Deep Ellum Brewing Co. will host its Third Annual Brew-B-Que this Sunday, an event that was a launch party of sorts back in 2011. It will a chance to pack the brewery and courtyard with hopheads, sip local beer and have Pecan Lodge barbecue, all while listening to tunes of Cody Foote (who hopefully covers Islands in the Stream again), Grant Jones, The Pistol Grip Lassos and The Vic Duncan Band.

Guest brewers at the event include Armadillo Ale Works, Rabbit Hole Brewing and Martin House from Fort Worth. Check out the specifics and ticket info here.

See also:
- Tracing the Hops in Deep Ellum Brewing Company's Newest Beer
- Texas Lawmakers Vote to Lift Restrictions on Craft Breweries

We tracked down Tait Lifto at DEBC to chat about the brewing business for our biweekly-ish "One Year Out" interview (although, it's been a year and a half since they started brewing). Lifto turned in his starched-button-down-shirt-job for this gig at the brewery, where he's the Brand Ninja and is charged with making sure beer drinkers far and wide know of DEBC.

Working at a brewery is just a big party, right?
Ha! I wish, although it truly is the perception of many people. I personally work about 60-70 hours a week, yet mostly people see me just at events. I may look relaxed, but most often my mind is going a billion directions; meeting everyone, talking about our beers, answering questions, staying on point, etc.

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Deep Eddy Vodka

Deep Eddy pool in Austin is the oldest man-made swimming pool in Texas. According to the Friends of Deep Eddy site, in the early 1900s locals flocked to this natural pool where a large boulder in the Colorado River created a natural eddy. Springs from the banks of the river pushed in fresh cool water. In 1915, it was concreted in and by 1920 it was a resort. More than 100 years later, Austinites still use the spring-fed watering hole to cool down. While it's not weird, it's a true Texan landmark.

When co-founder of Deep Eddy Vodka Clayton Christopher was trying to think of a name for his spirit brand in 2010, he wanted something that was truly Texan, and the swimming spot was eternally cool.

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Desiree Espada

Chef Nathan Tate of Boulevardier

With graduation ceremonies in full bloom, we contacted a few local chefs for some bits of wise advice for culinary school graduates. First, we asked them about their worst jobs after school, then for a few pieces of advice to help thrust new grads into a world of mildly socially awkward, sometimes hostile kitchen crews. Oh, and prepare to never spend another holiday with your family again.

Congrats, kiddo. This'll be fun. Promise.

Nathan Tate, Boulevardier
Worst job out of school: Killing and cleaning dozens and dozens of lobsters.

Advice: Keep your mouth shut and eyes open for at least the first six months at your new job. I really don't want to hear about your molecular experiments with sodium alginate until you can properly sear a piece of fish.

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Amy and Jack MacDonald

Jack Mac's Swill and Grill opened on Preston Road in North Dallas last year, right on the heels of the explosion in the local craft beer movement. Jack and Amy MacDonald's restaurant has a strong local focus that supports not only Texas breweries, but wineries and distilleries as well. The drinks are backed by upscale bar food that includes some pretty tasty dishes, like Moroccan meatballs that Reitz is pretty fond of. I recently asked Jack MacDonald how his new restaurant is going one year out.

See also:
One Year Out with DaLat in East Dallas

What has been your greatest lesson after one year at Jack Mac's?
Fortunately, I've been in this business for 30 years and have previously owned restaurants (most recently, the original Press Box Grill in downtown Dallas). I sold the Press Box in 2007 and since then the role of social media in marketing a restaurant plays a much greater role. We're a neighborhood pub, but our neighborhood is much bigger than our physical location -- it's virtual.

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Cheese week in Dallas just wouldn't be a real cheese week if it didn't include the mozzarella queen-bee Paula Lambert. Several decades ago while studying Italian in Perugia, Italy, Lambert, who is originally from Fort Worth, fell in love with fresh mozzarella. While in Italy, she came up with the crazy notion of bringing the fresh, hand-crafted mozzarella back to Dallas. She opened her Mozzarella Co. in Deep Ellum in 1982 and for the first couple of years things didn't go so well. But, slowly, as the local culinary scene picked up -- Dean Fearing returned to the Mansion and Stephan Pyles opened Routh Street Café -- so did the artisan cheese business.

Recently we got to chat about the Dallas cheese scene and the long road to mozzarella glory.

When you first started making cheese locally, what were your greatest challenges?
The greatest challenge was learning to make cheese! When we first began, I had never made cheese before, so a cheese professor from Italy came to teach us and work with us for the first month.

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Slow Food Dallas, meet your new leader. This should be fun ...

The Slow Food movement was initially founded by Italian Carlo Petrini in the mid-1980s as a way to counteract our "fast" culture, which, among many other things, affected the way we eat. Now Slow Food is a global (yet very local) interest group that advocates for sustainable food. In a giant stroke, Slow Food is about slowing down to eat -- thinking about flavor, place and, most important, the people around you at the dinner table.

Liz Goulding has recently stepped into the leadership role of the Dallas chapter of Slow Food. Along with the members of the group, Goulding is kicking off what she hopes to be the first in a long series of informal gatherings about "Why Local Food Matters."

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Photo by Maegan Puetz

Recently, we were contacted by Sara Blankenship's dog Eli, a German shepherd mix about the Greyhound Adoption League of Texas' fundraiser at the Gin Mill this weekend, called Yappy Hour. Like so many dogs out there, he was looking for a little publicity for the event. Here's our exchange:

Listen, Eli. No offense, but every time I try to interview a dog, the conversation always goes back to bacon. Do you have the fortitude to get through an interview that's not about bacon?
I'm eloquent as fuck.

Let's keep it clean here, Eli. So, do dogs support other dogs in getting adopted? Are all dogs on the same dog team?








Well, I'm adopted so I'm very much an advocate for other dogs getting adopted. I was FUNK-Y when I left SPCA in 2007. And yes, all dogs are on the same team. We don't have softball leagues or anything because we don't have thumbs, and I'd probably take a shit in the infield, but you know, we support each other. I'm especially supportive of pugs. I think they're just great. GREYHOUNDS. I MEANT GREYHOUNDS.

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photo credit: Joy Zhang

Chef Brian Zenner of Belly & Trumpet in Uptown has been around a bit. Born in Bangkok, his family moved to Dubai and London before finally settling in Texas. And while on paper his culinary career started at the Texas Culinary Academy, one might say the cooking wheels started churning on a dock in Thailand when he was just 14 years old. Zenner has spent time in kitchens in Austin, Portland, and most recently under the tutelage of chef Bruno Davaillon at The Mansion on Turtle Creek, then alongside chef Jason Maddy at Oak.

Here's a recent chat:

Where are you from originally?
I'm mostly grew up in Houston. I was born overseas, but moved back to the states when I was 8, lived in Houston for a while, then finished high school in Dallas.

From a culinary perspective, would you say most of your influences came from Texas?
Yeah, but, living overseas early was pretty influential for the whole family. We went to a lot of Thai restaurants growing up and we traveled to a lot of places even after we moved to Texas.

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Jonathan Zizzo

The first thing you probably should know about chef Ji Kang is that once he ate squiggling octopus tentacles in Korea. That's hard-core dedication to local cuisine, even though he swears he'll never try it again.

Kang, who is the executive chef at Samar, began his culinary career before he even knew it. His grandmother owned a hostel in Korea where she cooked from scratch and was a gracious host to travelers from around the world. Kang was exposed to these traits early life and since has learned just how valuable they are to him now.

Here's our chat about his upbringing and career, including what he learned after a stint in restaurant ownership:

Where are you from?
I grew up mainly in Austin, but lived in Louisiana, Arkansas, Tampa Bay and in Richardson for awhile too. After high school, I went to culinary school at the Dallas Art Institute.

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Cheryl and Peter Kenny

There's something a bit charming about the Irish. Maybe it has to do with the rich, sometimes mystical, elements of their culture. Like leprechauns, a penchant for
being a tad hotheaded, folk songs that can bring everyone in a bar to tears, and Jameson, of course.

See also:
- Your Ten Point Plan For St. Patrick's Day in Dallas

We love us some Irish. Each year the "Greenville" St. Patty's Day parade has grown hugely and those of us with nary a drop of Irish anything in our blood frolic.

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