The cooler days of Fall are approaching (thank God) and it can mean one of several things for you personally, be it impending yardwork, giving birth to a child, whatever floats your boat. But certainly, one thing it should definitely mean for you personally is your participation in the 2nd Annual Baltimore Beer Week, put together by the fine folk at Beer In Baltimore and many other area vendors, sponsors, coordinators and other hard working types. A celebration of all things beer running from October 7th-17th, with a whopping 24 beer events happening around the Baltimore area, you’d be hard pressed not to trip over a firkin or two during that period of time.

The kickoff party is going down on October 7th at the Museum of Industry (1415 Key Highway, Riverside), and tickets are available now, with only 250 available at $30. Cake artisan and international superstar Duff Goldman will be hosting the party, so get yours today!

BUT WAIT – too cheap to purchase a ticket? Head down to Alexander’s Tavern (710 South Broadway, Fells Point) tomorrow from 5-7pm for the Pre-Beer Week happy hour and enter for a chance to win some!

BEEEEEEEER

You can follow Baltimore Beer Week around at these interweb locations:

Baltimore Beer Week

@BaltBeerWeek

If you’re in the SoBo area this week and enjoy the companionship of dogs or dog related pursuits, head on down to Captain Larry’s (601 E Fort Ave., Riverside) and check out prominent dog blogger John Woestendiek’s “Hey that’s MY dog!” exhibit. John somehow managed to cram over 150 photos of area dogs into the place and is selling them to the masses, with proceeds going to BARCS. John knows pretty much everything there is to know about the dogs in his neighborhood, and can even match most of the dog photos to their names, just by asking. The exhibit will be up until next Monday, so check it out.

In case you were not paying attention to the Baltimore area internet in the past few days, it was initially reported on Monday by Sun reporter Justin Fenton that during a pub crawl along Fort Avenue on Saturday (an overlapping pub crawl not associated with the one I plugged a few days prior), an altercation broke out which eventually resulted in one man being stabbed in the back by another, the details of which unfolded during the day in the form of edits on the original post. The nature of the report and the individuals involved – for whatever reason – sparked what essentially amounts to a race war in the comments section within a few hours; truly some of the most vitriolic commentary I’ve seen in relation to Baltimore neighborhoods and their opinions of one another in a very long time (this line of commentary continues on Sam Sessa’s Midnight Sun blog here). I recommend reading these as a case study on how truly screwed up we are as a community, especially given the fact that someone’s life was nearly lost in the incident.

(continue reading…)

When I received word that Federal Hill’s Riverside’s favorite neighborhood bar, Captain Larry’s, had a form of nachos that incorporated my two favorite things – nachos and brunch – I Scooby Doo ran my way down there and immediately used my mouth muscles and tongue to order them. The BRUNCHOS are $9 and come with tortilla chips topped with scrambled eggs, black beans, choice of bacon or chorizo, melted cheese, avocado & pico with sour cream & salsa.

Things that make this dish awesome to the max: firstly, the chips are well toasted. Secondly, the cheese, bacon and eggs are all layered together, which most other joints don’t bother doing. Thirdly, there is a ton of bacon on them. Fourthly, the portion is huge and is best shared among friends.

Which actually brings me to an interestingly foodosophical topic: brunch is a meal that is rarely a shared event. More on that later. At any rate, brunchos are a great idea and they’re different enough from chilequiles to warrant their own place in the annals of breakfast greatness. And the chunks of avocado are kickass.

(also they should make non-breakfast nachos, especially if they’re this quality)

SO how exactly do I rate such a thing? Breakfast nachos? With a golden donkey, since they’re so different? Or with the normal golden nachos? Guess what. They get both.

One golden donkey and four golden nachos out of …..5?

(view the NachoQuest map so far here)

Carolina Nachos - $5.75

At the suggestion of some guy with a blog, I moseyed on over to Harborque (1421 Lawrence St., Riverside) the other day to try their Carolina Nachos – nachos piled with cheddar cheese, beans, jalapenos, BBQ sauce, and A MILLION POUNDS OF PULLED PORK. For $5.75. And let me tell you something, these “nachos” transcend the human language in terms of description and can be really only be described using a low frequency sound normally uttered by whales.

There is so much pulled pork on this pile that it becomes more like a “crunchy meat pie with cheese” as opposed to “a pile of nachos.” My first bite was pretty easy – I scooped up some cheese, penos and pork and chewed on it, noted the deliciousness and went right for the second bite. But after about five mouthfuls, the sheer density of the nachos began to affect my reality. These things are like dark matter. After six or seven bites, clocks with alarms going off started spinning around my head, my roommates started looking like dragons with bees coming out of their mouths, and the sky turned a darker shade of fuchsia. I’m not entirely certain how much of these pulled pork nachos I actually ate, as I woke up later naked in a ditch on the side of Harford Road somewhere. That was a really awkward cab ride getting home…

Aaaat any rate, these nachos kind of defy a rating. They’re certainly not the best, but probably the one of the most unconventional nachos in the city, given the BBQ sauce and baked beans instead of the traditional nacho toppings. Plus, for the money and sheer volume of pulled pork you will inevitably develop meat sweats eating, they’re certainly one of the best values for both pulled pork AND nachos going. So for now, I will award the Carolina Nachos from Harborque the Golden Donkey – an award that defies logic and convention, until I can figure out a more appropriate award for them. Kudos.

One Gold Donkey out of One

(view the NachoQuest map so far here)