Marleigh came down from Brooklyn to drop her car off. She really had no need for it with New York Metro system taking you wherever you need to go. It was also a pain to have to move the car every other day due to the street sweeper schedule. It was nice having her home for the weekend! On the Sunday we took her up to Richmond to catch the train back to New York.

After we dropped her off we figured we'd hit The Veil for a pint and I also wanted to see if they had any cans left from earlier in the week.

Yeah, yeah I know they wouldn't. Doesn't hurt to try though!

Walking in we saw Carling behind the bar which was nice. I bump into her all the time in Virginia Beach. I asked if they had any cans left, which they didn't, but she said she might be able to dig up something in the back. Score! Carling came out with a couple of cans of their collab with Cloudwater - a brewery out of Manchester, England - called Cat and Taco. See it doesn't hurt to try :P Thank you Carling and The Veil for the hook-up, I brought back a Jester King sour for the brewery after a trip I took to Texas.

Of course Shelby and I ordered beers while the can thing was getting worked out. I sipped on our beers and investigated the food pop-ups happening outside the brewery. I was feeling like we would score again on some great food because when we pulled up earlier I smelled some woodfire cooking happening around the block somewhere. We we rounded the corner to enter the tasting room we found the source of that smoke and it was right there at the brewery.

Yes!

There was not just one, but two pop-ups at the brewery that day. One was Brasa food stand, which was the source of the smoke, and another was a oyster stand by Virginia Oyster Shell Recycling Program. Walking up to the Brasa table you were greeted not only by the wonderful wood smoke but a huge Serrano Ham! Take a look at the shop above to see the menu, this is a pop-up that cooks its food on embers. We had a hard time picking what we wanted on the menu (everything!) because there are only two of us and we have to eat oysters too. We picked the Oysters Mushrooms and the Ham plates.

Since we were ordering from both pop-ups we grabbed two small servings of the oysters, plus a few "extra" that ended up on our plates...thanks guys! When sat down with all our food and dove in. It was so good! I mean we're at a brewery eating some high-end stuff in the parking lot. You can't beat it! I forgot to mention that we were meeting someone there too, I mean I was just really going for the beer but Shelby was chatting with a guy named Scott on Insta about dropping off some Distinction Magazines that just came out. He's friends with Todd Wright, whose work regularly appears in the magazine. We also messaged our friend Gerrell to meet up with us. Shelby and him used to work together in Virginia Beach till he moved to Richmond, so we try to get together whenever we're in town.

Shout out to the guys in the pic above, great job with all the food. It was amazing! I ended up with an invite to an event called the Shell-Raiser's Shindig happening later that month that included Brasa and a ton of other restaurants, the guy in the pink shirt is Todd Janeski and he is the director of the oyster shell recycling program I linked at the the beginning of the post. Great guy doing good things put together the event and The Veil was going to be there too in addition to oysters from 7 of the 8 regions. Sounds like heaven.

Sorry didn't mean to carry on, the gist of it was we stopped by The Veil and ended up experiencing a lot more than we thought we would and it was wonderful. Love ya Richmond!

We actually went out to dinner with friends last week!

You're thinking, "Yeah, yeah big deal", but it is for us. With the regular work week Shelby and I have and my regular schedule running around town, there actually isn't a lot of time we go out to just relax - let alone with friends. In the month of August, in the year 2016 we officially went out to dinner twice with friends. I can't remember that last time that as happened! The first time was with Cappy and Lauren to the Commis dinner earlier in the month (still working on the gazillion photos I took at that one) and the second was with our friends visiting from San Francisco.

Tatiana and Chris were staying in Sandbridge with family and wanted to hang out someplace close to the beach house and after putting together a short list we finally decided to hit Esoteric. I figured the food, beer menu and the atmosphere are great and we have the option to sit inside or out. When we arrived they were already out back on the patio. Warm (hot would be a little more accurate) Virginia summer nights are a little bit different than the cool ones in San Francisco.

Clockwise from the left: Pork Chop, Scallops, Charcuterie, Duck, and Wings.

We ordered the Charred Octopus to start and they house brought out some Roasted Shishitos grown in the garden and Pimento with their housemade crackers (which are great!) Our entree orders were the Pork Chop, Scallops, and Duck. I went ahead and ordered some other things to pick at which included a Charcuterie board and some wings. I had judged a "beer food" contest earlier so I wasn't starving though I got some bites from everyone's plates.

Chef Ian Hock came out to say "Hi" and after a little chat he brought out a couple of The Veil Brewing beers they had stashed away in the fridge. This was a great treat for us and our guests because if you know anything about Veil beer their cans go quick and are only sold at the brewery in Richmond. We all shared the Lil' Kitty Boi IPA and Eternal Shredder DIPA. Man I love their beers, you should check out pedigree on The Veil Brewing's Matt Tarpey, here's a good article at Good Beer Hunting.

Chris with the Ian Hock and his crew. I had to slip in the photo too ;)

After sipping our beers and ordering a few more Resins, I asked if we could slip into the kitchen to meet the crew. Ok, the elephant in the room is that Tatiana's husband is Chris Cosentino, a world renown chef who has pioneered snout-to-tail cooking in the U.S. They also own Boccalone and the restaurant Cockscomb, both in San Francisco. The guys in the kitchen were excited for the fact that he was eating at their shop so it was a treat for Chris to come back and hang out.

Shelby and Tatiana were hanging out back while we were in the kitchen but we all eventually made our way to the bar and drank more beer. Go figure right!? All in all, it was a great time and we were glad we were able to get out and have a proper sit down and just hang out. We need to get to San Francisco those two keep saying. Don't be surprised when we show up on the doorstep Tatiana and Chris, I know we've been saying that for years but it's coming. Here's to seeing you in your town next time!

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