The Good, the Not so Good, and the Yucky

Yesterday was a big day: the inspection on our hopefully new house, discovery of a fab neighborhood liquor and food store near said new house, tickets to see Cirque D'Or at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, quite possibly the most disappointing Mexican food EVER, and... a visit to Ashley's!

Let's start with the most pertinent info: Ashley's. Since we were a bit short on time, we opted for a flight from the rotating taps. We chose Harpoon Brewery's Firth of Forth Ale, Stone's Oaked Arrogant Bastard, and Avery's 14er ESB and Collaboration, not Litigation Ale. We didn't have time to take a lot of detailed notes, but managed to each rate our top 2 of the 4. The first thing we noticed is that all the beers needed time to "open"- as they warmed a bit, the flavors really came out. I ranked the Firth of Forth first, followed by Collaboration, not Litigation. M liked Collaboration, not Litigation best, then the Oaked Arrogant Bastard. Sadly, neither of us much cared for the ESB (I actually scrunched up my nose on first taste, but then realized it's a BITTER so that is a good thing!).

The neighborhood shop sucked us in as we walked by headed to get coffee for M- they had cases of Concha y Toro wine stacked up against the window. We wandered in to find heaven for people like us: huge beer and wine selection with a deli in the back! We wound up picking up some picnic food and scoring a special treat: their last bottle of 1800 Edicion del Nuevo Milenio tequila, in a commemorative wooden box. (sorry, couldn't find a good link with info- this is the best I could find) I imagine this bottle will be broken open to celebrate moving into the house!

As for the Mexican food, well... last week I was buying something at CVS and when the clerk learned that we are moving to AA from Cali, his response was: "You're going to be really disappointed with our Mexican food." I laughed, but was secretly hoping he was wrong. We chose a place with multiple "Best of ..." plaques in the window, but apparently the voters were primarily students or something. (how do you turn refried beans GREY? they weren't back beans or pintos, but some evil hybrid?) There isn't enough hot sauce in Michigan to make me eat there again. :-( Looks like we'll be buying some Rick Bayless cookbooks and making our own Mexican food!

Now that was fun!

Yippee! Buddha has reappeared! Turns out the little scamp had jumped off the fence into a neighbor's yard and couldn't get back over the fence. Since they have a similar looking cat, they didn't really notice they had two long haired black cats until Wednesday.

To celebrate his homecoming, there was one hell of a bash at our house last night. Well, it was really our 'going away' party, but it was a multi-purpose event: Buddha's homecoming, Michael's birthday and Karen's birthday were celebrated as well. This photo doesn't really show the full effect, but let's just say that we have twice as much recycling this week as will fit in our bin. LOL

Anyway, I promised the scoop on Ashley's in Ann Arbor: this place was amazing. They have a beer menu much like that at the Maiden at Big Sur (see previous post) but they have taken it a step further. Using a scale of 0 to 10, they attach a "flavor rating" to every beer they pour so that you can look up a beer that you like and find others with a similar flavor. A zero has "little to no flavor or body", a 4 "some hop, medium flavor and body, a 7 is "robust with lots of body", and a 10 is "full flavored and full bodied". For example, Anchor Steam gets a rating of 4. Other beers they offer that are also rated a 4 include Cooper's Pale Ale from Australia, Lagunitas Pils (Petaluma, CA), Hoegaarden (Belgium), and Avery 14er ESB (Boulder, CO). It's a nice way to try new things without worrying about whether or not you'll like it. The menu also offers a "Beer 101" index.

Ashley's offers 70 beers on draught, 70 in bottles, and 60 single malt scotches. They have "rotating taps" that offer a variety of beers they might not normally carry. When we visited, they had beers from Darkhorse Brewing, Jolly Pumpkin Ales, Kalamazoo Brewing, Short's Brewing and Rogue Ales. They don't allow beers to be returned based on flavor or personal preference, but any beer on draught can be sampled for free. Draft flights of 4 beers are also an option; we tried the Michigan Micro flight on our visit.

I have a feeling I'm going to be spending a ridiculous amount of time at Ashley's...

Welcome to Ann Arbor

The great house hunt has begun, and I'm learning my way around Washtenaw County. Ann Arbor isn't as big as I thought it would be, but seems to be a really nice town. A couple of definite selling points: The Beer Depot and Arbor Brewing Company, both located downtown, and Ashley's on State St.. Beer Depot has quite a good beer selection- not as many choices as say, Bevmo, but a lot of unique and international brews. They also carry brewing supplies for those who prefer to brew their own.

Arbor Brewing has not just a tasty variety of beers, but each month they host a beer tasting event! Yay! Their cask conditioned ESB is one of the tastiest I've encountered, and the food was quite yummy as well.

We haven't visited Ashley's yet, but our server at another establishment (a sports bar with a truly disappointing beer selection) suggested we give it a try. I'll write a review once we've given it a shot!