This past Saturday I attended the 1st Annual Sarasota Beer Festival. Let me tell you R.O.T.R. readers, I was so excited I damn near stormed the entrance of Robards Arena “William Wallace” style. Nothing does my heart better than good beer and LOTS of it! That being said…do you want the good news or the bad news?
Bad news first it is! This place was one hot mess when I showed up. There was one line over here. There was one line over there. Not one sign was up letting you know where to get tickets,where to go if you had tickets… Most people in line started getting real frustrated (pissed!). When I finally got in I was almost immediately met by my good friend, Don Juan Gian Luca. The first words out of the Don’s mouth was, “This place sucks!”. There were no instructions on where things were, beer and food vendors were all kind of jumbled together. Without a good map or layout of a venue , it doesn’t allow the patron to form a good plan of attack. It was like teasing a bunch of caged rabid Peruvian spider monkeys and then letting them out of the cage. Let the ultra violence begin!
Now the good news. They were presenting some fantastic beer! Here are my top five in no particular order.
1. Amadeus
2. Phin and Matt’s Extraordinary Ale
3. Jomo Lager
All of these beers are fantastic! We’ll get a little deeper into flavor profiles and what breweries they are all represented by in some upcoming posts. I was also impressed by some of the food being passed out. I had never eaten a beer battered hot dog before, who knew?! I now realize this ridiculous treasure is something I won’t be able to live without for the rest of my life. Those dogs were courtesy of my good friends at The Old Salty Dog.
All in all I had a great time. The beer was good, there was plenty of it. Once everyone got settled there was a great vibe in the air. Even Don Jun Gian Luca ended up having a good time. This was more evident later on in the night when his smedium shirt came off and was being twirled over his head. The Don and my good friend, Tom Cruise, love the smedium size shirts. They purchase these at Gap Kids. That way they can get some shopping done and hit on all the hot moms!
Don Juan Gian Luca and his girlfriend...
Next year, if you get the chance swing by the 2nd Annual Sarasota Beer Festival. I’m sure they’ll have all the kinks worked out. The food was good, the beer selection was great and the people are real down to earth. Make sure you put it on your 2011 calender and as always… you’ll toast me later!
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Classic pic of the guy ruining the moment..I couldnt agree more though with the top 5 beers..Woodchuck and Wild Blue were good favorites to..Hopefully next year will be better..And those battered Dogs were oh so good to..
i had a great time as well, i really liked those wings!!!! they where great best i ever had
Lol at that guy in the background of the pic! I went to the Salty Dog fairly regularly when I lived in Sarasota, but I was never brave enough to order up beer-battered dog. Sounds like it was good!