Appreciating Albert Sisson

Albert Sisson died early this morning.

In 1979, Sisson opened the Sisson's Pub in Baltimore, Maryland, in the Federal Hill district, then known as Southeast Baltimore. Sisson's venture was a gamble; it was a neighborhood on the decline.

The pub thrived however and soon became part of the area's revitalization. It became a destination spot throughout the greater Baltimore area, especially prized for for its Creole cuisine.

He bought the former Sticky Fingers bar on East Cross Street in 1978. Working with a nephew, he gutted and renovated the former taproom and christened it Sisson's Restaurant and Pub.

"I always thought he had an ulterior motive - he wanted to get me and my cousin to learn a business," said his son, Hugh Sisson, [now] the owner of Clipper City Brewing in Halethorpe [Maryland]."The day he got the place ready, he threw me the keys and said, 'Don't foul up.' "

Albert F. Sisson
Founder of popular brew pub saw the potential of Baltimore redevelopment and helped change state law
Baltimore Sun
8 June 2009

Hugh Sisson added brewing equipment in 1989, making Sisson's the first post-Prohibition brewpub in Maryland (Virginia and DC, for that matter).

If a measure of a man's wealth is the measure of his friends, Albert Sisson was an incalculably wealthy man. Many a bar patron became a friend, after Albert, wearing his trademark large suspenders, had served him a pint and swapped a tall tale.

The family will hold a public memorial service on June 27 at 11 am at the Church of the Redeemer on N Charles Street in Baltimore.

The family sold the pub in 2000.

VeggieDag Thursday: Barbeque

I shopped at the Farmers Market on Saturday. Picked up a few sprigs of herbs, some end-of-the-season asparagus, and start-of-the-season berries.

Sunday, I grilled the asparagus, tossing it beforehand with olive oil, Herbs de Provence, s/p.

Rob Kasper ran a column in the Baltimore Sun about grilling veggies. He uses a grilling basket; I placed the asparagus spears on a piece of aluminum foil, folded up at the edges, pierced several times.

The 'main course' was grilled marinated ... toad-food.

A favorite meal for my 4-year old step-daughter had been what she would call "toad-food": tofu, blocks of soybean curd. It's a great protein source, but since it's fairly flavorless on its own, the trick is what you do with it. Or as she and I would say: "You have to use the secret sauce."

I adapted this recipe from the blog Vegan Dad: Ultimate BBQ Tofu.

The day before, squeeze the water out of the tofu block by placing it between two plates, weighted on top. (I used soup cans.) Slice the block half vertically, and then horizontally, making 4 thin blocks.

Place them in a sweet and spicy marinade. Vegan Dad has an easy and delicious home-made alternative to commercial sauces laden with additives and high fructose corn syrup.

Now here's the 'secret sauce' part: Freeze the tofu, marinade and all, overnight. The next day, when thawed, the tofu blocks will have gained a chewy texture, and be less likely to fall apart on the grill.

On the grill: a few minutes on each side, liberally basted with the remaining marinade. Serve with —of course— a good, local, Pale Ale.




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Thursdays at Yours For Good Fermentables.com are meatless Thursdays —as inspired by Veggiedag in Ghent, Belgium.

Tom Balthazar [mayor of Ghent, Belgium] has officially declared Thursday meatless in his city of nearly a quarter million people. In an effort to make the connection between meat consumption and greenhouse gases (18 percent of which come from livestock production), Balthazar has asked his fellow civil servants to abstain from meat every Thursday.

Kim O'Donnel
Mighty Appetite
Washingtonpost.com

Going about the BUSINESS of the Brewers Association

Have you wondered why the Brewers Association (BA) —the advocacy group for America's 'craft' breweries— has twice held its national beer-with-food exposition —SAVOR— in Washington, D.C.?

Maybe it's the proximity to where laws are passed and regulations promulgated.

Today, after the fun and excitement of the previous week's beer events, members of the Brewers Association will be going about an important part of the business of the organization: lobbying the House of Representatives Small Brewers Caucus. Here's how the BA puts it:

With the creation of the House Small Brewers Caucus in the United States House of Representatives, the small brewing community in America gained an extremely important forum in Washington, DC.

The Caucus was formed in 2007 by interested Members of Congress to gain a better understanding of all aspects of small brewing, from business and regulatory issues to the brewing process and history of the small brewing community. Co-chaired by Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) and Dennis Rehberg (R-Montana), the purpose of the House Small Brewers Caucus is to provide elected officials and their staff an interactive opportunity to learn about the dynamics of running a small business as a brewery and the quality, process and value of craft beers and small brewing activities.

While small breweries share many of the same priorities and concerns that other small businesses have, brewing is a highly regulated business and has unique issues that most Americans are not aware of. The Small Brewers Caucus intends provide information about the science and art of beer and brewing as well as relevant business, regulatory and societal issues.

Some areas that the Small Brewers Caucus will cover:

* FLAVOR AND DIVERSITY: What makes beer different
o Beer as a food and beverage
o Brewing basics: ingredients, process, quality control, beer flavor and character

* SAVORING THE FLAVOR RESPONSIBLY
o Responsible presentation and enjoyment of beer
o Responsibility to the American community

* SELLING BEER
o Consumer access to choice and quality – access to the marketplace
--->Retail
--->Distribution
o Marketing and Advertising

* SMALL BREWERS AND REGULATION – Accounting for the differences: Large vs. Small
o Impact
o Safety
o Government and Agencies

No House member representing Virginia or Maryland (or the non-voting representative from the District of Columbia) is a member of the 45-member Caucus. Write your Congressman!

MillerCoors: Above Par, and Proactive

There's news out of Georgia that a batch of Coors Light beer brewed there is not quite right.

MillerCoors has recalled a batch of Coors Light in the Southeastern United States after taste tests at the company's Georgia brewery found the beer to be subpar.

MillerCoors, which will begin moving into its new Chicago headquarters this month, last week began pulling the beer from its distribution system and from retailers. "We sampled it and realized it wasn't up to standards," said Pete Marino, a spokesman for MillerCoors.

He didn't immediately know how much beer was recalled, or if the recall had been completed. But the batch involved only Coors Light brewed at the firm's Albany, Ga., brewery.

Beer giant recalls batch of Coors Light in Southeastern U.S.
ChicagoTribune.com
June 1, 2009

Some in the Blogo-Twito-sphere have responded with snarky commentary: How could anyone tell the difference? How much worse could Coors Light possibly be?

But let's be adult here.

MillerCoors made the proper and courageous business decision. As much as I might not care for the flavor (or lack thereof) in Coors Light and other N.A.I.L.s, I admire the decision the company took. Whatever might be wrong with the beer —and it could just be a small thing— MillerCoors discovered it and promptly dealt with it in the full light of public disclosure.

Finding flaws is a sign of a robust quality control program, if a failure at an earlier point. Would that more American businesses police themselves rather than having the government demand a recall.

The amount of money MillerCoors might lose —ingredients, labor, packaging, transportation costs, recall cost— will be in no manner non-trivial. MillerCoors is to be commended for exercising good business practices.

An attempt to pass the beer through the network —with even minor flaws— might have been very tempting. But the results could have been much more damaging.

Consider the sad saga and swift collapse of Schlitz Brewing in the 1970s. Or consider more recent —and opposite— history, when Boston Beer discovered glass shards in some of its bottled beers. Despite being the fault of its glass supplier, Boston Beer dealt with the situation rapidly and publicly.

Any brewer worth her brewing salts will tell you: let she whose beer has been without fault or infection throw the first bottle.

• SAB/Miller and Molson/Coors merged their US operations in July of 2008.
• Obviously, not all Coors is brewed in Golden, Colorado.
  

NRG expands in Alexandria, Va.

The neighborhood just grew for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group (NRG).

Barbara Maxwell, at Alexandria City Buzz Examiner, has reported that

It has been suggested that a local company that owns several restaurants such as Rustico will be purchasing the building and opening a new restaurant later on this summer. Zagat Buzz in its most recent online issue, that a new restaurant, called Columbia Firehouse will be taking the place of the current Bookbinders.

Bookbinder's is was a steakhouse in the historic district of Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. In turn, Bookbinder's had replaced the long-established Portner's Restaurant.

And that restaurant had been named for what had once been the largest Pre-Prohibition brewery in the southeastern US: Robert Portner Brewing Company.

Physically extending in Alexandria, Virginia, over four blocks on either side of Pendleton Street between North St. Asaph and North Washington streets, the Portner brewery was one of the first US breweries to use refrigeration and one of the to refrigerate its railroad cars. Its network of railroad delivery rivaled that of Anheuser-Busch. Poised for dominance, the brewery suffered from family squabbling and never re-opened after Prohibition.
Back to Columbia Firehouse:

The purchase of Bookbinder's now brings NRG's ownership to 7 restaurants and shops in Arlington and Alexandria, two suburbs of Washington, D.C. The Examiner continues:

Columbia Firehouse will be serving an affordable, casual menu on the main floor, while the upstairs will be a more traditionally focused steak and chophouse.

The name, by the way, is a

tribute to what the building housed more than a century ago, says Michael Babin, president of the group.

Planting a Steak in Old Town Going out Gurus WashingtonPost.com

Renovations are expected to take 3 weeks and are reported to include expansion of the draught beer system and selection.

Still on tap for NRG is Birch and Barley/Churchkey, a beer-centric restaurant and taproom, slated to open in Washington, D.C. in late 2009.