and a sticky toffee pudding with banana caramel ice cream, toffee sauce and fresh cherries—surely worth the price of admission alone. But wait, there’s more: the reception with canapés and the Palmaz 2008 Chardonnay. The cost is $85 plus tax and tip, really not at all bad, especially considering that kitchens such as Brand’s are challenged to do their best by the opportunity to match their cuisine to exceptional wines. For reservation information, call 210-518-1017. If  they’re sold out, make a dinner reservation instead.

Slab Cinema is back and crazier than ever

The rain went away for a while at least, so Slab Cinema's setting up outside again. Tonight, at Hemisphere Park, check out Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, set to begin at sundown, which according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, will happen at 8:36pm sharp. Don't be late or you'll miss the monkeys. Bring the whole family and ride home in a strange philosophical funk you just won't get from Marmaduke. Or if classical music and giant ships floating silently and impossibly slowly across the screen make you sleepy, you'll do what I usually do and pass out during the TMA-1 segment not to wake up until HAL's meltdown. Bring along a more cultured friend to shoo the crickets off your face.

San Japan Slideshow

PHOTOS BY BRYAN RINDFUSS

Goodbye, Harvey Pekar

Goodbye Harvey Pekar. You made us care about your stopped up toilet, and maybe sometimes the minutiae of our own lives.

Hyatt Canvasses Canvas Label Art

Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, in partnership with Folio Fine Wine Partners (run by Michael Mondavi), has announced a contest directed at “qualilfied art students” age 18 and older. Their task will be to design labels for Folio’s Canvas label cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and merlot, a line of California wines developed with Hyatt and Master Sommelier Andrea Immer Robinson. (Why the line’s zinfandel, the quintessential California wine, was not included is beyond me.) The real thing will not be available for sampling, but Folio has thoughtfully supplied descriptions of the wines in question as a form of inspiration. The merlot, for example, is said to have “pure fruit, toasty spice and rich, ripe tannins.” Got that? Now make it visual. Art on wine labels is nothing new, of course, but it often has little to do with the bottle’s contents. In this case, it must be expressly expressive of the wine within. We suggest a survey of your wine shop or grocery store’s shelves in order to get a feel for what’s out there.

Your reward will be not only your art on the label, but winners will also receive a $5,000 scholarship to their art school. The deadline is August 15, 2010, by which time an original piece of art, medium not specified, must be submitted “depicting the characteristics of one of the three Canvas varietals.”  The rules and more information are available at www.canvasartistseries.com (Contestants under the age of 18 will, apparently, have to lie about their age in order to enter the site, which asks for your birthdate.) Results, which will partially be determined by public, online voting, will be announced on November 1, 2010. Should there be a local winner, and of course there should be, The Current could doubtless be persuaded to make a big deal out of it, too. We’re all for art. And Wine. And winning.

Roll Out the Barrel

Most Americans are used to beer with a brewing date of last week, so it might come as a surprise that there is growing interest in the ancient art of producing barrel-aged brews, beers that have spent time in barrels that may have been previously used for spirits such as bourbon or even wines the likes of chardonnay. (Cask-conditioning, which often takes place in stainless containers, is a variation of this process.) The beer may undergo a secondary fermentation and become naturally carbonated; it may take up flavors contributed by the barrel’s previous occupant; it will almost surely become more complex with inevitable air exposure, fraternization with microbes and the like. And it’s happening right here in San Antonio.

On Saturday July 17 starting at 11:30 a.m., Freetail Brewing Company, in association with the folks at Real Ale Brewing in Blanco, will host the RealTail Festival of Barrel Aged Beers. At the day-long event, Freetail will offer barrel-aged versions of their La Muerta imperial stout, along with Old Bat Rastard, dubbed a “winter warmer.” In addition, Freetail’s Scott Metzger says they will present samples of the brewery’s Wild Ale produced in a version of the solera process, usually used for Sherries and rums, in which new product is blended with old to create a cross-generational result.

For their part, Real Ale plans to offer a look into their Mysterium Verum barrel aging program, as Empire (an aged IPA) Highlander (Scotch ale), and The Devil’s Share (a Belgian-style tripel) are all tapped along with samples from their regular line. “A few more surprises may also be in store for visitors,” hints Metzger.

Freetail is located at the northeast corner of NW Military Dr. and Loop 1604. Admission is free, though full-size servings are likely to come at a price. It’s the conditioning of beer, not drinkers, that’s being promoted, after all.

New 'Q

There is news that Gonzales Food Market, “sausage since 1959”, is coming to town from its home base in, yes, Gonzales. Local pitmasters beware, as GFM, among other accomplishments, is featured in Robb Walsh’s “Legends of Texas Barbecue Cook Book”. Sausage, brisket and both pork and lamb ribs are among the traditional offerings, and the competition can only be good for local ‘Q heads; we have a long way to go before reaching Lockhart/ Luling/Elgin status, so the more the meatier. The San Antonio location will be at 2530 W.W. White Rd., and a July opening is anticipated. For more information, go to www.gonzalesfoodmarket.com.

After deadline: More local music this week

Actors Network SA mixer tonight

Featuring Austin casting director Donise L. Hardy (left). Read the press release below for all the info.

Actors Network SA
July Mixer
Guest Speaker: Casting Director Donise L. Hardy
Thursday, July 1, 2010
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Guest Speaker Q and A: 7:00pm Sharp
C 4 Workspace
108 King William
San Antonio, TX 78205
www.c4workspace.com


Actors Network SA is honored to have Casting Director, Donise L. Hardy, as our guest speaker for the month of July.

She plans to open her casting office in Austin, July 2nd.

All actors are invited to attend!

Come and join our local acting community to gather information about upcoming productions and acting related events in the SA Area.

Our marketing table will be available to display your marketing materials (Headshots/Resumes/Business Cards etc) if you have them.

Break a leg and see ya at the mixer!

Donise L. Hardy, C.S.A., began her casting career in San Francisco in 1991; three years later, she established her Los Angeles firm. In 1999, a move to Austin quickly positioned Donise as the busiest commercial casting director in the State of Texas.

Donise has cast hundreds of commercials, dozens of films and industrials during her 19 – year career.

Before taking her career to new heights, Donise was a high-fashion model, a print model, an extra, an actor, a baby booker, a talent agent and an extras casting director giving her a unique perspective on casting.

Throughout her career, Donise has taught classes, specializing in commercial audition technique. Her classes are in high demand and are recommended by casting directors, agents, coaches, talent and moms throughout the state. Having conducted hundreds of thousands of auditions, gives her a special insight into the process.

http://www.acastingplace.net/