Monday, November 06, 2006

Eat And Drink At Joe's

I recently went over to a reasonably local butcher shop called Joe's Butcher Shop, in Carmel, Indiana to see what they were all about. The owner, Joe Lazzara had contacted me some time back about Root Beers and Soda for his beautiful one of a kind vintage vending machine so I thought I'd take some time to jot over there and see what he had to offer.

Well, lo' and behold I walked into a fine establishment that had a great deal to offer. Cases loaded up with beautiful cuts of meat, fish and poultry, cheeses, spices and everything a foodie could want in a neighbourhood shop. Joe's even offers the venerable pieces of meat known in this area as "Atlas Tenderloins" which are extremely affordable beef tenderloins ($6.99/lb as I write this). The gem of my visit, tho was what awaited me just inside the door to the shop. A rack filled with bubbly goodness and a single six pack of Abita Root Beer on the top shelf. Yummy!

I spent some time talking with Joe about this and that and got a look at his 7-Up vending machine prototype (sweet!) and finally left with that single pack of Abita and some natural casing hot dogs that were well appreciated by the family! I've since been back to Joe's (sadly, he was out of Abita) for some holiday meat purchases and have plans to continue going back, (especially if he gets some more Abita back in). Maybe someday soo Joe will be able to fill that machine of his with some premium Soda and Root Beer and his customers will be afforded another venerable tradition, a cold Soda and a chat around the cases. If you're in the Carmel, Indiana area and want to see what a real butcher shop is then stop in at Joe's! Tell him the Root Beer Man sent ya!

Technorati Tags:
, , ,

"The Way Of The Warrior"- A Root Beer Related Interlude

My family and I attended a Halloween party last weekend and one of the guests happened to be a fan of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. While talking with him he told me that his favourite episode was one which featured a mention of Root Beer and an exchange between two of the characters, (Quark and Garak). Being the Root Beer Man I had to make the effort to find this episode and the exchange and here it is. From the Season 4 episode "The Way of the Warrior".
[Garak takes a drink of root beer]
Quark: What do you think?
Elim Garak: It's vile.
Quark: I know. It's so bubbly and cloying and happy.
Elim Garak: Just like the Federation.
Quark: And you know what's really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you begin to like it.
Elim Garak: It's insidious.
Quark: Just like the Federation.
For fans of Root Beer it should be noted that Star Trek:Deep Space Nine has a number of references to our favourite bubbly nectar.

Quark: Care for a root beer metaphor?
Garak: What's that?
Quark: You take a scoop of metaphor and pour root beer on it. It's good if you like root beer, or, metaphorically, the Federation.
Garak: I don't like those, but I do like metaphors. I never metaphor I didn't like.
Quark: Good. No room for metaphobes around here.
Or this gem:
Worf: There is an ancient Klingon proverb that says, "You cannot loosen a man's tongue with root beer."
One cannot help but like a show where there are a bunch of Root Beer references!

Next up, some long overdue reviews.

Technorati Tags:
, ,