Where the brew's at: Beer fanatics spend week Uptown
The Post
July 17, 2008
Natalie LaConte / For The Post / nl162105@ohiou.edu
Ohio Brew Week is well under way and changing the clientele of Athens bars and restaurants.
“It’s been a nice, steady crowd. We enjoy talking to the people that come into town,” said Brad Wharton, owner of Broney’s Alumni Grill.
According to Wharton, the bar has had a 30-35 percent increase in sales compared to last year. Customer’s favorite microbrew at Broney’s seems to be The Brew Kettle’s Summer Solstice White.
Jim Leverentz, The Fermented Chef, will be sharing his knowledge about fermented food and drink throughout history at many events during Brew Week. At an event hosted by 19 South on Tuesday evening, the chef spoke about the history of fermentation and brewing.
“Mead was the original fermented beverage,” Leverentz said, explaining that mead is made when rainwater drips through honey. “Animals would drink it, and people noticed they would be really easy to catch. When they got caught, they didn’t seem to care. When humans finally tried it, they felt like gods.”
Leverentz was very excited that his company, Leeners, was the main
sponsor of Brew Week for the third year.
“[Athens] is one of the very few places in the world that
can do this,” Leverentz said. “It’s a real tribute
to Jon Sparhawk, this is his baby.”
Sparhawk, a local business owner who died in 2007, was the driving force behind Brew Week in its first few years. He passed away days before last year’s festival. Jackie O’s Sparbock microbrew was created in his honor.
But beer wasn’t the only thing on the menu this week.
The Red Brick Tavern hosted their annual meatball eating contest last night. Competitors cheered as the chefs brought out two giant trays of two-ounce meatballs. Owner Ron DeLuca announced the rules: The first to finish 10 meatballs and keep them down won a $25 Red Brick gift certificate and an Ohio Brew Week T-shirt.
Maria “Spicy Meatball” Lombardo and the six other competitors were no match for returning champion Anthony Espinoza, who polished off his meatballs in three minutes flat — and then took two from the plate beside him. Espinoza was upset when he learned his finishing time, saying he had finished last year in one minute and thirty seconds.
“My dad wins!” Espinoza’s son, Nosferatu, yelled as his dad posed for pictures and ran his saucy fingers through his hair.
“I’m the youngest of 11 children,” the elder Espinoza explained. “I’m like the king of buffets.”
His wife laughed as she shared that Espinoza had been kicked out of buffets before.
But despite the heated competition, beer is still the focus of the week.
“We’ve been pretty busy. We’ve got nine different microbrews on right now,” said Jamison Addy, a manager at Red Brick Tavern. Great Lake’s Brewing Co.’s Commodore Perry IPA and Elevator Brewing Company’s Dark Horse Lager seem to be patron’s favorites, he said.