Happy One Year - Tavolino Westborough

For about a year now :-), I have been a supporter of Tavolino Italian Gourmet in Westborough.  Last week I was fortunate enough to enjoy one of the one year anniversary events and celebrate with the managers and staff.  I still stand by my original review of the food and experience at Tavolino.  I enjoy drinks with friends,  dinner with my family, or one of the many events Tavolino hosts.

The biggest things that impresses me about Tavolino I think comes back to the people in charge.  It is obvious that Anthony Valletta (Tavolino Westborough GM) and his staff really care about Westborough.  They are proud to be part of this community.  I know Anthony grew up in Westborough but his commitment to our community is obvious.  Every time I participated in a local community event, I find Tavolino.  Some of the great organizations in the local area benefit from Tavolino.  I am just proud to see this type of commitment to the local community.  Kudos to Anthony, and to the owners of Tavolino for showing Anthony the freedom to support he local community.

The anniversary celebration, was as expected, a wonderful evening.  Great food, great wine, and great local people.  I noticed editors from Westborough.com, representatives from the Boys & Girls club, and events staff from the Boroughs JCC.  I spent some time enjoying a Radeberger Beer with the local Radeberger reps and the reps from Boulder Beer who coincidentally have also been active local supporters of Boroughs events.

I look forward to more years and more events with Tavolino in Westborough.  If you are still one of the hold outs, I suggest you at least try Tavolino pizza for take out.  It doesn't kill the wallet and can definitely be something different.

Boroughs Beer, Wine, and Food Tasting

There are a lot of local events in the Boroughs; art auctions, pancake breakfasts, cigar nights, kids programs, local music, and so much more.  I wish I was able to attend more of these local events, but like so many others, work, commutes, kids, and all the other aspects of daily life tend to leave us tired at the end of the day.  But these are all just excuses.  Some events are worth the effort.  This weekend has one of those events - Taste of the Boroughs 2010.

Ok, lots of great local events, why is this one so important...I am glad you asked...this is the only event so far that has asked me to emcee the festivities. :-)  But long before I took hold the microphone, I attended the 2008 Taste of the Boroughs, and that is when I decided this as a must attend event.  Let me give a little summary and then I can get into my personal experiences.

The Taste of the Boroughs event highlights local restaurants and caterers in the Boroughs (primarily Westborough, Northborough, Southborough, and Marlborough) and the surrounding areas, pairing them with fine wine and craft beer vendors from several regions. Adding to the culinary treats, there are silent and live auctions, a DJ, and live music. 


Sunday, March 7, 2010 6:00 - 9:00pm Doubletree Hotel Westborough

The event is produced and hosted by the Westboro Area JCC. Proceeds from the event benefit the community programs at the WAJCC and support the WAJCC preschool.

All of that is lifted from the Taste of the Boroughs website, here is the straight facts on this event...worth every penny and a wonderful time.

2008
Taking a trip back to April of 2008 I found myself at my first Taste of the Boroughs.  Two things really stood out to me; 1. There is as lot of food and wine to enjoy at this event.  I made the mistake of eating beforehand thinking "tasting" meant very little.  2. This event is all about our communities.  The second realization is what really got me.

The WAJCC intentionally went out and invited multiple restaurants from our area.  Sure many of us dine in Boston for a night out, or we go to Worcester and enjoy a nice meal, but this event was focused on as many restaurants as possible from the Boroughs area.  That's only the restaurants; the auction took the event to a whole new level.  Here hundreds of local businesses contributed to amazing auction packages.  The word packages is critical here, these auction were not for a spa treatment or gift basket...no no no...the WAJCC packaged a spa treatment with a haircut and style and a gift certificate to a local clothing store and even spa products.  One package in 2008 had a four pack of passes to 9 museums all over the area.  I left full, maybe a little buzzed and holding a package for landscape design consulting, gift certificates to Home Depot, and gift certificates to the Plant Bazaar.  Eventually this became my backyard patio.

2009
I was asked to participate in the event as the emcee.  I happily accepted, mostly because I love to hear myself talk.  But really I love to talk about the great things in our communities.  Throughout the night I got to know the general managers for several of the local restaurants and I learned more about some of the local businesses that donated to the auction. 

I was definitely less buzzed in 2009 but again, full of great food and happy to have participated in such a fun event.  There were easily 250 people there in 2009 and the ballroom was packed with some really great places:  CJs Steakloft, DogFish Brewery, Simply Dahlicious, Guiseppe's Grille, El Basha, Yummy Mummy Brownies, and several more. 

By this time I was totally hooked.  An entire event where as a community we come together to socialize, enjoy great food, wine, and beer, and meet the general managers, owners, and head chefs at some of our favorite locations.  The atmosphere was invigorating.

I also got a chance to know some of the organizers of the event.  Much like myself they want to promote the local community.  They want to talk about the great businesses we have, and yes they want to raise money for the WAJCC, but that is so the WAJCC can offer more to the community.  Local organizations supporting local organizations.

2010
So the time has come again.  Taste of the Boroughs 2010 is this Sunday.  I'll let you in on some of the info I have learned about this years event and hopefully something will spark enough interest to come out and enjoy with me:

1. Yours truly will be returning as the emcee for the evening.
2. You will be supporting a great organization (WAJCC) that builds and support the local community.
3. The following breweries are represented this year - Berkshire Brewing, Boulder Beer, Opa Opa Brewery, Sherwood Forest Brewers, Dogfish Brewery, Wachusett Brewery.
4. The Vin Bin as assembled over 2 dozen wines from several wineries.
5. Did I mention I am the emcee for the evening
6. Restaurant/caterers represented - Allora Ristorante •  Bollywood Grill • Caffé Dolce • The Chateau Restaurant • Cheng-Du Restaurant • Chipolte Mexican Grill • CJ's Steakloft • Cold Stone Creamery • Culinary Underground • Doubletree Hotel • Edible Arrangements •  Horseshoe Pub & Restaurant • Not Your Average Joe's • The Original Beer Cookie • Panera Bread • Piccadilly Pub Restaurant • Red Barn Coffee Roasters • Roche Bros. Catering • Samba Steak + Sushi • Sorentos Italian Gourmet • Tavolino • Uno Chicago Grill
7. The auction packages - There are so many and everyone is impressive, from french lessons to flights to Florida, cigar boxes to spa treatments, cases of wine, and then some awesome sports items...several sets of tickets to Red Sox games, preseason Patriots tickets, signed Carlton Fisk Baseball, signed Ted Williams/Mickey Mantle rivals poster, signed Larry Bird photos, and even a signed Tom Brady jersey.
8. Local musical artists Lori Diamond and  Fred Abatelli will be preforming live!
9. Finally, you will have the chance to see me emcee the evening.  :-)

I hope my readers come out on Sunday and enjoy this event with me.  Obviously, I am enamored with the Taste of the Boroughs event but that is because I love our local communities and this event is all about our communities. And to be fair, I do also enjoy hearing myself talk.  A great organization, a great event, great communities...see you Sunday.

Big Game Beverage Selection

The Patriots have been out of the playoffs for some time but that doesn't mean that you can't invite friends over to watch the big game. I admit my  Superbowl watching habits are traditionally more focused on commercials then the actual game, but I enjoy having some friends over and as the host I always look to supply the best in terms of beverages.

Next year I may try to time a Deja Brew trip to be completed just before the game but this year, like so many others, I headed off to the pick up supplies from a local package store.  For me this means a trip to Julio's Liquors.  I got to talking with my friends over at Julio's and asked if they wanted to star in this edition of the blog.  I use the word star as I shot a bunch of video that really conveys my points about Julio's and I wanted to include them in with this post.

Lets start with the beer...

As I mentioned I like craft beers. Unique brews that have some complexity. But in a store as vast as Julio's it is easy to get lost in the beer aisle.  Thankfully, there's a blog for that.  Lost in the Beer Aisle is a local blog tirelessly researching and evaluating beers.  When you approach a store like Julio's this blog can be a great help.  I for one appreciate the suffering "Lost" must endure to provide this service to all of us.  :-)  In all seriousness, there are a lot of beers out there.  It is hard to know what to choose.

Julio's carries an unbelievable selection of beers.  Imports, domestic, micros, and majors.  All side by side waiting to be chosen.  An I have gotten 1/6 kegs of Dogfish 90 and other less standard brews without pre-ordering.  Now if you didn't take the time to check in with Lost, you may need some help selecting the best option.  Luckily Julio's has Tom and Joe.  Guys who understand beer and care about matching your tastes.  On more then one occasion I have left my selection up to Tom, and I have yet to be disappointed.  See for yourself:


I sometimes enjoy a good cigar...
And if I am not at Havana House raiding their humidors, I need to find a place to buy great cigars.  Julio's smoke shop has over 300 different cigars kept at the perfect humidity.  I think the most impressive aspect to the cigar shop is Dan's (Julio's tobacco manager) willingness to add customer recommendations to the regular inventory.  It all comes back to service again.  I can walk in, tell Dan about a great cigar I had and if he doesn't have it he understands enough to recommend a similar cigar.  Then usually by the next time I am visit, he has my original request in stock.  This kind of commitment to customers explains why Julio's continues to grow.


But what about the community?
I started writing this blog because, among other reasons, I like this area.  I am proud of this area.  And I want to highlight when businesses in this area do good things.  I don't write a lot of negative blogs, unless the business is not serving the community.  We are a community, sometimes in competition, most of the time working together.  Julio's is partnering with a lot of the community.  They like the Vin Bin have picked up the Original Beer Cookie.  They also support several other local companies by carrying local vodka, local cheese spreads, and local condiments.  This is huge to me, you can be part of a chain or a private business, supporting other local businesses is important to me.


As I was shooting these video I took a moment to really look at Julio's.  I have still not tried or benefited from a majority of the store.  The loch and key society, the wine tastings, the burn center.  There is still a lot for me to try out.  I enjoy and respect the managers and the service they provide so I expect the same quality form these other departments.  Julio's knows the community supports them and shows their support back.  I put together one last video trying to capture the major departments.  It is available on the Boroughs Review YouTube channel.  I think I will finish off the Fallen Angel (The exclusively made for Julio's beer) that I picked up on my last trip tomorrow during the game.  And maybe I'll see you at a future tasting.

A Custom Brew

When I moved to Massachusetts in 1999 I had drank a total of 2 full beers in my life.  And both were after several other drinks.  With a username like Stolimadras you can imagine that vodka was more the drink of choice.  But when I moved here, it seemed EVERYONE drank beer.  I mean everyone.  I felt odd ordering a screwdriver... and whiskey was just a recipe for disaster.

Luckily, I started to hang out with a group of people who knew a lot about microbrews, one was even a brewer for Smuttynose beer at the time.  And then I found the Sunset Grill in Alston, that really broadened my beer horizons, and I will now say that I am a beer drinker, but I remain selective.  I like a custom brew, I like something unique.  Much like when I try a new wine, I want to enjoy and experience different tastes and flavors.

All this history, leading up to an enjoyable hobby...Home Brewing.  I have several friends that are regular home brewers.  Some of their stuff is amazing.  Some of it also tastes horrible, but just like other culinary attempts there are often failures on the path to success.  They chalk up the bad tastings to gaining experience.  As I learned more about beer, I wanted to try to brew a batch myself.  I don't expect to be converting a section of the basement into a brewery but I would like to experience creating a craft beer myself.  We are lucky in the Boroughs to have two businesses close by catering to these types efforts, Strange Brew in Marlborough and Deja Brew in Shrewsbury.

First the path not taken.  After visiting and talking with several local friends everyone agreed Strange Brew is probably the best options for brewing supplies. They have just about everything in stock that you need for all different styles of beer. They also have a lot of pre-packaged kits that to help the novice brewer get their feet wet without too much risk of failure.  I have been onto Strange Brew a few times with friends collecting supplies and the beers they have brewed have come out great...but brewing at home had major flaws in my mind.  I have never done it, and I know I like unique beers.  The odds of my pulling of a good batch my first time out were pretty slim.  Also, I am not always the most patient.  Without someone guiding me I doubt I would wait the correct number of minutes at each step.  And finally, if I brew at home, I get to be the one who has to clean it up, that definitely doesn't seem like extra fun.

So after some though, I decided that the best option for me was to try Deja Brew.  I am going to take you through the whole experience but before I start, let me say the Saturday morning I spent making my batch of beer at Deja Brew was AWESOME.  I cannot believe how much fun I had, ever single moment was great, the mixing, the cooking, the tasting, the general atmosphere.  What an amazing business, I am so happy that I tried it.  And now I am excitedly awaiting my batch of custom brew to be ready.  Here is how the day went.

Saturday
10:00 AM
I arrived at Deja Brew without any real expectations.  I did bring my cameras so that I could record some of the events for the blog.  My first task was to choose a recipe.  What type of beer would I like to make?  I told Nick, one of the brewers, that I like high alcohol content flavorful beers, but I don't like it to be too hoppy or have a bitter aftertaste.  I mentioned that I enjoy, Delirium Tremens, Dogfish 90, and several of the Berkshire brewery line.  After some discussion on flavors and options, I selected the 12 honey ale.  To confirm this was a good selection I sampled some of the 12 honey ale that last brewed.

10:15 AM

Time to start measuring out grain.  The first task on the recipe was to measure out 6 pounds of grain.  I like the fact that they aren't doing the work for you.  Nick pointed me at a table with several grains on the shelves and pointed at the scale.

After the grain is measured, it is time to grind.  I ran the grain through the mill and into a container to be brewed.  I added the grain to the kettle and was shown where to gather my other ingredients.  I would have a little time as the kettle needed to reach 180 degrees.

I spent the next 30 minutes collecting the proper amounts pale malt, honey, and hops for my recipe.  Every few minutes I stopped back at my kettle to lift and shake the grain.  This was to increase the flavor of the beer.  And I started talking with some of the other brewers there to get their impressions of Deja Brew.

10:50 AM
The rest of the ingredients are collected and the kettle has reached 180 degrees.  Time to begin the cooking.

For the next hour plus I was adding ingredients, timing how long they cooked and tasting some of the other brews being bottled by other brewers.  It was a very social experience, people talking and hanging out.  I met one couple who was a brewing a batch of beer together as an anniversary activity.  One family had purchased the brewing for the father and the wife and kids were there to help.  It was a room full of great local people having a good time.

12:00 PM
The brewing was complete.  It was now time to cool the mixture and add yeast.  With the help of the brewers we piped my 12 Honey Ale into a lined fermenting drum and added yeast.  I labeled this batch Big Boroughs Brew in honor of the blog and helped move it to the back room where it will sit until February 20th, when it is ready to be bottled.

The staff at Deja Brew then cleaned the kettles, the bowls, and any other items I used so they are ready for the next brewer.  All the fun, with no clean up or mess.  While it was brewing it smelled great.  I can't wait for it to be ready to taste later this month.

Even though I have yet to taste my specific brew, I have a good idea on how it will come out.  The samples were very tasty.  Deja Brew is an amazing business.  A fun activity for couples, great father son bonding, and I can see it being a perfect place to have a corporate team building event.  I am still amazed at how much fun it was.  The following videos are just a sample of my day.  I hope you take the time to try it for yourself.  And if you want company...just let me know.