17 June 2011

Bonnaroo X: The Evolution of 'Roo Food



Long, long ago, in the first years of the festival on the farm (circa 2002 - 2003), the hippies roamed the rolling hills of Manchester with their dreadlocked hair, their patchwork clothing, their hula hoops and their handmade signs advertising "free hugs" hanging from the open back of their vintage minibuses. In addition to their random drum circle formations, they organized themselves in rows down Shakedown Street for post-show vending. You could grab a grilled cheese, a veggie quesadilla, the popular chicken bacon ranch wrap (man, that was dank), even semi-exotic bottles of beer brought from the different regions from whence the carpools came. Sure, there was no regulation or food safety inspection - you just couldn't look at the hands, or worse, the fingernails of your chef - but the food was hot, cheap and served with a smile. Goo balls and other heady treats were available in every variety, if that was your thing. Trades welcome.

Some festival goers bought the $7 funnel cakes and $6 corn dogs from the carny-style food vendors set up in the fledgeling Centeroo commons, but no one was going for their $3 bottles of water or $4 popsicles as every other car in the lot had a stocked cooler with your choice of $1 water, Gatorade, beer or 2-for-1 freezer pops. And while I'm sure the reasons that festival officials provided for the lock down on lot vending that began in the third year included buzz words such as 'safety' and 'cleanliness' - it was all about the green.

The lineup of bands grew more and more commercial with each passing year, and with the decreasing dominance of the jam and increasing crackdown on unlicensed vending (quickly eliminating not only their lot food, but also their sales of glass wares, posters, clothing, etc. that in many cases funded their travel from show to show), the strength of the hippie numbers was weakened. By 2010, I was walking down a Shakedown Street full of 100% commercial vendors.



As Bonnaroo, and most notably, Centeroo, has evolved over the years, the food offerings slowly expanded as well. The carnival food has remained (and don't think I'm dissing the genre - it's just not necessarily something you want to live on for four days), but the options have grown from all-things-deep-fried to include vegan burritos, chicken curry, southern BBQ, breakfast buffets, cajun delicacies, rice bowls, pad thai, pitas and more. Of course, after the $2,000 vendor entry free and hefty 25% to 35% cut by the 'roo (depending on the "complexity of menu"), the prices we're asked to pay are pretty gross. But at Bonnaroo, food is fuel. Spilling out of That Tent or Which Stage, you need sustenance, your camp is far away, and you unflinchingly produce your wallet.





One of the more popular items this year was the arepa - a fried fat pancake made of ground corn, served with various savory toppings or used like a bun around sausage. The pizza tents tend to have long lines as well and 'rooers can get a hot slice from the well-oiled festival vending machine that is 'I ♥ Spicy Pie' at several locations throughout the farm. In their second year to travel to Tennessee, the certified organic Full of Life Wood Fired Flatbread Pizzas out of Los Alamos, California was wildly popular too: they were sold out of everything except a few flax pizzas by early Sunday afternoon.







But this year, Bonnaroo further stepped up their vending game with the addition of the Food Truck Oasis. In a sneaky spot between This Tent and the water slides, the food truck caravan lifted their shutters and served a reported 12,000 dirty attendees each day. We honed in on the 1962 silver airstream trailer from Miami, the gastroPod, and ordered a crispy white corn arepa (with a poached egg and slaw) along with the Sloppy Jose - a brisket slider with espresso BBQ sauce. The Taco Bus, also from Florida, served authentic Mexican street food while Good You out of Kansas City had a hefty waiting line for their organic burgers. (On principle, I could not eat at an establishment that used the Curlz typeface for their logo.) Knoxville's own Petro's offered their tasty bowls of chili and chips while Pot Kettle Black out of Charleston, SC sold out of their soulful sandwiches, crafted to honor their "poor immigrant roots" with nods to Italian and French dishes. The truck with the most flava, if you will, was most certainly Eatbox - serving the world's "sexiest" gourmet meatballs with heaping sides of pun and innuendo. Their disco ball drew you in, but their meatballs (including the Dirty South grass-fed beef meatball with bacon and hashbrowns and the Daisy Chain eggplant-lentil veggie meatball) and organic handmade popsicles drew visitors back multiple times. Local all-natural Angus beef farmers Bear Creek set up their trailer as well (though not in the designated square - clearly an autonomous unit for mid-Mall snacking) to sell burgers.







Always on the environmentally-friendly side, Bonnaroo brought back Planet Roo this year as well and offered a conscious eating experience at the 100% waste-free Planet Roo Cafe that offered fresh produce from Middle Tennessee (grilled sweet potatoes, baby spinach salads) along with higher-brow dishes such as pan-seared trout and pecan stir-fry. I couldn't get in the door with all of the people congratulating themselves for being in there. I joke wichoo.

And Bonnaroo brought the beer this year as well with a Broo'ers Festival tent featuring 21 breweries including Nashville local Yazoo Brewery, Athens-born Terrapin Beer, Vermont's Magic Hat, Brooklyn Brewery, Good People Brewing Co. from Alabama, and Mississippi's Lazy Magnolia. Our beer of choice for the weekend was from the Virginia brewery Starr Hill - their Lucy, Festie, Northern Lights and Amber Ale varieties were served at no charge in the Artist's tent by the four hardest working men at Bonnaroo.

But let's face it, you don't go to Bonnaroo for the food. Like the rest of your life that you leave behind, your at-home eating tendencies, your all-organic grocery shopping and your general food snobbery tends to disappear the moment that you step onto the farm. The food is just another aspect of the evolving experience, getting bigger and more carefully crafted (for better or worse) each year. Try new bands, new products, new food, new realities, but what really matters is that you drink lots of water.

See you next year!











15 June 2011

Cochon de Lait

Joe York and the SFA are at it again. To Live and Die in Avoyelles Parish is the latest mini-doc by the duo that just debuted last weekend at the Big Apple BBQ in New York. The film documents the tradition of Cochon de Lait in the small parish of Avoyelles. I'm pretty sure no one had ever heard of a cochon de lait in New York, but after watching this mini-doc, I doubt they will ever stop dreaming about it.

To learn more about a cochon de lait and a coon ass microwave, watch
To Live and Die in Avoyelles Parish.

To Live and Die in Avoyelles Parish from UM Media Documentary Projects on Vimeo.

10 June 2011

Friday Night Slice, Part 23



PIZZA BUDS

Nashville's streets are getting more and more packed as the food truck trend finally made its way down South this year. There's tacos, grilled cheeses, milkshakes, marshmallows, Barbie Burgers, even waffles...a whole blog is already up and running to cover our mobile food options.



And what appears to be the slightly dirty, drunk uncle of them all is the Pizza Buds truck. Pretty much the opposite of state-of-the-art, their ride is a cross between hipster vintage and junkyard ghetto - the perfect appeal factor for Nashville hipsters.



We parked at Yazoo Brewery in the Gulch on a Friday evening and ordered our pepperoni and cheese "12-inch frisbee" to eat picnic style in the parking lot. Initial concern: pizza isn't the most portable food out there. Things I buy on the street need to come on a stick or in a wrapper. But hey, they gave us plates and napkins!



The pizza was definitely cooked to order and came out blazing hot. I have no idea about the cooking method employed as I couldn't see what was going on inside the rusty camper - I envision stained beige ovens plugged into an overloaded outlet, but these guys still have to pass codes, right?

The Pizza Buds serve a rustic thin crust pie. The cheese was good and gooey (medium pull away) and the pepperoni was sliced perfectly to get that slight crunch. They were still soft in the center and left a little grease, but that's good grease. The sauce was unobtrusive and just gave you the idea of tomatoes without any unnecessary chunks or other gritty business, but they did do the last minute sprinkle that ruins so many pizzas. Here are some random Italian spices! Thankfully, they didn't sprinkle too long and I didn't get a piece of parsley in my mouth or anything.



Now for the crust. Have you all seen the newest campaign of Miracle Whip commercials? They are GENIUS. They admit that Miracle Whip isn't for everyone and that some people downright loathe it, but what's brilliant is that the company is asking you pick a side. Either love them or hate them. Embrace the emotion fully and support your choice with fervor. Damn the lukewarm! Now I hate Miracle Whip, but I LOVE these commercials. And I love the idea. So I'm asking you, pizza eaters, to go taste the Pizza Buds crust and pick a side. It's bizarre and unlike any pizza crust I've ever tried, starting out all normal and bready and then...wait...what the hell was that? Is that sugar? Cinnamon? Huh? I have a feeling that there will some serious polarity in the responses of your dining crew.



So how does it measure up against the rest of the pizza in town? Aside from the exotic crust, it's not the heaviest hitter out there. But at 2:00am when you're pouring your drunk self out of a show, I bet that it's the best darn thing you've ever eaten.

Where you at Pizza Buds? Check Twitter.

* * * * *

Cold Pizza:
Friday Night Slice, Part 1: MAFIAoZA's and
Joey's House of Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 2: Pizza Perfect and Pizza Perfect Kebobs
Friday Night Slice, Part 3: Rudino's Pizza and Grinders
Friday Night Slice, Part 4: Chicago Style Italian Beef
Friday Night Slice, Part 5: Pie In The Sky
Friday Night Slice, Part 6: Castrillo's Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 7: California Pizza Kitchen
Friday Night Slice, Part 8: Ahart's Pizza Garden (Murfreesboro)
Friday Night Slice, Part 9: New York Pizza Depot (Clarksville)
Friday Night Slice, Part 10: Matteo's Pizzeria
Friday Night Slice, Part 11: Angelo's Picnic Pizza (Antioch)
Friday Night Slice, Part 12: Manny's House of Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 13: Nashville Pizza Co.
Friday Night Slice, Part 14: Brick's Cafe
Friday Night Slice, Part 15: Sal's Pizza (Hermitage)
Friday Night Slice, Part 16: Painturo's (Mt. Juliet)
Friday Night Slice, Part 17: Brothers' Pizza (Franklin)
Friday Night Slice, Part 18: Snappy Tomato,
Roma, and Jet's
Friday Night Slice, Part 19: Geadello's Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 20: Michaelangelo's Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 21: Caesar's Ristorante Italiano
Friday Night Slice, Part 22: Cool Springs Brewery (Franklin)

Got any suggestions for places that I should cover? Let me know!

03 June 2011

Friday Night Slice, Part 22

Nice to see you again, Friday Night Slice.

It's been a while, but you still love pizza and so do we. You were once so committed to finding the best pizza in town and it's not time to give up now. Let's catch up on a few reviews so that we can meet some of Nashville's newer joints this Summer...

* * * * *

Cool Springs Brewery (formerly Guido's)



Oh Guido's. We all fondly remember the original 21st Avenue location (R.I.P.) with its thin slices of greasy pizza and tiny basement full of our fellow 15 to 17-year-olds in Chuck Taylors and oversized flannel shirts. The all-ages venue was the only place that you could get into and the only place where your friend's new band could plug in. The list of local talent alone that cut their teeth at Guido's is surely an impressive one - but that's another post better suited for this blog's other posters (we're waiting, BP and Andrew J).

My memories of Guido's had everything to do with that venue and nothing to do with their food. I'm certainly not saying that the pizza was bad, it's just that the pizza was never why I (or any of my friends) went there. So I remember being completely surprised when I heard that they were opening a satellite location in a strip mall in Cool Springs sometime around 2004.

When the Mr. and I visited (about a year before I was the Mrs.), it was nothing like the original Guido's. This Guido's had tables and waiters and black cloth napkins. It still claimed to have live music, but now in the form of sleepy jazz. The pizza had tried to go gourmet and they offered a build-your-own bar in the back. I must not have done a very good job building my own as we didn't go back until a new sign appeared on the door: Cool Springs Brewery.

Under new ownership, Cool Springs Brewery opened in late 2009 offering "the finest New York syle Pizzas [sic], Craft Brew and the best Live Music in town." Hmmm. The new name alone was not a good way to start our relationship. How do you present yourself as neighborhood microbrewery when Cool Springs is not really neighborhood? I recall a conversation that I had a few years back with a local hipster who commented on the fact that Cool Springs has Starbucks, McDonalds, Ann Taylor, Borders, GAP, and every other chain store imaginable. It has everything, he noted, except a SOUL (said with emphasis). He was a little overly concerned with the issue, but he was right.

So you bought a "be a microbrewery" kit and kept the little black stage in the corner, but how's the pizza?



In case you've forgotten how I roll, I only order pepperoni and cheese for these reviews.

The wait was a little long, but the pizza was piping hot with bubbly cheese and curling pepperoni cups, served on the traditional raised metal platter. The sauce and ingredients were fresh (as in, fresh from the fridge to the oven) but the taste was pretty typical. The tomato sauce was present but lacked any distinct good or bad flavor and the cheese was the standard, pre-grated, soft mozzarella blend. It was tasty, somewhat greasy, hot and gooey with a reasonable pullaway. The overall taste was pretty good, it just didn't have anything unique or interesting going on. Many of these joints must use the same food supplier.

The crust was not New York thin, but still in the thin family with a crunchy outside and soft interior around the edges. Not the greatest, but not half bad. You can sample the different pizzas at their daily lunch buffet and the menu additionally includes pastas, wings, stuffed mushrooms, subs, calzones, strombolis, salads and desserts (including a chocolate pizza). The Mr. didn't have much to say about the beer either. Ho hum. Maybe we should talk more about the old Guido's instead?


Cool Springs Brewery (formerly Guido's)
600A Frazier Drive, Ste. 135, Franklin, 37067 (map)
dine in and carry out


* * * * *


BONUS: Lupi's Pizza Pies


FYI. Lupi's Pizza = worth the drive to Chattanooga.





So far on our journey through pizza in Tennessee, MAFIAoZA's, Pizza Perfect, Manny's and Joey's have dominated...but Lupi knocks these kids down with one punch! Oh no! Is there a Nashville contender that can compete? Stay tuned for the upcoming Friday Night Slice installments from the Pizza Buds food truck and City House.





Lupi's Pizza Pies
four locations in Chattanooga and Cleveland, Tennessee
dine in, delivery, carry out, take-and-bake and catering

* * * * *

Cold Pizza:
Friday Night Slice, Part 1: MAFIAoZA's and Joey's House of Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 2: Pizza Perfect and Pizza Perfect Kebobs
Friday Night Slice, Part 3: Rudino's Pizza and Grinders
Friday Night Slice, Part 4: Chicago Style Italian Beef
Friday Night Slice, Part 5: Pie In The Sky
Friday Night Slice, Part 6: Castrillo's Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 7: California Pizza Kitchen
Friday Night Slice, Part 8: Ahart's Pizza Garden (Murfreesboro)
Friday Night Slice, Part 9: New York Pizza Depot (Clarksville)
Friday Night Slice, Part 10: Matteo's Pizzeria
Friday Night Slice, Part 11: Angelo's Picnic Pizza (Antioch)
Friday Night Slice, Part 12: Manny's House of Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 13: Nashville Pizza Co.
Friday Night Slice, Part 14: Brick's Cafe
Friday Night Slice, Part 15: Sal's Pizza (Hermitage)
Friday Night Slice, Part 16: Painturo's (Mt. Juliet)
Friday Night Slice, Part 17: Brothers' Pizza (Franklin)
Friday Night Slice, Part 18: Snappy Tomato, Roma and Jet's
Friday Night Slice, Part 19: Geadello's Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 20: Michaelangelo's Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 21: Caesar's Ristorante Italiano

Got any suggestions for places that I should cover? Let me know!