BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU (FINALLY) EST ARRIVE!

It is here, accompanied by some serious hype from its most famous producer, Georges Debeouf. The 2011 Beajolais Nouveau has landed everywhere (officially on November 17 this year), with some splashy debut events in New York, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles, but almost nary a mention in the Philadelphia area, with the exception of the city's Midtown Village neighborhood marshalling its retailers and bars to offer the wine along its main 13th Street corridor. There has been barely a whisper about it here in central NJ. That saddens me a bit. I can remember when Nouveau's arrival was a lighthearted day of celebration.

This year Debeouf has proclaimed the wine to be "bursting with berries", so it's time to find out and taste this year's vintage.

HUGE blackberry and strawberry in the nose. It practically leaps out of the glass! Mouth feel is thin, but full of strawberries, blackberries and raspberries at the very first taste, with plenty of earth at the end, some dryness, too, and a noticeable absence of the usual green/vine notes of previous years. This is still a good light quaff, with just enough dryness to pair beautifully with buttery mashed potatoes, gravy topped turkey, herby stuffing, even that green bean casserole. I actually think that this year's wine will enhance the Thanksgiving meal and amplify the traditional flavors. Debeouf is accurate: it is indeed "bursting with berries," especially when your first inhale its aromas in the glass, but it definitely has enough backbone to carry through the entire Turkey Day feast, from snacks and munchies before dinner (think mild cheese and crackers, salumi, almonds, pumpkin or butternut squash soup, bruschetta, stuffed breads, focaccia, radishes) to every savory bite of the meal.

Even though I didn't get to sample a glass until now, the wait was worth it, and this year's Beaujolais Nouveau portends a great year for 2011 vintage Beaujolais wines. And a very tasty Thanksgiving Day wine pairing. Buy enough Nouveau for the weekend; it ought to taste just as good with a weekend of leftovers, sandwiches and turkey salad!

Cheers!

Cheers!

LEW TV

I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a huge Lew Bryson fan. For those of you who DON'T know who Bryson is, he is one of the finest writers with whom I've had the privilege to work, a beverage journalist who specializes in beer and spirits, but really, just a terrific writer. Lew was always my special guest/John Madden for all of the Golden Age of Beer in Philadelphia Tours I conducted during the halcyon days of Philadelphia's The Book and The Cook food festival

Well, it looks like Lew has what it takes for TV, too.

Bryson and producer Rudy Vegliante are shopping a pilot for American Beer Blogger, which Vegliante describes thusly:

AMERICAN BEER BLOGGER is a half hour television series dedicated to all

facets of the ever growing craft beer market. From home brewing, to micro

beer; viewers will experience the very best of the craft beer culture. In each

episode, Lew will visit a different brewer, each of which has their own sets of

quirks and ways of doing things. Lew will talk to these brewers, get to know

them, will show us first hand the various methods and techniques used in

creating a craft beer. From the tiniest bottler to the largest manufacturer, Lew

will get his hands dirty. Topics such as bottling, food pairing, manufacturing,

distribution, history, technique (and so much more) will all be touched upon

as Lew spends a day with these brewers. Some doing well in the business, others not so well. Thankfully, the DIY nature of this business can lead to some pretty unforseeable results as Lew lends a hand and helps out in any way he can. Lew will show us all the kinds of micro-breweries currently out there. From the smallest, hippest label to large manufacturers.

AMERICAN BEER BLOGGER sets out to entertain the viewer as well as educate on this rapidly growing industry. Through humor and a charming, hands-on host, our show will not only be entertaining for the microbeer enthusiast, but also enjoyable for the average viewer as well.

Top Gear with beer... Top Beer if you will.

They've partnered with Kickstarter, an Amazon.com company that helps small businesses raise capital, to raise money to produce the show. I'm a backer, and you should be, too. One look at the trailer for this show, and you'll be hooked. Great production values, as they say in the trade. And Bryson is a natural. Here's what he told me about the filming in a recent e-mail:

We met up at Stoudt's [Brewery in Adamstown, PA ]at about 8 AM on a morning in late May with NOTHING planned or scripted. We knew we were going to tape...something about the brewery. Everything was done seat of the pants, and most of it was done in one take. I hadn't ever done much interviewing on camera before, but it felt pretty natural. Ed Stoudt has a ton of camera time, and has been doing the tours at the brewery for years; he was completely at ease. The stuff in the bar and on the sidewalk (when I'm in the other shirt) was done at Devil's Den during my Philly Beer Week event there, and if anything, that was even less scripted. I walked down the street, greeted some people I knew at an outside table, and on the spur of the moment, stole a sip of their beer. Felt right, did it. That's probably what the whole thing's going to be. Real reality.

So here's a project we can all get a thirst for. I think we may have found our next TV star.

"NOT PENN STATE"

When I first arrived at the University of Pennsylvania in 1975 as a freshman, I was struck by the sheer beauty of the campus, the sheer numbers of students converging on the campus and milling about, and the endless displays of Penn clothing and logo-stamped merchandise for sale all around campus. But my first swag purchase was a light grey t-shirt emblazoned with huge block letters that read: "NOT PENN STATE". It never struck me that there could be such confusion between the school I was about to attend in Philadelphia and the larger state college located in the center of the state. But I though the t-shirt was pretty funny.

But I was soon to learn that many fellow students were quite sensitive to the confusion. "Half my family thinks I'm going to Penn State," said one of my roommates, who hailed from Staten Island, "I don't think they know the difference."

It only took me a few weeks to experience that confusion. On one of my first visits home for a weekend, I had one of my dad's friends ask me if I had bumped into Joe Paterno on campus yet. "Nope, not yet, " I smirked. My dad didn't think it was so funny. "He's going to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia," he quickly retorted. "Didn't know they had a Philadelphia campus," said his friend. I thought my father was going to slug him.

"Don't worry," I said, "we know the difference."

Later that weekend, one of my uncles (I won't say which one) asked me a similar question and asked me if I could get tickets to the next Penn State football game. This time, my father looked at me with a smile and shook his head. "No, that's almost impossible for me," I answered.

Eventually all of my family understood what university I was attending, and didn't ask me about Joe Paterno or the Nittany Lions or anything like that anymore. Several cousins did in fact eventually attend the school in State College, and are proud alumni.

After a week like this one, I am certainly glad that I'm an alumni of the place with the t-shirts---still for sale to this day---that say "Not Penn State."

SALAD DAYS

(Clockwise from upper left: baby lettuce mix; arugula; "spicy mix"; wild romaine, green leaf and red leaf lettuces. Center: striped radishes)

Some Sundays I feel like I've hit the veggie lottery.

Sunday is the day we pick up our weekly share from the Honey Brook Organic Farm in Pennington, NJ, about which I've posted a lot here. This Sunday was perhaps the salad greens lottery, but it was impressive nonetheless.

The photo above shows just a small portion of the total haul this Sunday. I plated handfuls of the most impressive stuff, and, while trying to channel my inner Eric Menscher (a former Philadelphia Inquirer photog who had just taught a workshop I attended on Saturday at the Philadelphia Food & Drink Writers Meet-Up at Daniel Stern's fabulous R2L restaurant, 37 stories above center city Philly), tried to display the inner beauty of some of these greens.

I obtained 2 POUNDS of a baby lettuce mix, so bright and glistening and colorful, the photo doesn't do it justice; a half pound of arugula (which is a lot of arugula); a half pound of "spicy mix", which seems to include baby chicory and mache and mustard greens among other zippy leaves; and 4 heads of fall lettuce, including wild romaine, with its finger-like leaves, red leaf and green leaf lettuce. There were also gorgeous pink and red and white radishes, field tomatoes, among other veggies, but the greens just stood out so much, I had to post this.

Salad days are here. Oh baby.

"Did You Ever Wonder...."

Andy Rooney broadcast his final regular segment for 60 Minutes last night, and it was a classic. In case you missed it, you can view it above here.

I met Rooney once, we shared a laugh, and it was a memorable 30 seconds of my life.

I was working at the Adam's Mark Hotel at the time, as the hotel's advertising and public relations manager. Philadelphia's The Book and The Cook food festival was at the peak of its popularity and in full swing, and the hotel was asked to put up some of the celebrity chefs that were in town that year. One of those chefs was David Burke, Executive Chef at the Park Avenue Cafe in New York City. He was a big headliner that year, very popular and very in demand around town. He was a great guest, very affable and gracious, and I drove him to a couple of appearances, as well as back and forth to the annual chef-media party at Jack's Firehouse restaurant in Fairmount. As I drove him to the train back to NYC after his time in Philly was done, he gave me his business card, and said, "If you're ever in New York, gimme a call and come in for dinner."

About 6 months later, I had to be in the Big Apple and took him up on his offer. When we got to the restaurant, Burke had set us up at an "A" table, dead center in the main dining room, and, after schmoozing with us for a bit, served us a brilliant tasting menu of many of his greatest hits, from an amuse' of truffled wild mushrooms in an egg shell, right down to his signature cheesecake lollipops. It was a perfect meal in every way. He was chatting with us at one point, explaining one of the dishes he was about to bring out, when he pointed to the entrance, and said, "Look you just walked in!". It was Walter Cronkite and his wife, Betsey, and Andy Rooney and his wife, Margie. Burke left our table, and went to help whisk the famous foursome to another dining room in the restaurant.

About a half hour later, I went to the mens room and a moment later, Rooney walked in and took his place at the urinal next to mine. "Hello, Mr. Rooney," I said. "Hello, " he replied, and added, "You'll excuse me if I don't shake hands." We both laughed out loud. I washed my hands, he remained in place, and I walked out without a handshake.

You know, despite all of the imitations done of Andy Rooney, Joe Piscopo's being the most famous, he never once uttered the phrase "Did you ever wonder..." on one of his 60 Minutes segments. Just a little trivia.

REMEMBER, JUST REMEMBER

We remember so much about that day now. The perfect blue sky, the bright sunshine, the balmy temperature. And where we were when it happened.

I was getting ready to head out the door for my commute to Philly and my office at The Bellevue, where I was the PR-Marketing Director for the landmark property. "Imus in the Morning" was on WFAN in New York, and on the radio in my kitchen, part of my morning ritual. Imus was asking his crew if it was true that something crashed into the World Trade Center. I quickly flipped on the TV in the den and saw the image we all remember now, the hole, the smoke, the strangeness of it. And the talking heads on every channel were calmly speculating on how a small plane could possibly ever hit a building so large. Sun glare, said one, pilot collapse or heart attack, said another.

And then the second plane hit. And I remember being frozen, unable to move, standing in my den.

We all remember what follows. The Pentagon. Shanksville. The collapsing buildings. The thousands who perished. The chaos.

And for weeks after we all remember how every siren made us stop and wonder what was happening. How every chopping helicopter above made us rush to a window and look outside.

But remember these things instead: The flags everywhere. The courtesies to strangers. The ceremonies honoring proud but humble police officers and firefighters in every town. The national anthem and "God Bless America."

Remember all of these things. But just remember.

FOREVER THE KING

I remember listening to Howard Eskin in 1983 on talk radio station WWDB-FM in Philadelphia when he did a ground-breaking (for Philly) sports talk show in the early evening. It was riveting radio. Eskin was opinionated, passionate and argumentative. He interviewed sports guests with a combination of child-like awe and reporter zeal.

I also remember when he moved his show to the multi-faceted Philly radio icon WIP-AM in 1986 which had been veering to an all-talk format back then, launching what would eventually become one of the country's first sports talk radio stations.

He did his style of brash, in-your-face, sports talk for 25 years at WIP, dominating the afternoon drive time ratings for most of that time. He was also famously paired with a rogues gallery of partners in an attempt to perhaps soften his sarcasm or lessen his polarizing personality, but all of those attempts (including an embarassing morning drive stint with Morning Zoo-famous John DeBella at sister station WMMR-FM) fell flat, even his most recent pairing with ex-Eagle linebacker Ike Reese.

In the end, the best Eskin is the solo, unfiltered, full-strength Eskin, and maybe that was part of the motivation for his emotional announcement a few weeks back that he would give up his regular time slot in favor of other opportunities. He remains at WIP for several spot roles, and seems to be leaning toward some kind of national show, either on satellite or terrestrial radio.

Yesterday Eskin did his last regularly scheduled show in his time slot, as WIP-AM moved to simulcast itself on the frequency held for decades by hard rock WYSP-FM. The show was filled with celebrity phone calls, well-wishing callers, and Charles Barkley in studio along with Eskin's son, Brett, who ironically lost his job at WYSP in the foremat/simulcast change. It was, of course compelling radio, full of emotion, laughs, inside jokes and forced reflection.

It is still amazing and very impressive that Howard Eskin lasted (survived?) for 25 years at one radio station, in virtually the same time slot, a concept virtually unheard of in the current climate of homogeneous radio, right-wing talkmongers and dumbed down sports talk, corporate rock radio and scattershot pop programming.

Part investigative reporter, part oddsmakers, part insider, part true sports fan, there is not, nor never was, anyone like Howard Eskin. He made the mold, broke the mold and re-invented the mold.

Forever The King.