You've got to get to Motor Burger on a Tuesday and try a Mozza'rati

This intriguing beauty is a Mozza'rati. A new 'burger' only available at Motor Burger and only available on Tuesdays.  Even on a Tuesday they are in limited supply and it may be worth contacting them to make sure they have some left before you go (though if you do go and they don't have any Mozza'rotti left there's tons of other awesome burgers to choose from, so it wouldn't really be much of a loss). Yesterday I finally got a chance to try one of these beauties for myself. 

So what exactly is it? It's an all beef burger with pepperoni wrapped in mozzarella cheese wrapped in pizza dough and baked. Served in a sea of tangy tomato sauce. 

It's just as good as it sounds. This burger combines two of my favourite things; Motor's amazing burgers and pizza. It's like someone read my mind and told them to make this just for me. The meat patty was perfectly cooked and spiced. The pepperoni wasn't too spicy. The sauce was a good tangy sweet. I guess the only thing I would have changed was to add more cheese and that shouldn't surprise anyone :D

Along with the Mozza'rati I feel the need to mention Motor Craft Ales. This local brewery is part of Motor Burger and includes a significant number of beers. Way more than I remember them serving last time we were there. Many are available to go as well as with your meal. Overall it feels like they stepped it up a notch. We tried four different beers while we were there and they were all excellent and each very distinct. 

A special mention goes out to the BMW 2.0 which is by far the best beer I've had from Motor Craft Ales and one of the best beers I've had from a Windsor brewery. The BMW is a Dunkelweizen, 7.4% ABV, 23.5 IBU. I found it very easy to drink, with a great balance of sweet fruit tastes and hoppy bitterness. It has some notes of banana and apple, but you couldn't really taste any booziness despite the high ABV. It went great with the Mozza'rati.

Brew, a great addition to the Windsor craft beer scene

Last weekend my wife and I were blessed with a kid free Friday night. These are few and far between for us so we did our best to make the most of it.

We started off the night with a couple of beers at the Walkerville Brewery where I tried their new Amber beer (rather good, I used to love Ambers and this is a good example of the style). From there we walked over to The Twisted Apron for an amazing dinner. 

After our dinner, the waitress (going above and beyond) asked what our evening plans were and after we answered non-committally suggested we check out Brew, a new(ish) brew pub that opened up just east of downtown. I had heard about Brew before and had been meaning to check the place out for some time, so that became the plan.

Brew was pretty easy to find. It's a big grey building with the letters B R E W in the windows, just east of the Casino at 635 University East. There was parking at the church next door and across the street in an empty lot. While it's not in the best part of town I don't think it's anything anyone would need to worry about.

The actual tap room wasn't very big at all. I would estimate maybe 12 seats at the bar, four or so tall tables spread around the room, and four round tables, one in front of each window. The place can probably only really fit about eight 4-5 person parties, more if people are willing to stand. 

We were lucky in the fact that, just as we were coming in a group was leaving so we were able to get one of the tables. We were handed an appetizing menu that was mostly gourmet style flat bread pizzas and pretzels. As we were coming form The Twisted Apron we weren't looking for food. I will say that seeing what other people were eating, the food looked and smelled great. Putting the menu aside we got to what we came for: The Beer! 

At the time we were there Brew only had three taps. This looks like it's the standard as you could clearly see the three brewing vats from the tap room. I have to assume that they always have three taps. Based on their facebook page it looks like Brew rotates these taps constantly.

While there my wife and I tried two beers. 

The first was their Chocolate Stout. As I'm sure you can guess, that's the darker beer pictured above. 

It was okay. Not great but in no way bad. I think as far as Chocolate Stouts go I'm a bit spoiled by amazing brews like Flying Monkey's BNL. 

The second beer left a much better impression on me and is the reason I will be going back to Brew again. It was their Sour Wheat.

My wife loves sour beers, especially Lambics. The problem with sours is that they are very hard to find. I don't think they are very popular. So just finding one is an achievement in itself. I think it's awesome that there's a sour brewed right here in Windsor. It also helps that it was a really good, very easy to drink sour. It wasn't overpowering at all and was pleasant enough that I had to order a 2nd one before we moved on to enjoy the rest of our night.

So overall I do recommend you check out Brew. It's a great addition to the local Windsor beer scene. I think it's amazing to see how much the Windsor craft beer scene has grown. I'm loving it. My only caveat is that you may want to call ahead or be prepared to wait for a table as there isn't a lot of room in their tap room.

Frankenmuth - it hasn't changed much and that's a good thing

When I was younger, one of the things my parents would do is visit Frankenmuth Michigan during the holidays. We didn't go every year but we went often enough that it was a big part of my childhood and is always a strong, happy spot, in my holiday memories.

A couple weekends ago my wife and I made the trip up I-75 North and headed back to Frankenmuth. 

The two of us were trying to figure out how long it had been since we were last in Frankenmuth. Neither of us had been over the border for a long time. We've never brought the kids there, so it was before they were born. Between the two of us we figure it was at least 8 years ago. Amazingly not much has changed since then.

That's really "The Thing" about Frankenmuth. Along with the whole Bavarian thing, Frankenmuth is pretty much a town that time forgot. This is intentional. A big part of the whole appeal of the area is that old town (or should I say towne) feel.

For as long as I can remember every trip to Frankenmuth must start with a stop at Tony's I-75 Restaurant. Tony's is actually in Birch Run. Birch Run is the small town you pass through on the way to Frankenmuth. 

There's one reason you stop at Tony's and that reason is bacon! Tons of bacon. Everything you order at Tony's that comes with bacon, you get a pound of the delicious stuff. 

Not only do you get a ton of bacon at Tony's, it's also awesome bacon. The best bacon I've ever had bacon. It's thick cut, cooked just right and so good. We had so much left over bacon that I was snacking on it through the whole trip. Get up in the morning grab a slice of bacon. Stop in at the hotel for a bit, grab some bacon. About to go to bed, just a second, need some bacon.

While in Birch Run it's worth stopping at the Birch Run Premium Outlets. This is a real outlet mall. Not like, Windsor Crossing, the sad excuse for an outlet mall that we have here. This outdoor shopping area has 145 stores. These are actual outlet stores with actual good deals. 

My wife and I aren't big shoppers but even we enjoy checking out Birch Run Premium Outlets. I managed to find some golf shirts, my wife found some socks, we found books and some gifts for the kids. There's even an OOPS! store that had some good deals on board games. We also picked up some snacks from Harry & David to eat at the hotel room (in between the left over bacon).

Between the drive, Tony's and shopping at the outlet mall, most of our first day was gone. I couldn't help but wonder how the heck we managed to fit it all in, in one day, when I was a kid. I guess it was a good thing we were staying two nights.

For dinner and entertainment that first night we checked out The Frankenmuth Brewery. 

The brewery is a huge brew pub overlooking the river. Tons of seating, a solid pub menu and a great selection of beer. 

They have 8 very different beers on tap which included 6 regular rotation beers and 2 seasonals. It was impressive to see such a range of different beers in one place. Pretty much a beer for every taste.

As an added bonus, we happened to be there Sunday night so we also got all you could eat Pretzel balls. These were awesome and we snacked on them all night as we ate our meals and sampled the various beers.

Of all of of the beers I tried, the Hefeweizen Ale was my favourite. It was very refreshing and had some really nice banana notes in the flavor. The seasonal Christmas Town Ale was also very good and memorable with a nice mix of spice and malts. 

The food was good and the service was great, My only real complaint about the place is that it was very loud. It's mainly a big open area with a very high roof and sound really carries. It was a bit hard to hold a conversation near the start of the night when the place was packed.

I also thought it was very cool that the front of the restaurant was a gift shop and a place where you could buy their beer. The beer was sold in cases, growlers and even a mixer pack with one of each of their beers.

For this trip we chose to stay at the Bavarian Inn Lodge. This is right downtown just across the river from the Bavarian Inn itself.

When I was a kid I only remember staying there once and all I really remembered about it was that it was well decorated for the holidays and that you had to go over a wooden covered bridge to get there. 

For this return trip I felt that staying at The Lodge was a must. 

Yet again, nothing has really changed. Actually, based on the room we were in, I have a feeling the only thing that really changed is that the hotel offered free Wi-Fi. 

Day two started with breakfast at Oma's Restaraunt. The food was great. My wife enjoyed it so much she insisted that we return there the next day before going home.

The banana bread french toast I got was really good. Though the bacon it came with paled in comparison from the stuff I got from Tony's the day before. I have to remember that after I eat at Tony's to not bother ordering bacon anywhere else for at least a week.

Our second day in Frankenmuth was spent shopping. Yes, I know I said we aren't much for shopping but, shopping in Frankenmuth isn't normal shopping. It's something different. It's The Largest Christmas Store in the World and it's very cool quaint shops with a very cool mix of stuff you don't see anywhere else. It's specialty shops and not big brands. 

The Largest Christmas Store in the World is Bronner's. This place is insanely huge. Ridiculously huge. It took us over 4 hours to get through the place and we weren't going slow. If anything we rushed through some parts of the store.

If you like holiday decorations at all, you owe it to yourself to get to Bronner's at some point during your life. It's an amazing place. I'll even say it: there's something magical about it.

Normally I'm a bit of a humbug but, for some reason, I really dig and get into the Winter Holidays. Nothing puts me into that spirit better than Bronner's. 

On previous trips to Bronner's we would mainly browse and maybe pick up an ornament or two. I don't know what it was, maybe the holiday spirit hit my wife as hard as me this year, but we spent a small fortune at Bronner's this year. They have so many cool and unique ornaments and we bought a cart full.

If there's a theme you can think of, Bronner's has decorations in that theme. While walking around I was very tempted to do a Cthulhu/Mythos themed tree. It sounds nuts but you could totally do it with stuff you can buy here There were tentacles everywhere. 

We picked up an ornament for each of the kids (their "mom and dad were on vacation without you" gifts for when we got home), we picked up some for gifts (I think my brother in law is going to really dig his) and we picked up far too many for us. While we were there, my wife must have asked me: "Can we put the tree up when we get home" at least four times. 

There's one other cool thing at Bronner's. They have a light show every night. This trip we didn't get around to checking it out, but it's something I remember from past trips and I was pleased to see that it's still there. Yep, yet again something that hasn't changed.

From Bronner's we checked out the Frankenmuth River Place Shops. The last time we were in Frankenmuth this area was brand new. If I remember correctly it was still under construction. 

This is an area of 40 shops just on the edge of town. It's set up... I'm not sure how to say it... interestingly. There's public areas, winding paths, lots of decorations. It's just, kind of neat. It's a fun area to walk around.

We were disappointed to find that two of the stores we really enjoyed last time were gone. I guess a few things do change. To make up for it though there were some really cool new shops. 

Like all of the shops in Frankenmuth, these aren't the kind of stores you find in your regular mall. This is what makes shopping here fun. There aren't big brand stores. Instead it's small locally owned specialty shops. 

Our first stop was the SugarHigh Bakery. This place was featured on The Food Network for a cupcake contest so we chose it for a mid day snack and weren't disappointed. I was tempted to try their chocolate covered bacon, but passed. Had I actually had too much bacon over the last couple days? 

There was one store that I really wish I could have brought my oldest daughter to: The Enchanted Forest a place that specialized in fairies, dragons and gnomes. Other highlights included the Funky Skunk which claims to have Michigan's largest selection of Guinness merchandise, Our Mother Earth Toy Jungle a uniquely themed toy store and Great Lakes Olive Oil Co which had some of the best balsamic and oil that we've ever tried.

For dinner that night we did something I've been wanting to do for over 10 years, maybe even more. We ate at The Bavarian Inn. Though we had been to Frankenmuth more recently it wasn't often that we did the full dinner at the Inn. This is something that, to me, is a big part of any trip to Frankenmuth.

For those who haven't tried it, the Bavarian Inn dinner is an all you can eat roasted chicken dinner. Along with what many consider to be the best chicken in the world, you can also add a variety of meats. For me this is schnitzel. You must add schnitzel to your meal if you eat at the Inn. 

Along with your meats you get some starter salads and then a ton of sides. There's mashed potatos, stuffing, these really good egg noodles in butter, seasonal vegetable and more. 

I always remember the Bavarian Inn dinner as being truly amazing. Not only a highlight of past trips but one of the main reasons to make the trip in the first place. Thankfully this was something else that hasn't changed. The meal was amazing. So good. The best schnitzel ever. 

I even tried the chicken this time. Everyone is always talking about how good it is, but I'm not a huge chicken fan. In the past I just stuck to schnitzel, it was time to finally try the chicken. You know what? That's some damn good chicken!

After dinner we decided to check what else the Barvarian Inn Lodge had to offer. 

The hotel has something like three swimming areas including a couple water slides. Cool but not really for us. They also have an arcade in the basement. I had to check that out, but was disappointed to find that it's one of those Chuck-E-Cheese style redemption arcades. With everything else being stuck back in the 70s and 80s I was really hoping to get to play some Dig Dug and Moon Patrol.

Eventually we ended up at the Lorelei Lounge & Schnitzelbank Beir Garden. 

We had heard good things about this pub. While the beer selection was great (actually the beer selection is great everywhere in Frankenmuth) the place was packed with a large group on some form of business trip that was very loud and very drunk. Not really the pubs fault though.

The most memorable part of that night (well, after the amazing meal) was singing the Schnizelbank song.

"Ist das nicht eine schnitzelbank?"

"Ja! Das ist eine schntzelbank!"

So now we are two days in and we still haven't even seen downtown (except for a quick walk by on the way to the brewery). I don't know if I'm getting older and slower, if my parents were just crazy fast or if Frankenmuth has gotten much bigger. I think it's probably a bit of everything. I know that my wife and I were spending more time taking everything in. Plus we made quite a few stops and breaks to try out local beers or treats.

Our final day started at Oma's (remember I mentioned that my wife insisted that we go back). From there we checked out the main downtown of Frankenmuth. Like the River Shops, the downtown is filled with awesome small town, mom and pop specialty stores. There's a good four or five blocks of some of the neatest stores you will ever find. 

I probably shouldn't have been surprised but most of the shops I remember from our last trip and from trips before that were still there.

The Frankenmuth Cheese Haus is still going strong. Though it seems to have given up on beer and gone to wine. I used to love stopping in to pick up some rare beers. Instead now they have all kinds of wines. I guess wine and cheese just makes sense though I would prefer beer.

The Little White House is still there. I can't count how many gifts I've picked up for my mom there over the years. Though we didn't actually stop in, it was cool to see the Frankenmuth Clock Company still standing. We even ended up picking up a great looking board game (Battle Sheep) for the kids at the Toy Company & Kite Craft store, an awesome educational toy store. The general store is still there and is still huge. I swear that place is part TARDIS as it keeps getting bigger every year. My wife spent a huge amount of time browsing the doll house furniture in the basement. 

Mixed in with all of the great shops are small cafes and bars. This means it's a great area to walk around for a bit and then stop in somewhere to take a break, get a snack and grab a drink. The front of the Bavarian Inn was always a popular spot for my Dad to stop and have a beer. We stopped in ourselves and were pleased to find that they now specialize in Michigan Craft Beer. 

Our last stop before heading home was Zehnder's. This one was interesting for me.

Over the many years, going to Frankenmuth with my parents, we never went to Zehnder's. We never even set foot inside. I honestly have no idea why. Every trip to Frankenmuth we always went to the Bavarian Inn for dinner or just ate at Tony's. I remember asking my parents about it they just brushed it off with a: "we don't eat there, we eat here"

When I noted online that I was heading to Frankenmuth everyone who commented noted that we were lucky to be going to Zehnder's for chicken. I noted that we would be going to the Bavarian Inn instead and everyone was like: no don't do that go to Zehnder's. What's the deal here? 

I guess there's a not so friendly competition going down in Frankenmuth between a couple of cousins. It's a long competition that actually started with a couple of brothers and goes back to when the Zehnder family first set up shop in Frankenmuth. Based on what we heard, The Bavarian Inn (and associated hotel, etc) has been competing with Zehnder's (and their hotel's, water park, etc) for years and years. It's kind of sad actually.

Putting that family feud aside, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I was finally going to try Zehnder's (sorry Mom and Dad). 

You know what's odd? It's basically the exact same meal. It's the same deal you get right across the street. You get all you can eat chicken. You can add your choice of meats. The same choice of meats as across the street. You get potatoes and stuffing and seasonal veg. There's the same style of fat egg noodles in butter. It's pretty much the same thing. How odd. It reminded me of the Coke/Pepsi thing. Two meals that were almost identical but that have generated a huge amount of fan loyalty.

Between the two I liked the sides better at Zehner's but the chicken better at The Bavarian Inn. They weren't all that different though. I would happily eat either meal. Zehnder's had a bit more modern high end feel, where as The Bavarian Inn has that: "hasn't changed in 50 years", feel. Both have their place. If someone were to ask me which they should go to, my suggestion would be for the one with the shortest wait.

Overall our last day spent downtown, and our last day in Frankenmuth was just as cool, fun and interesting as I remembered it being.

That was pretty much the theme for the entire trip. Everything was as good or better than I remembered from past trips. Not much has changed at all, and that is not a bad thing in this case. I really enjoyed this trip. I now regret waiting so long to go back and don't plan on making that mistake again.

I think next time we will bring the girls. Start to re-create the traditions I remember so fondly from my childhood with the next generation. So that in 10 years time, Frankenmuth will mean as much to them as it does to me. I have a feeling in 10 years time, not much will have changed.

The Windsor Craft Beer Festival year 2. Great event but skip the VIP pass

Back on October 17th my wife and I attended the 2nd annual Windsor Craft Beer Festival.

We went to the inaugural event last year and had a fantastic time. Such a good time actually that we decided to go with the VIP tickets this year. That may have been a mistake.

Don't get me wrong, the event was awesome. We had a great time and I will be attending next year, but I just don't think that the VIP passes were worth it. At least not for us.

My biggest complaint with the VIP pass was that it gave us "early access" to the event. This meant that we got in half an hour early.

Expecting a line, my wife and I showed up about 15 minutes before opening (early access opening). We were the first people there. By the time the gates opened there was a crowd of 5 of us waiting to get in. I guess we didn't need to rush to beat the crowd.

This wouldn't have been a problem though, so what if we are at a near empty event? Just means more beer for us and no wait time, right? Nope. Sorry. 

We approached the first brewery we saw and asked what they were serving. We were told curtly: "we're not serving anything yet, can't you tell we are still setting up!" This same situation repeated itself at 6 other breweries. Here we are at the Beer Fest with our "early access" and we can't get any beer! 

So we thought maybe we should grab some food. Nope. Sorry. Food won't be ready until 5:30 (when the 'general public' gets in).

Eventually we did find someone who would serve us: Descendants. You can see our first beers there down and to the right in our VIP glasses. Glasses that weren't actually just for VIPs, you could just buy one at the gate. Which is probably what we will do next year.

Now another 'bonus' we got for buying VIP passes was access to special VIP only beers which changed every hour. I thought this was pretty awesome and was the 2nd reason I decided to go VIP. 

What I didn't understand is that it literally meant "access." I thought it meant we got to try each of these beers for each hour we were there. As in we got a sample to taste. What it actually meant is that we could buy beer that other people couldn't. That greatly reduced the value of my VIP pass (which I thought was getting me 5 free samples). 

One final complaint about the VIP pass: I'm a big dude (note the title of the blog), we also got T shirts. They didn't have a shirt anywhere near in my size. Now I'm not a huge dude, and I'm pretty sure I saw some other big dudes. You would think at a beer festival they would expect some larger people to be attending.

Okay enough negativity. I make the event sound horrible, and it wasn't. It was actually pretty awesome. I don't regret going at all. We had a great time.

One of the huge improvements over last year was the food. There was the Road Chef food truck that had this awesome Pork and Apple sandwich and some great fried mozzarella. Robbie's Gourmet Sausage was there as was Motorburger. This was so much better than the small appetizers supplied by St. Claire last year.

The beer was also great. There were more brewers than last year and I'm pretty sure the ones that were there were offering more options. There was Beau's, Broadhead, Descendants, Highlander, Hop City, Bayside, Lake of Bays, Mill St., Motor Craft Ales, Railway City, Samuel Adams, St. Ambroise, Walkerville and Wellington. There were also some representatives from a couple local brew pubs that are opening later this year. Based on the pamphlet we were given there were over 70 beers there to try (including the special VIP brews).

The only real complaint I have about the beer is the fact that due to the event being in the middle of October, every single seasonable beer was some form of Pumpkin beer, mostly Pumpkin Ales. I had so many Pumpkin Ales that they all ended up tasting the same. 

I had some really amazing beers. I should say we had some really amazing beers, as my wife is as much a beer fan as I am. Actually I can't think of a single one that I tried I would consider bad. They were all solid brews. Highlights for me were Nightmare on Mill Street from, you guessed it: Mill St. and Ramblin' Roads Dakota Pearl Potato Ale.

One bonus of getting there early was that there was no crowd. By about 9pm that changed. Man did it get busy. Then it rained. 

That leads me to another awesome improvement over last year's event: the tent! The middle of the 'fest area was covered in a very large tent that even had heaters under it. That was so much better than freezing out in the open last year. I will admit it got a bit crowded, especially when the rain hit, but my wife and I never had a problem finding a place to sit.

The weekend before this event there was another craft beer event. That one was in LaSalle and I  had heard a few horror stories. Stories about rude loud drunk patrons, fights and people demanding free beer. I saw none of that here at the Walkerville event. Everyone we met and saw was polite and just there to enjoy some good beer, just like we were. I don't think I heard a raised voice (well except for everyone trying to talk over the extremely loud music).

That was also a change from last year. Music. Loud music. Most of Friday night was a couple guys playing the same set of German drinking songs over and over each set. That was a tad annoying. The volume seemed way too loud as well. Kind of felt like I was in a bar and having a conversation with my wife meant shouting. These guys were replaced with a local bluegrass band that was fine. Take it or leave it, didn't seem to really fit the theme of the event. I would have personally liked to have heard some Celtic Pub songs. Say by, The Shannon Bros. 

Overall, if you like beer at all, especially good Ontario Craft beer, I strongly recommend checking out this event next year. I'll be there as will my wife. 

The only thing I do want to warn you about is that the VIP pass may not be worth it. It definitely wasn't worth it for us this year. Maybe next year they will offer something a bit better though. 

Cheers!

#FoodPornFriday and Barley's Brewing Company review

There was a reason I didn't post a #FoodPornFriday post last week. That reason was the Origins Game Fare. Origins is the second largest gaming convention in North America and last weekend was my first time attending. It was awesome.

I knew there would be lots of cool games to play but I didn't realize that there would also be some amazing food to eat and great beer to drink. One of the best places we found while we were down there was Barley's Brewing Company. This brew pub was literally right across the street from the Greater Columbus Convention Center where Origins was being held.

We initially hit Barley's on Thursday night. The place was recommended to me from some friends on Google Plus and there was also a deal where we could get a free pint glass with a coupon we received at registration. Now I had heard good things but I had no idea what kind of treat we were in for.

The place was very large relaxed and casual. The front half was taken up by a bar area you actually have to walk past to be seated. There's lots of stool seating up front with lots of window seats overlooking downtown. The back half is a very comfy dining area. Lots of tall wooden booths and wide tables down the middle. The place just looked like a brew pub, and that's not just because the actual brewing equipment could be seen to the left of the bar when you walk in.

Let's talk about the beer first. Barley's offered eight different draft beers all brewed right there on site. In addition they had two cask ales available when we were there. These are limited and when they run out they are gone until the next batch. They had actually run out of one of them by the time we left Sunday. Along with their own beers Barley's also has four guest taps. All of these were Ohio local craft beers.

During our trip we managed to try five of Barley's great beers. By far our favourite was Alexander's Russian Imperial Stout. That beer just blew me away.

There was even a special beer brewed just for the Origins Game Fare: Point of Origin. This was a good Belgian style golden ale but just wasn't nearly as good as the Stout.

The food menu was a mix of local favorites and traditional pub food. You could get fried pickles and scotch eggs or Bavarian Pretzels and Chili to start. There were some gourmet hot dogs listed followed by some wraps. I was tempted by the Deep South Dog (Beef dog, applewood smoked bacon, fried pickle, shredded lettuce, cusabi slaw, diced tomatoes and remoulade sauce on a soft roll) the two times we were there.  There are lots of different sandwiches and then a selection of gourmet burgers that reminded me of Motoburger. The entree list is where I stopped each time we went though. So many amazing sounding things.

Based on the menu here and at other local places we stopped I have to assume that there is a large eastern European population in Columbus. There were Bavarian pretzels, schnitzel, pierogi and sauages to be had eveywhere. One of the burgers here was served with pierogi on it! As I mentioned in the post about Matryoshka, I'm Ukranian and grew up on food like this and I love it.

The first trip I tried the Pierogi and Sausage. That's what you can see in the big pic at the top of the post. Cheddar potato pierogi, sauteed onions, brown butter, bratwurst, kielbasa and chorizo sausage. The pierogi were obviously made right there and they were also boiled and not just fried. It was fantastic. My wife tried the Ale House Crab Cakes and enjoyed them. 

Based on how good our first meal was we also choose to hit Barley's as our last stop before leaving town. We tried a couple more beers (If you like wit beers I highly recommend the Blood Thirst Wheat) and we tried a couple different entrees. Based on  how good my initial meal was my wife went with the Polski Feast (grilled sausage trio, sauerkraut balls, pierogies, sauerkraut, garlic toast and pale ale mustard) and I went with the Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf (beef and pork, wrapped in applewood smoked bacon, with garlick mashed potatoes, veg, onion strings and tomato gravy).

Last weekend rocked! One of the best vacations I've ever taken. Lots of awesome gaming and some unexpectedly awesome food that included Barley's Brewing Company.

Have some #FoodPorn of your own? Why not link up with us!

It's been a while since I mentioned beer

It's been a long time since I've shared some of my recent beer tastings. This is something I intended to do more often when I launched the blog. That's something I hope to get back to starting today.

Here's some of the most recent new beers I've tried. Note these are new to me, not necessarily new beers. One of these is an Ontario Craft Beer. Windsor Essex is turning into a hotbed of craft beer activity. WindsorEats recently posted an article where they note that as many as 7 new breweries may be opening in the area.

The reviews:

For this post I'm going to feature some great draft beers that you can get locally. I'm one of those people that would much rather be drinking freshly poured draft beer over anything out of a bottle.

Note all of these are written live as I'm drinking the beers. Usually on my iPod. So grammar spelling and autocorrect sometimes get in the way, as does previously reviewed beers that night ;)

Sam Adams Cold Snap - They currently have this on draft at Rock Bottom Bar & Grill. If you haven't been there and you enjoy a good beer now and then I seriously suggest you check the place out. They have the most beers on draft in the city and a huge amount of awesome Ontario Craft Beers (Though note that this isn't actually an Ontario beer). They always use appropriate glassware which is something I appreciate.  

Very hazy orange pour in an awesome glass. Check out that glass.

Weak scent overpowered by the scent of chicken wings. What an odd beer. Very not beer like. Lots of odd spices. Reminds me of a hard cider. Or maybe a mulled wine. Very unique. Very drinkable. Love the aftertaste.

Wasn't expecting much but really like this.

Big Rock Saaz Republic Pilz - You can get this one out in Kingsville at Jack's Gastropub. Another great place for good beer. They have an Ontario Craft Beer menu that is dropped off on the table for every set of guests.

Brownish red pour. A bit rusty. Clingy thick tan head. Weak scent, hoppy a bit grassy. Mouth is not nearly so subdued. Sweet start. Like a sweet European Pilsner but better. A touch of hops in the finish. Not too bitter. Easy to drink.

Unibroue Noire De Chambly - This is my last beer for today.

I'm a big fan of Blanche De Chambly from the same brewer and had no idea that they did a Noire until we saw the draft menu at Jack's last weekend. Yep this one is also available on draft out in Kingsville.

My wife was the one that ordered this while I got the Saaz mentioned above. Thus the picture of a partially finished beer. They didn't serve it
like that.

Very dark black pour as expected. Pretty much no head. Distinct smell I cannot place. Thick, with low carbonation. Very thick. Stout like. Nutty and fruity. Raisins, plumbs and more. Lots of different fruits.

Its okay. Not great, but in no way bad.


If you want to see more of these beer reviews from me, I post all of my reviews on my +Big Dude Likes Food Google Plus account. You should circle me over there, then you won't miss any of this beer snobbery.

What I've been up to, including the Windsor Craft Beer Festival

Man it's been a busy couple of months.

I apologize for letting this blog slide in the face of lots of other things going on both at work and in my other, non-food based, hobbies.

One thing that took up the a lot of my time was planning for, and then gaming for Extra Life. Together with other members of the Windsor Gaming Resource we raised $1400 for the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals!

It was a truly epic night of gaming over at Brimstone Games on November 2nd and well worth all the work that went into advertising and planning the event. Added to this stress, the week before, I hosted our first ever RPG mini-con called Level Up! That also went really well.

Enough about gaming though, if you cared about that you would be reading my other blog. So on to food based topics. Well at least drink based topics.

One of the coolest things that happened since my last post here at Big Dude Likes Food was Windsor's first ever Craft Beer Festival. This was put on by the great people at Windsor Eats and happened back on October 17th and 18th. My wife and I attended on the Friday night and had a great time.

This was my second experience at an event like this. The first was attending the North American Craft Beer Experience which I talked a bit about in my post about our anniversary trip to Toronto. The two events were both very similar and very different.

These were the first two beers of the night.

Cost for the Windsor event was $25 in advance or $30 at the door and that included 5 drink tickets. A single drink ticket got you a 4oz sample or half a glass, and you had the option to trade in two at a time for a full glass. Well by glass I mean plastic cup, unless you bought in at the VIP level. VIPs got a meal before the event and a limited edition etched glass, and paid far too much for the privilege as far as I'm concerned. Maybe that's just jealousy talking ;)

You could, of course buy more tickets past your initial 5. These were very reasonably priced and my wife and I went through quite a few of them.

The following breweries were in attendance: Bayside Brewing Co, Beau's All Natural Brewing, Highlander Brew Co., Broadhead Brewing Co., Lake of Bays Brewing Co., Motor Craft Ales, Walkerville Brewery, St. Ambroise/McAuslan, Wellington Brewery and Mill St. Brewery.

Each of these had multiple beers available for patrons to try out, some offering as many as 8 different brews. Each brewery had their own tent and all were well staffed. Even late at night when the place really started to fill in, the line ups never got that bad.

The two stand outs for me were Highlander Blacksmith Smoked Porter and Mill Street Vanilla Porter

The rather cool light logo

What I found odd was how dead the event was from 5pm until about 9pm. It really was empty. For an event that was only running 6 hours, I figured it would be packed the entire time. By the end of the night though it was standing room only.

Standing room was one of my minor complaints about the event. There were four picnic tables set up in the center of the area but that's it for seating. This seemed odd to me, that everyone would want to stand for the whole event. Personally I wanted a seat to be able to add my beer tastings to ratebeer.com as I tried new beers.

In addition to the beer the St. Clair College Culinary Arts students were there selling some amazing poutine, fish and sliders. Food was $5 a small plate, tapas style. It wasn't enough for dinner or anything but it was nice to have something on hand to eat. One of the booths were also selling pretzel necklaces, which seemed to be popular based on the number of people I saw wearing them.

The one thing I really didn't understand about this event was the timing. Why would you plan an outdoor event for late October? It was cold! Really cold. One of the coldest days we had experienced this year. That made things a little less enjoyable as I didn't dress as warmly as I should have. There were no heaters or anything of the sort to be found, just open, cold, air. What if it had rained?

Pretty good crowd by the end

While I would have preferred a warmer time of year for this and would have preferred to see more brewers at the event I still think this was pretty cool for a first time event. There were some hiccups but overall I had fun and I got to try a ton of great beer.

Based on the Windsor Craft Beer Festival website they are planning to host another one next year and I'm fully planning on attending. Maybe I'll take the VIP plunge next year.

Big Dude Likes Beer

Anyone who follows me on Twitter, or anyone who read my post about our anniversary trip to Toronto should have realized by now that I enjoy a good beer.  I thought it may be time to start sharing those reviews here on the blog.

Now my love of good beers grew out of my friendship with an awesome cat named Shawn. Shawn was the dude I hung out with that was always into odd and interesting things and always talking about his new passion. He was the cat who got into the new music first. He was my friend who first tried home brewing. He was the guy who would show up talking about some obscure movie no one had seen yet. Yes, I realize that this makes Shawn sound like a Hipster. Fie on that! Shawn wasn't doing this to be cool, he was just Shawn and he liked the stuff he liked.

So anyway, way back when, before he abandoned me for some chick he met on the internet and moved to Edmonton, Shawn introduced me to Ratebeer. At that time beer was that stuff you bought that tasted so so but got you drunk. The percent alcohol and price was all that mattered to most of us, but not Shawn. He was the one that would convince me to buy a Newcastle with my 12 pack of Molson XXX. He would make sure our first pint of the night was a Leffe before we swapped to Labatt Ice. He was the one that taught me that beer could be good.

So fast forward about 10 years and here I am. I've now reviewed 687 different beers. I'm now a connoisseur and collector of new beer reviews. My wife and I now add the search for a good place to get some beer to all of our vacation planning. When I cook I actually try to work out beer pairings to go with the dishes I'm making. Some people call me a beer snob. Fie on that too! A snob looks down on others who don't follow their path, I'm not like that. If you really dig your Coors Light, that's cool with me, you feel free to enjoy that while I have something I will enjoy way more. Sure I may suggest you try something different but I'm there to show you a bigger world, not convert you. Okay maybe I will say you are drinking swill, and waft the amazing scent of my Chimay your way... well maybe I'm a little bit of a beer snob.

So here's a couple of my recent beer reviews. You can expect to see more of these in the future as I combine my love of beer with my love of food.

Dogstalker April Bock - Grand River Brewing

Very hazy slightly rusty brown pour. Very little head. Somewhat sour smell. Yeasty. A touch of fresh bread, no not fresh about to go in the oven bread, before it’s baked.

Very subtle mouth. Smooth and well blended. Medium to low carbonation. Some grains, but finished grains, maybe cereal. A touch of fruits, in the raisin plumb area. A bit sweet in the middle. Very little aftertaste.

Enjoyable brew.

Brasseurs Du Monde : Rousse

Light rusty clear pour. White head that faded fairly fast. Weak scent, really not much there at all. Just a slight beer scent.  You know that generic hops and grain smell. 

The lack of scent really belies a mouth full of flavour. Warm nutty and a touch sweet with a subtle spice backdrop. A bit warming. The sweetness grows as you drink it. Very pleasant.

Really impressed by Brasseurs Du Monde so far. This is my third beer by them and I've enjoyed every one.

So there you have it, two of my recent beer reviews. Do you dig beer? Are you someone that likes a good wine with your meal? What's your beverage of choice?

We stopped at P-Za-Pie Neapolitan Pizza on the way home from #FBC2013

Okay I know what all you locals are thinking. Where the heck is that? Piccadilly and Richmond, I don't recognize that corner. Well good eye. This isn't a shot from Windsor. P-Za-Pie is located in London Ontario and it's my favourite pizza outside of Windsor. While this blog has a focus on Windsor, now and then I'm going to talk about the fuzzy stuff in the back of the picture.

My wife and I love London. I don't know exactly what it is. Perhaps because it's got a bit of that big town feel without it being too much, like say: Toronto. Perhaps it's the fact that it still feels like home and close to home but isn't actually home. I do know a lot of it has to do with great experiences we've had pretty much every time we go. As I mentioned when I was talking about our Birthday Weekend in Windsor, we usually spend my Wife's birthday up in London but we broke that tradition this year, and I think that was one of the main driving forces for wanting to stop in on the way home from the Food Bloggers of Canada Conference.

A shot of the kitchen
 right out there in the open

We first found P-Za-Pie last year and though we were only in London two days we ate there twice. We thought it was that good. This pizzeria just feels right. It somehow looks like a pizza place. No, not the pizza places of the 70s and 80s with the red checkered table cloth and picture of a vineyard on the wall. A modern pizza place. With the wood fired stone oven right out there in the open. With the cooks assembling the pizzas right in front of you. Lots of space, lots of tables, lots of seating and the ability to move all those around to fit either a couple or a group of 12 people at one table.


The menu, I would call gourmet casual. It's mixed with things like Wood Oven Buffalo Chicken Wings and a Roasted Pear & Goat Cheese Salad. Beside the Italian Sausage Pizza is a Fingerling Potato White Sauce Pizza. Actually the white sauce thing is one of the things we love at P-Za-Pie. I first tried pizza with white sauce at Festival Epicure (I so miss that fest), and loved it. Not many places offer it though. P-Za-Pie actually offers just as many white sauce pizza as red sauce pizzas. The set pizzas are a mix of traditional and gourmet toppings. They also have their own house beer which I personally think is rather cool. It's a light beer, but very easy to drink and goes well with the Pizza.

My Carne Pizza

No matter what else is on the menu we came for the pizza. They come in two sizes 8" and 12" and range in price from $8.50 to $9.50 for the small ones and $15 to $17 for the larges. An 8" is more than enough for even me so we each got one of those. I got a Carne which is a red sauce pizza with double smoked bacon, pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushroom, tomato sauce and mozzarella. I personally had them skip the mushrooms, as they aren't something I enjoy,  which they were perfectly willing to do. My wife tried the Tuscan which had pancetta, grilled wild mushrooms, roasted red peppers, spinach, feta and a basil infused olive oil.  They were both fantastic. Sure mine is a little dark around the edges, but so what, that's what you expect from a true wood fired pizza.

My Wife's Tuscan Pizza

So yes, I generally will be talking about Windsor here, but just in case you find yourself out of town and happen to be stopping in or passing by London Ontario and have a Pizza craving. I can't suggest a better place to try out than P-Za-Pie. Great pizza at a reasonable price in a very welcoming atmosphere that's great for a couple or a large group. Hey they even have their own beer. I can't think of anything else I would want from a Pizza place.

So now you know my favourite out of town Pizza place. Do you have a favourite out of town spot that you try to hit every trip?