Wednesday Morning, Jennie and I met Dan of Bison Brewing at the Farmer's Market at Tiri's Garden for lunch. Although the place is called a Farmer's Market, most of the vendors serve prepared food out of trucks and lunch carts. I'm reminded of Austin!
The highlight of the market was the Inventing Room, which sells edible science fair projects. Who could resist that? Not us. We ordered a Chocolate Mint Space Foam. When a canister of liquid nitrogen appeared, Jennie shouted "Hold on, let me get my camera!" as we struggled to get our cameras ready like a disorganized firing squad.
The chef shot the space foam into a container of liquid nitrogen from a whipped cream dispenser. After a few seconds, the chef reached in with his bare hands and popped a ball of frozen space foam into his mouth. Showmanship!
For added drama he demonstrated how to blow puffs of "smoke" off of the space foam. The foam tasted minty delicious, with an unusual crunchy/smooth texture. Space foam is an insane crowd pleaser. I'll have some video footage to show off later.
The Farmer's Market also has an attached community garden, which lets you pick your own vegetables in exchange for a donation to Concerts for Kids. I love this idea! Volunteers and students work the garden, which is just gorgeous. Denver should be proud. Look for a video soon.
The food vendors offer a bogglingly diverse selection of food. Liquid Nitrogen space foam. Vegetarian Vietnamese sandwiches. Venezuelan street food. Cupcakes. Anything your heart desires.
After a blogging break, Jennie and I returned to the thumping heart of GABF: Falling Rock Tap Room. Falling rock was already full of beer nerds and brewers when we arrived at six pm. Many of them were here to celebrate Taylor "The Art of Beer's" birthday in the basement.
How does The Art of Beer celebrate her birthday? With a huge beer tasting, curated by Dr. Bill! Bottle after bottle of craft bombers appeared, with a focus on belgian-style beer.
Our basement room was absolutely packed, and whenever the barman was spotted, drink orders were shouted across the room. Our group must have been boisterous, because the barman threatened to kill anyone who tried to drive tonight. We all survived.
After the birthday festivities reverted to GABF festivities, Jennie and I strolled down to Euclid Hall. This cool restaurant specializes in beer and food pairings, or so it seemed to us. If they're a wine and cheese joint, we didn't notice.
I really enjoyed the meal, although there were a few rough edges here and there. For instance, their grilled hangar steak poutine had to my mind a strange ratio of steak, cheese, and fries. There was more cheese than fries to mop it up with. They've only been open for about six weeks, so they're still tuning things. I expect they'll have the menu dialed in quite soon if they're active in collecting and responding to feedback.
I got a kick out of Euclid's mathematical beer list organization. The list begins with arithmetic, and works its way upward in beer complexity through algebra, calculus, and topping out at quantum mathematics. To give you an idea, Dogfish Head's Palo Santo lands in quantum mathematics. You can find the list on their website. This is a fun way to challenge folks to try new beers. I look forward to visiting Euclid at next year's GABF!