Spaces and Places | ktvorwald
You are here: Home > Spaces and Places

Archive | Spaces and Places RSS feed for this section

Abita Brewery

By on February 15, 2013 in Spaces and Places

We rented a car for one day so we could explore outside the boundaries of New Orleans. About an hour north of NOLA is the Abita brewery. To get there, you have to drive across the Lake Ponchatrain Causeway, which is the longest bridge over continuous water in the world.  The low sides make it slightly creepy, as if you could be blown right off with a good gust of wind.

brewery

Like just about every brewery we’ve ever been to, the brewery is attached to a cute tasting room.

brew house

Instead of asking a bartender to give you samples, you get a plastic cup and get in line to pour your own. You can go  down the line as many times as you have time for. At the end of the tour, they let you hang out for 10 minutes or so to try whatever you’d like. You can also buy whatever beer paraphernalia you’d like.

tanks

If you’ve taken any brewery tour, the inside of the brewery will look familiar. Large tanks aplenty.

big fermenters

Each tank holds about 9000 bottles of beer. Pretty cool.

cellar

The tour was short and sweet. The tour guide went through the basic brewing process and you got to see the beer process, start to finish. Even if you’re not really into the beer tour aspect, it’s nice to be able to try as many beers as you like (and as much of it as you like).

 

 

Comments { 2 }

N’awlins

By on February 11, 2013 in Food, Restaurant Reviews, Spaces and Places

It’s about time I cover our amazing trip to New Orleans. Just in time for Mardi Gras! I planned that. Really.

scott tchop

We stayed right on Canal Street, close to Burbon Street and the French Quarter. I’m glad we did – mass transit was sketchy and confusing so being able to walk to all the things we wanted to see and do was very important.

nola benedict

Our first morning there, we had breakfast at Stanley. I had their riff on eggs benedict. On top of the french bread was a sausage and rice mixture that was super tasty.

One thing that we didn’t like was that restaurants in the French Quarter put chicory in their coffee. It sort of tastes like someone ground some black pepper into the coffee. We weren’t fans, and after this one experience made sure to ask places if they had “regular” coffee. Most places outside the Quarter do. But at least give it a try – I suppose someone likes it if you can buy cans of it everywhere and it’s served all over the place.

cafe du monde

Cafe Du Monde is a must see coffee and beignet stand in the French Quarter. The line for this place stretches all the way down the road. There are usually entertainers hanging around the line, too.

We were put off by the line, and decided to try and come back another time when it wasn’t wrapping around the building. As we were exploring around the city, however, we came upon a satellite stand in the Riverwalk shops:

cafe du monde store

No line, same beignets made fresh.

beignet

Little puffs of heaven, these guys. Slightly crispy on the outside, chewy and moist on the inside. They’re slightly savory by themselves, so the powdered sugar adds a perfect amount of sweetness. Be prepared to be covered in sugar, though, as the sugar doesn’t stick to the beignet very well.

Scott and I stopped to rest in front of the Quarter location and took a seat on a short concrete wall. It wasn’t until after we stood up that we realized we had both sat in big piles of powdered sugar left by other customers. Oops.

Comments { 0 }

Of Interest

By on October 30, 2012 in Food, Shopping

The Hawthorne Valley Farm Store just announced on its Facebook page that it will be carrying some packaged items from Park Falafel, including their pita bread, falafel balls, baba ghannouj, and baklava.

Scott and I do most of our food shopping at Hawthorne Valley and always kvetch about the distance to drive to Hudson when we crave Park Falafel’s food, so this alliance is a good thing for us. Maybe not so much for our waistlines, but being Long Island transplants, sometimes the craving for a good knish (or macaroon, or slice, or falafel) is is strong.

We’re also big fans of Park Falafel as a local business and community contributor – they helped Scott raise a couple hundred bucks for the HCSD band program last year. They’re a good bunch.

Comments { 2 }
Older posts