Art and I had quite the whirlwind of a week last week.
Tuesday: 03/06/07
Dogfish Head Beer Dinner at the Reef
The Reef is a bar and restaurant in Adams Morgan that my sister used to practically live at. We actually found out about the beer dinner through the Dogfish Head mailing list. The evening began with hors de ouvres served with pints of India Brown Ale. As Art and I were drinking and snacking, we ran into a former co-worker of mine and his girlfriend. That turned out to be a great thing, because we ended up chatting with them off and on all night.
When the main event began the owner of the reef and the owner of Dogfish Head Brewery came out to give us the low-down on the evening. Among the highlights of what I learned from their introductions is that the Reef has a bit of an eco-mission (*yeah*) and tries to serves eco-responsible food and drink. For example, they only serve beer on tap, because there is a lot less waste without the bottles. An amusing connection I learned that night about the owner of Dogfish Head Brewery is that he went to the same prep-school as my grandfather: Mnt. Hermon. He got kicked out — my grandfather worked in the kitchen as a scholarship student. Oh — and of course it was about 60 years difference in time — but still.
The food for the evening was decent and the beer was fabulous. The pairings of beer and food were actually slightly better than the actual food. Everyone there agreed that the beet dish with both golden beets and crispy red beets was the best. Most people had never really eaten beats before, so it was a new thing for them.
Needless to say the evening reinforced our love of all things Dogfish Head.
Wednesday: 3/7/07
Hamlet in Hebrew
On Wednesday night we went to Signature Theatre to see an Israeli theatre company’s production of Hamlet. It had been translated into modern Hebrew with supertitles of the Shakespearean English. It was really interesting, the parts in Hebrew I could actually understand showed a great use of the language and poetry in the translation.
Beyond the Hebrew, the production itself was really interesting. The audience was seated in swivel chairs and the play moved all around us. It was very simple production wise, with minimal sets and costumes. The acting was great and some of the staging choices made left us with lots of things to talk about.
Saturday: 3/10/07
Philly Flower Show
To finish off the week, Art and I drove to Philly to meet up with Dad and Susan. We all trekked to the flower show and then through the flower show. Damn, that flower show is just huge. Dad bought us a funky carnivorous pitcher plant! Then we all ended up at Fogo de Chao for dinner. We had to hike a good distance from the convention center for a place that didn’t have an hour wait. Fogo de Chao is a Brazilian meat palace chain where the meat comes fast and furious. The salad bar alone is worth the visit, but the meats were really good too.
[tags]dogfish head, beer, reef, gourmet, hamlet, shakespeare, cameri, israeli, hebrew, flower show, philly, fogo de chao[/tags]