March Beer-Cation

This weekend Christine and I had another beer-cation.  This time we went to Jacksonville.  Our first stop was at Brewer’s Pizza.  There we met with another friend and sampled Pinglehead Imperial American Amber brewed on the premise.  The beer is an imperial red ale that was slightly hoppy and a medium body.  It paired great with the pizza we had for lunch.

From there, we made our way to Green Room Brewery in Jacksonville Beach.  I had their Tsumani Szechuan Saison.  It’s a traditional saison brewed with Szechuan peppers.  This beer was spicy but light.  I also had the Undertow which is a barleywine.  It’s brewed with orange blossom honey and had was light and refreshing but yet complex.  I enjoyed both.

As we walked into Green Room’s Taproom, we met up un-expectantly with a couple friends we’ve met from The Abbey in DeLand.  It was a nice surprise and we made plans to meet up with them later at the Silver Cow.  We sat at the bar and were served by Joey, a UF Gators fan.  It was fun harassing him since Christine is a graduate of UCF and also an FSU fan.  We had him cracking up the entire time we sat there.

There was also the douchebag driving the convertible Corvette.  He was so full of himself he made sure that his conversation carried throughout the entire taproom.  At one point, he was on his cell phone talking about finding a rental house and that he was not going to pay $1200/month.  Then his “employee” joined him at the bar and again we heard him discussing a business deal with his “employee” telling him he would have to invest money in the deal.  That to me does not sound like and employer/employee relationship – that’s more of a money laundering deal.

We left Green Room and made our way to Engine 15 brewery.  Here we both had Van Diest Fruli Strawberry Wheat and then I had a flight of Engine 15 beers. My liver started screaming at me but I showed it who was boss and continued drinking.  We also tried their beer cheese dip and pigs in a blanket.  Both were exceptional.

Now it was time to head to Silver Cow.  This is where we met up with our friends from earlier.  This place was small and quaint.  Coffee table books of all different topics were placed sporadically throughout the bar along with a couch at one end of the place.  Our friends were on the couch and we joined them in chair across from them.  Instead of beer, I tried their house pinot noir.  It was awful and tasted like cardboard.  Normally, I love a good red wine.  This was bad but I couldn’t waste perfectly good alcohol so I drank it.

It was getting late so we decided to find our hotel.  Neither of us had a real meal most of the day.  Christine checked in and we went on a hunt for a small bite to eat.  Big mistake.  Urban Spoon said that Jacksonville Grill was a good choice but it left us wandering a bad neighborhood fearing for our safety.  At this point, we decided to forgo food since we’ve had enough carbs from beer all day and go back to the hotel.  Never again Urban Spoon!  I’ll use Yelp now.

We found our room and crashed.  Both of us slept pretty well. 

The next morning we found Metro Diner.  OMG!  Incredible food!!!

I ordered the three egg breakfast with a side of sausage gravy and biscuits.  I love sausage gravy and I try to sample it if it’s available.  Christine had the surf and turf eggs benedict with a crab cake and ribeye steak.  She called it man-food.  I call it all delicious.  The portions were huge and so incredibly yummy.  For anyone passing through Jacksonville, you must eat here!

Today, we decided to slow down a little.  It didn’t help that most taprooms were closed on Sunday.  We found our way to 7 Bridges, which is not a brewery but they do have craft beers.  We sat at the bar and had a delightful conversation with the bartender as she prepared for the day.  She kept us laughing all morning.  I had an Irish Red Ale while Christine and I shared their warm cinnamon donuts.  Both were delicious.  The bartender gave us two pilsner glasses to take home with us.  I have a few pilsner glasses and I was all too happy to add another to my collection.

Next stop was River City Brewing Company.  They had a brunch buffet going on and lots of people eating.  We made our way to the bar to discover a very frazzled bartender.  She was all over the place and letting out her frustrations for the entire bar to see and hear.  I felt sorry for her.

I ordered bloody mary – it is brunch after all!  Christine and I made our way outside to sit in the sun along the water way.  It was nice to enjoy getting some rays while lying across a wood bench drinking my bloody mary.  The seagulls were squawking and the river was lapping at the boat’s hulls. 

Rather than continuing to drink, we walked around the Museumof Science and History.  It is a small museum and worth the $8 admission for students/$10 for adults.  I discovered a rather large splinter in the back of my heel.  We couldn’t get it out so I continued on, limping.  The exhibits were small and certainly not Smithsonian quality, but there are plenty of hands on experiences for children.

Tired from the weekend activities, we started making our way toward home.  Of course, we can’t drive near JB’s Fish Camp without making a stop for awesome seafood along the lagoon.  Our waitress felt she was not attentive enough to us because another large table next to us kept dragging her attention away so she gave us free oreo pie.  It was just as yummy as the shrimp I had for dinner. 

I felt bad for her.  She was running ragged, trying to make this table happy, but they were terrible customers.  Every five minutes they kept asking for another order of this or that and not letting her take care of her other tables.  They were clearly disrespectful to her and exceptionally needy.  Please be kind to your servers.  They are not super heroes that can read your mind or magically make your food appear.

My tab came to $10.69.  In fear she wouldn’t get a good tip from the mean people at the other table, I gave her $10 tip.  Christine did the same too.  I hope we made her smile.

Returning home, I unpacked, cleaned my bathroom a bit and then crashed.