The 2014 Texas Renaissance Festival Season Has Begun! Huzzah!

Hear ye, hear ye!  And all that old-tyme-y-sounding stuff. The 2014 Texas Renaissance Festival began this weekend in Todd Mission, Texas, located just north of Houston and west of Conroe.

According to the festival's marketing materials, this is largest and oldest renaissance festival in the United States and this year they're celebrating their 40th anniversary.  As such there have been ticket specials and giveaways throughout the year. Our tickets for this weekend were comp'd because we attended Compicpalooza earlier in the year.  It's been a rainy weekend so the temperatures were mostly pleasant even if the ground was soggy all around.

Visitors are greeted just inside the gate by Sholo the Nubian. His Shakespearean reading show at the Barbarian Inn is fabulous.

Most people associate ren fests with turkey legs and things on a stick.  This festival is no different, however there is so much more available.  Yesterday I covered most, but not all of the festival and will share some of my finds with you here.  The festival is loosely divided into a number of themed areas.  There's a Polish area, a German area, a French-creole area, a Pirate area, a Barbarian area, an English area, a Greek area, a Spanish area, an Italian area, and Sherwood Forest, an area with a variety of games to play and shade trees.

Fajitas aplenty.

Delicious crepes.  Available in savory (salads) or sweet (nutella with strawberries and bananas).

The Polish area features a Polish pub, restaurant, and performance stage. This is where Iris & Rose perform, as well as Arthur Greenleaf Holmes. Both acts are PG-13. 

The Lovely Spouse went easy on the carbs and got Golabki (stuffed cabbage rolls filled with meat and rice) and deep fried bacon on a stick. 

I tried the deep fried perogis on a stick.  Perogi are kind of like ravioli that are then sauted in onions.  These were filled with potatoes and cheese then deep fried.  I like the crispy texture along with the perogi awesomeness. 

The Polish pub has all the regular beer and wine selections as well as real Polish mead, that's actually quite tasty.  Staff at both the pub and the restaurant speak Polish in addition to English, so you can order in either language. 

The Polish section has other options if golabki and perogi aren't your thing.

Elsewhere in the faire there's a coffee shop that also serves mead and has a selection of cigars.

A variety of selections in the English section.

In case you're wandering the festival grounds and wondering where the butter is.  Here. Here it is.

Every ren fest has to have a centralized pub area for meeting up with friends and instigating shenanigans. This one is the Sea Devil Tavern. 

At the Sea Devil Tavern.

In the Spanish area you can find BBQ and a place to sit and eat it.

More options in the Spanish area.

The coconut shrimp were served with a spicy orange marmalade that was quite exceptional. 

Grilled sausage and other options in the German area.  There's also a sit-down restaurant in this section. 

Is it possible to have a ren fest without turkey legs?

Stir fried noodles in the Greek section. These were actually quite good and did not resemble the name, which was along the lines of "lasagna". 

Grilled meats and veggies in the Greek area.

Spanikopita,or spinach and cheese in a light phylo dough. As good as many of the ones I had in Greece.

Also in the Greek area, Christophe the Insulter performs. His show is rated R for obvious reasons. He will insult friends and family for a fee.

There are lighter options for people would would prefer fruit. This stand has fresh fruit, as well as chocolate dipped fruit.

Decisions, decisions.

Coconut water is delicious on a hot day, or even on a comfortable, overcast day.

Coconut water served still in the coconuts.  Machete service included in the charge. 

There is also a working brewery at the ren fair.  Brigadoon Brewery produces quality craft beer, currently served at faire with plans to expand for year round sales and service.

They serve their own in-house brewed beer in addition to a selection of Texas craft beer.

What else is there for food and drinks?  There's a mead bar, a couple of pubs and there are people who make and sell a variety of items from their shops. There are shows from all kinds of performers. And of course there's all kinds of shopping, shopping, shopping. Not to mention people watching.  There's much to see.

Lady McArthur sells jams, jellies, and salsas with one thing in common: peppers.  

Taste testing is encouraged.  

If you get frustrated by your companions, there's a way to release that frustration and beat the stuffing out of them. With boffers so no one gets hurt for realz.

The Fire, Whip Show is always entertaining.  

Even if wigs aren't your thing, you've got to admit these are pretty awesome.

Bird of prey shows are always awesome and educational.

New for this year, we found a Mead Hall.  

Lovely windows and a great space for photos.

Samples of mead are offered. Bottles are available for sale, and the mead is served as locations around the festival.

Dancing Dog Dairy offers lovely goat-milk soaps.  The milk comes from their adorable nubian miniature goats. Most weekends they have at least one goat with them at their shop, located in the median between the wind chimes and candles.

They also spin goat hair yarn died in a variety of colors.  They have a selection of completed knitted pieces for sale for those of us who can't knit.

For a little quiet time there are some beautiful gardens on site. 

Can't figure out where to begin?  That's understandable, it's a large festival.  Go to the parade. All the performers and shop keepers are represented. They'll give you an idea of what is available to help you plan your day. Sure, you could just go check this out on the festival website, but the parade is more fun.

Every ren fest must have a king and queen. Here they're decked out for the Octoberfest themed weekend.

What have I not covered?  Quite a lot, actually. It's a very large festival.  For foodies, I never covered the King's Feast, the Queen's Wine Tasting, or the Masquerade. These are extras for festival-goers and we didn't wish to bother with the extra time or expense. I also didn't cover the amazing apple dumplings, the terryaki chicken, and other finds you will see around the faire.  There are also shops out there selling some amazing art, crafts, and clothing.  They all deserve a look. I barely scratched the surface on the shows. There are many, many more that are iconic for this particular festival: Sound and Fury, The Ded Bob Show, Arsene Dupin, to name a few. There are also musicians, magicians, and other artists. There's a really cool shop that makes fine leather masks. There are a number of artisans making lovely jewelry, candles, and other crafts.  And the wind chimes are lovely.  You'll also find a jousting show, Royal Court performances, and a war horse. And, of course, you'll find groups of playtrons, or super-fans of the festival meeting in fabulous costumes.

If you go, here are a few tips:

1. Wear comfortable shoes.  If you go in costume, where comfortable boots.  It's a very large festival and those really cute pointy spiked heels will not feel so cute after a couple hours.  The surface is uneven and when it rains it gets muddy.

2. The ATM fees are $5.95. If you don't want to pay that fee bring lots of cash.  Most of the retailers accept credit and debit cards, but most of the food and drink vendors only accept cash.  Even though they say the amount charged is in pounds, they mean dollars. Don't worry about currency conversion.

3. If you get overheated (it's hot in Texas this time of year) go to the Prince of Wales pub.  It has air conditioning.

4.  If you're a beef lover go to the Prince of Wales pub for the prime rib trenchers.  They also have really good fish and chips (also available at the Sea Devil Tavern).

5. Take ID. You will be ID'd for alcohol purchases and every time you use a credit or debit card.

6. It's encouraged to get into the spirit of things (costumes are available for rent just outside the gate).  Please interact with the performers, various cast, and vendors.  But remember they are human beings.  No touching, grabbing, groping, or hugging without permission to do so. When in doubt, ask first.  If you want photos, it's generally nice thing to ask first.

7. Don't expect historical accuracy.  First off, Renaissance English does not sound like modern English. If you want accuracy find an SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) event.  Renaissance Festivals are welcome environments for creative people so expect to find whimsy and creative expression.  And fairies, storm troopers, Roman Centurians, Barbarians, Enterprise away teams, Steampunks, and people mixing genres. It's all in the spirit of fun.

8. Go early and stay late.  The festival doesn't close until the final three booms of the fireworks show. The shops are all open until those last 3 booms. The crowds clear out and the festival looks quite cool after dark.

9. Be patient with regards to parking.  If you must park close, and don't have a handicap tag on your vehicle, pony up the $10 for the priority parking.  When you arrive make sure you remember which row you're parked in - they're numbered.  Forgetting this will make it really hard to find your car at the end of the day, in the dark, without lights.

10. If you drink, designate a driver. Get home safely.

2014 Texas Reds Steak and Grape Festival

Every year the city of Bryan, Texas hosts the Texas Reds Steak and Grape festival in the downtown area.  It seems that every year they change the format. Some changes for the better (moving the festival from May to September), some not so much.  Here I'll discuss the 2014 festival.

When I first moved to College Station more than 10 years ago, Bryan was the sad neighbor who had so much potential.  Over the years there has been much effort made to remake the downtown area, with much success.  It's now a dining and shopping destination in Brazos county with some wonderful restaurants (Madden's, Taz, Brauhaus, and Cafe Capri, to name a few) and independently owned boutiques for antiquing and shopping.

The Texas Reds Festival is a chance to showcase the downtown area and bring in foodies from around the region.

This year, as in past years the downtown area was fenced off.  However this year admission was free and the fencing off only included halting traffic in and out of the area.  In previous years there was a $5 admission fee.  Removing admission has a couple advantages in that businesses can move their employees and supplies back and forth without paying to do so, people can wander in and out as they please over the multi-day festival, and people can still visit the businesses inside the festival area without paying a fee to do so.

This year parking was also free at the municipal garage near the courthouse.  This was very convenient.  There was also a shuttle from Blinn College, which was also convenient for people who didn't want to bother with the commute or parking.

Moving the festival from May to September was also a very good move that was made a few years ago. It's just too hot to be outside all day in Texas in May. This year the festival weekend was lovely, with cooler than expected temperatures.

This year's festival included many of the elements from previous years: wine tasting, a kids' area (full of jumpy bounce entertainment), live music, art and crafts for exhibition and sale, and vendors for shopping.  New for this year, and what excited me the most, a craft beer area.  From previous years we knew to purchase a glass and tickets for tastings. Typically one ticket for regular wines and two tickets for premium wines.  This year things were a bit different.

There was a wine area and a craft beer area.  Each required the purchase of different glasses. At $20 per glass.  Tickets were $1 a piece.  To start you must purchase a glass and 5 tickets for $25.  For 2 people wanting to taste the beer that's $50 to start.  If you also want to purchase the wine glass it's $45 a person for 2 glasses.  Or $90 per person.  It could be reasoned that if you go as a couple you could get the $45 deal with the 2 glasses and buy extra tickets for tastings, but The Lovely Spouse and I were only interested in the craft beer, because for the extra money we could purchase a bottle of wine that we knew we liked.  Additionally, we learned from previous years that the wine served at this particular festival is overwhelmingly sweet, leaning towards Kool Aid. We don't like sweet wines.

So we each purchased the $25 beer package, got our $20 pint glasses and $5 in tasting tickets and headed to the craft beer area.

The entire time I kept thinking "don't drop the glass, don't drop the glass, don't drop the glass".

There were 11 craft breweries from Texas represented at this year's Texas Reds.  In my opinion it was a great thing to add to the festival and support Texas craft beer.  Many of the breweries represented sent their own staff to work the tables and visitors could ask beer geek questions and sample brews that might not be available locally.

While it was awesome to interact with the brewery reps, and the beers we tasted were darned good, I couldn't get the thought out of my head that we just spent $50 for 2 glasses and slightly less volume than 2 pints of beers.  Therefore we never purchased more tickets.

So we ate lunch at Proudest Monkey, next door to the Queen theater.  Proudest Monkey is best known for tacos, burgers, Texas craft beer, and signature cocktails, including awesome ice cream cocktails.

I had a Cuban taco. Pulled pork with pickles and mustard.  Just the right combination of flavors and just the right size.

Fried yucca and plantains are a nice alternative to fries. 

The Lovely Spouse loves the yuppie fries - coated with garlic and cheese.

The Lovely Spouse enjoyed his Ranch Hand taco. Beef fajita with pico, cheese, and salsa.

At Proudest Monkey we also enjoyed Texas craft beer, for slightly less than we would pay at the festival. And we got to sit at a table to enjoy it.  We'll definitely be back.  Their ice cream cocktails are delicious, especially the creamsicle cocktail.

I would be remiss if I didn't at least show a picture of the wine tasting area. Yes there was wine tasting. No we were not able to participate in it because we didn't spend an additional $25 for the glass and tickets.

There was also one thing glaringly missing from the Texas Reds Steak and Grape festival.  Steak.  In previous years there were steak cook offs and competitions.  I saw nothing of that this year. It seems strange to call a festival "Steak and Grapes" and to completely forget about ones of those.

In all it's a pretty good festival for showcasing downtown Bryan and just to get outside for a few hours.  I was taken aback by the glassware pricing and the concept of having to choose between craft beer and wine or pay a much higher premium.  If the customers are knowledgeable they know they can get the same glassware for $5-6 and then purchase a six-pack of beer or bottle of wine with the remaining balance.  For $20 a glass it would have made sense to use a glass that would function for both wine tasting and beer tasting, such as one of these:

Image source.

If festival organizers are interested in such a thing, there's a certain brewery in College Station (nice new website, by the way) that uses them for their weekend taprooms. I'm sure they'd be willing to give the city of Bryan the name of their supplier.

If you wish to convince your customers to pay the premium for the glassware, make it worth their while. Let them buy one glass and then buy tickets for both beer and wine. Customers will pay $20 for a glass as admission (I also suggest having a cheaper price point for broken glassware - maybe $10 for a replacement).  But most of them won't do it twice (for both beer and wine). Especially not in a college town, where a number of your customers are students or grad students.  Additionally, having one type of glassware will make printing and ordering a wee bit easier, which is a good thing when you rely on volunteers to run your festival.

In summary (and the TL;DR version): this year's Texas Reds Steak and Grape Festival was good. There is still much room for improvement.

Black Bottle Brewery

I recently went on a business trip to Fort Collins, Colorado.  It was really nice to get out of Texas for a few days during the heat of the summer and see some mountains.  And some really good work got done as well.  I didn't have a lot of down time, but when I had a spare moment I visited one of the many breweries in the city.

Black Bottle Brewery (must be 21 to enter website) is actually a brew pub.  They have a small brewery and the tap room features their own beers, other craft beers, and some pretty good food (I recommend the Angry Hawaiian Pizza).   If I had more time I would have sampled more of their beers and visited other breweries in the area.

This is the beer list.  It includes what they have in bottles and on draft.

These are people who seriously love craft beer.  Their own (in the black bottles, natch) and others. 

They might be serious about beer, but they don't take themselves too seriously.  As evidenced by their squirrel tableaus.

Drinky the Squirrel. With some rather awesome growlers.

Mustaches. Because why not?

I had a few of their sample pours.  Altogether I believe it was the same volume as a 12 oz beer. The thing to be aware of with their beers is that some are so smooth and easy-drinking that it's easy to forget they're alcoholic.  Some pack quite an ABV punch at 9-11%. Not pictured: Liquid Metal was a standout as incredibly smooth and malty with a great balance. If I had more time I would have gone back for more.  

I was there on a slow night, however there are plenty of tables and service for some good eats. The aforementioned Angry Hawaiian Pizza was a delicious take on the classic Hawaiian pizza.  Ham, cheese, barbecue sauce, and fresh jalapenos on a thin and crispy crust. Half pizzas available for single diners. Full pizzas for large appetites or groups.

The Last Call Gong.  And, yes, they really use it to signal last call.  Which comes early during the week.  Most places, including Black Bottle, close at 10 pm on weekdays.

Located across the street from Colorado State University and within walking distance to hotels, I recommend Black Bottle Brewery for both food and drinks for beer geeks. I hope to visit again someday.

Fun fact: when you're sitting at the bar you are sitting on top of the brewery cooler.

Odd Duck in Austin

I recently celebrated a birthday, and on a wild hare decided to spend an extended weekend in Austin to celebrate it. So the Lovely Spouse and I made the trip.  So where in Austin will a foodie such as myself decide to celebrate?  At the much lauded Odd Duck, of course.  I didn't make the choice on the accolades, although those don't hurt, but because I've been waiting for this restaurant to open ever since visiting their food truck a number of years ago.

Image source.  Where it all began.

Odd Duck started out as a farm to table concept food truck along Lamar.  The food was sourced from local farms and served up in such a way to highlight the ingredients. The dishes were what you would expect to find at a modern food truck, but with a noticeable improvement on technique.  How many food trucks do you suppose sous vide ingredients for a slider?  Maybe all of them do where you live, but this was novel for someone living in College Station. Therefore I was thrilled to find out they would move on up to a restaurant.

Where they are now. If you go, the valet parking is complementary, but tips are welcome.

A few days before we went I made reservations from their website. It's a good thing I did. Each night was fully booked, however I managed to find a 5 pm reservation.  When we got there the restaurant was already bustling.

Much of the seating at this time was at the bar, however there were tables in the dining room and on the outdoor terrace.

Bar seating looks right into the kitchen.  You can talk with the kitchen staff while deciding which delicious item to order. 

We started with pre-dinner cocktails while perusing the menu.  I got a very nice Moscow Mule made with in-house-made ginger beer, lime, and vodka.  The Lovely Spouse got a melon margarita. True to the name it had a distinct melon flavor.

The menu is designed around small dishes, therefore it is recommended that people order 3-4 dishes each. When making my reservation I mentioned a food intolerance and requested only to be informed of which dishes would be heavy on a certain ingredient.  The service and kitchen staff were absolutely amazing at assisting me. Truly above and beyond what I expect any time I eat out.

The Lovely Spouse started with onion bread served with house-made butter. I didn't eat the bread, but the butter was sweet, creamy and delicious. 

I started with pretzels filled with ham and cheese. Whipped mustard bechamel on the side. 

My next course was the heirloom tomato salad.  I love tomatoes. This salad was light and highlighted the great heirloom tomato flavor. 

The Lovely Spouse got the smoked boudin served with arugala on a saltine. Nice smoky flavor. It tasted like a very refined boudin. Good spice mixture and clean finish. Not at all like the greasy (albeit also tastey) boudin you find at the state fair. 

Next The Lovely Spouse got, would you believe it, tater tots.  These are the most refined and out-of-the-box tater tots ever. Served with smoked chicken, cheese, and green chile sauce.  He didn't share even a bite, so it must have been awesome. 

This looks like another salad but is actually a pasta course. This is house-made ricotta cavatelli served with chanterelles, apples, walnuts, and hot sauce (on the side).  Unexpectedly bright and fresh. I decided on the spot that I now want chanterelles in All The Things.  There was a nice blend of sweet, creamy, and fresh, although none was too much so. 

This was a special occasion so we had to get dessert.  If you visit you will absolutely want to do the same.

The Lovely Spouse opted for the seasonal sorbet.  Shown here are basil sorbet on the bottom and lemon sorbet on the top. Both were perfect in every way.

I opted for the most refined birthday cake ever: the Kouign-amann croissant.  Kouign amann are pastries made by much of the same technique as croissants but typically baked in ring molds or cupcake pans, giving them a different shape and texture. This one was topped with St. Maure goat cheese, apples, honey, and micro greens. I love the combination of soft cheese and fruit - the creaminess balances out the sharpness and sometimes overly sweetness of the fruit, and the fruit balances the fattiness and funkiness of the cheese. 

Prices?  They were reasonable for fine dining in a major metropolitan area. Each dish averaged $6-12 each, times 3-4 per person. Drinks ranged in price from $4 for a draft beer (great selection) to $18 for a barrel aged Manhattan.

We didn't make it to their brunch, but I heard wonderful things about it from a variety of people.

Will we be back?  I hope so.

If you go: make reservations. Get there early and enjoy a cocktail. If you drive valet is complementary but limited.  Save room for dessert.  The menu changes regularly.

Nutella + cupcakes = Yum!

To borrow a phrase from The Bloggess, this isn't really a post.

I found something A-MAZE-ING in Houston: Nutella Cupcakes.  I just had to share.

Nutella cupcake (moist, but not too moist), with Nutella buttercream, and Nutella filling. Absolutely divine. 

Where to find said divine cupcake. Evidently they have a "cupcake palace" in the Heights as well. 

On top of all this awesomeness they were also really nice people.