5 Reasons DC Brau is Bro’s Best

While I’ve yet to get to a DC United match, I do imbibe plenty of DC Brau, DC’s best craft beer in my opinion. First, I love the fact that its local. Second, love that its available on tap in just about all my favorite locals, including DC Reynolds, which is no longer my local because I moved, but I return often for their killer patio and happy hour. Third, I love that its canned not bottled.

Their award-winning sick graphic art and branding is super-crisp, and a can keeps the beer fresher and the hand cooler during the dog days of summer. Fourth, my favorite people like DC Brau and I’m a sucka from an endorsement from the Bourdain. It was his trip to Istanbul that inspired my wife and I to honeymoon in Turkey three years ago, and to unabashedly enjoy pork.

Fifth, the recipes DC Brau have got going are freaking dynamite. They are cleverly curated and balance experimentation with popular taste so they are very drinkable. You don’t have to be shy when trying El Hefe Speaks, a german-style wheat beer of the quite quaffable IPA, The Corruption. SO, if a six hits your deli case, I encourage you to GET U SUM!

Transitions

I haven’t posted in nearly a month to deadbait because my life has been taken over by some pretty serious nesting. My wife and I moved (for the 3rd time in 3 years!) to Silver Spring, MD just outside DC to a 1950s rambler that has lots of space and a gorgeous yard. And all our thoughts and attention are getting the place ready for a little bundle of joy we’re expecting in just about two weeks!

As I sit here writing this post, I’m looking out onto a sun-dappled backyard where the pink, purple and red azaleas are in bloom.  Black and grey squirrels and rabbits are scavenging and flitting around the back yard. Somewhere in the background I can hear my cat Ninja meowing for a treat. My wife sleeps long and deep these days in anticipation of many restless nights ahead. And I feel thankful, content and a deep overwhelming sense of accomplishment, that the many long years of work, risk, adventures have lead up to a moment where I get to fulfill perhaps our greatest achievements in bringing another being into this world and raising her well. I look forward to the next chapter of life, this transition, with trepidation, in awe…

So when I’m neck-deep in baby poop and can’t get the baby to stop crying in a few weeks, remind me of this moment will you?

Intelligentisia

Billy Reid + Frye Coming to Georgetown

So I’ve been mapping the best menswear in DC and today during a little stroll in Georgetown I noticed that Billy Reid is coming to M street and bootmaker Frye is coming to Wisconsin Ave. Both are superb American-made  brands that offer impeccable gear. I simply can’t wait.

Interesting note about Frye. Though their iconic Harness boot was born decades earlier and inspired by the US Cavalry, the Massachusetts-based family of designers gained a bit of inspiration for another now iconic boot from the district. “During a 1938 trip to Washington, D.C., John A. Frye’s grandson and namesake met a U.S. Navy Admiral who noted his difficulty in finding the Wellington styles he liked so much. As a favor, John agreed to make him a pair. Frye continued to fill these requests for boots through World War II.”

By the way Jack Spade just dropped their first watch line at their Wisconsin Ave location. I checked them out at a recent launch party, and its not bad for their first line.  They’re very deliberately fashion watches and so I’ll stick to my Bell & Ross and Luminox, but no man would be mad if he received one as gift.

Season’s Firsts

So the DC-based “Fly Fishing Consultant” Rob Snowhite reports on Orvisnews.com that the Potomac is warming up (it better be after today’s 75+ temps!) and so is the fishing. Here are Rob’s first white perch and hickory shad of 2013. ALAS, if I wasn’t prepping to move, packing, cleaning and generally working my tookas off I’d be out under Chain Bridge right up about now. Fortunately I got a day booked on the Suzie Q later this month with my bro Chris—that is if I can pull him away from his meatlocker over at the Union Kitchen!

Copyright Rob Snowhite 2013

Copyright Rob Snowhite 2013

Film CRAFT XX

WOOD & FAULK

 

BULLEIT FRONTIER WHISKY WOODY

 

BILENKY CUSTOM BIKES

 

THE BUTCHER’S CHARGE

 

PDT X MOORE AND GILES

 

BELLY Q LEATHER APRON

 

FRANKLIN: THE SMOKER

Wabbit Tracks

I’ve finally realized the American dream of home-ownership. Got to prep the nest for my wife and the baby! Beyond getting the workshop going and buying garden supplies, I’ve got plans to put in a generator, a freezer for game meat (for when I eventually bag that deer), but also cow-pooling. I noticed rabbit tracks in the snow yesterday and joked about taking them for the stew pot to my wife. I’m serious about it too, because I’ve acquired a really lovely garden with terraced walls and being half a block from a major suburban park with a large resident population of deer I’ve already started “worrying about my begonias.” I’m also looking forward to planting my first real vegetable garden soon. I see bountiful crops of carrots, beets, cucs and tomatoes ahead.

So what the hell was I thinking when I visited my home store and purchased Round-up (Montsanto) to kill the weeds in my yard as well a big old jug full of pesticide to spray around the house perimeter?! Mind you, none of it is organic or natural. It was only today on the way to work that it hit me–of course I want a natural home. I want it free from pesticide and chemicals that will inevitably drain into the nearby creek or contaminate those plump rabbits I got my eye on. I’m an advocate for conservation and environmental protection as you well know but talk about having brain farts, the main ingredient of Round-up is glyphosate, a man-made chemical now found in many streams and creeks across the country that suffer run-off from suburban and urban areas. Its not terribly toxic and it biodegrades in 60 days, doesn’t build up in mammals or aquatic species, but frankly why risk it when there are perfectly good non-toxic alternatives out there. It still can cause breathing issues, and kidney damage at chronic levels.

So, again, what the hell was I thinking? Fact is, I wasn’t. I think I was acting on some base instinct to “protect” the homefront from invasion, and got a little too trigger-happy at the home store. Luckily, I caught myself because I think as a new home owner you get this opportunity to set new habits, to put a stake in the ground and really live your beliefs. And I’ve got big plans to create a safe, non-toxic, energy efficient home. Now I’ve got to get rid of these harmful chemicals and figure out my next move, dig in and do some research and find some natural approaches to weed and pest management. Fortunately, nature threw me a reprieve in the form of an early Spring snow-storm. Now its up to me to follow-through.