For Ryan Clark, chef at Agustin Kitchen, being a board member at Slow Food Southern Arizona gives him the opportunity to give back to a community he both believes in and is a part of. His annual F & B Tasting event works as a way for him to bring all of the factions of that community together for a single day of dining and imbibing locally.

This year, like the year before, he will use his restaurant and the Mercado San Agustin courtyard outdoors as the event's setting when it returns on Sunday, June 7. 

From 5:30 until 7:30 p.m., attendees can sample bites from Blu A Wine & Cheese Stop, Proper, Prep and Pastry, Agustin Kitchen, Acacia Real Food & Cocktails, Zona 78, Seis Kitchen & Catering and Caridad Community Kitchen. The focus is to use fresh, local and seasonal ingredients, which is what really makes the event exciting to Clark each year, even though the vendor list is largely the same.

It's been just three years, but Dragoon Brewing Co. quickly solidified its spot in the hearts of beer enthusiasts as a favorite for creative brews in Tucson. Whether you're the type who gets the Dragoon IPA every time or you like to venture out and try new things, you should head to the brewery, located at 1859 W. Grant Road Suite 111, on Saturday for their third anniversary celebration.

Chelsea Blue of Dragoon said the event caps off the brewery's growth.

"We are so, so thrilled to be celebrating our third anniversary," Blue said. "With our new expansion, we're really feeling the growth Dragoon has had over the last three years and can't wait for the coming years ahead of us."

For the event, Ricuras de Venezuela, Black Top Grill, Lucky Girl and Zany Beaver will serve a variety of eats for imbibing party goers. The brewery will also be releasing the fourth iteration of their Russian Imperial stout—aptly named The Quatro. Compared to the last three, Blue said The Quatro has a bit of a drier finish with the "same bold, black, deliciousness as all the others."

Mezcal lovers crowded Pasco Kitchen & Lounge's dining room and patio last night for a special four-course dinner. Each dish in the prix-fixe meal was paired with a different Del Maguey mezcal, showcasing its region of origin and displaying the range of flavors in the agave distillate. 

Starting off, Phoenix-area bartender Jason Asher served up a mezcal punch aptly named Stigibeu—the traditional toast for mezcal coming from the Zapotec expression of gratitude for a life connected to ancestry and the life forces around you. The cocktail was a fruity introduction to the sometimes intense spirit, mellowed out and balanced nicely as a stepping stone into straight up tasting. 

The first course paired a beautifully simple caldo de piedra, or stone soup, with one of Del Maguey's most well-known (likely because its reasonable price point) mezcal varietals: Vida. The smoky, earthy notes from the spirit paired well with the very rustic soup, which had thinly sliced red snapper, shrimp, half a potato, fennel and coriander. The clean broth, which was poured over the other components tableside, successfully used its river stone boiled seafood base to provide a very subtle, but intentional palette by which to compare flavors.

Next up was a fideo with pulled roasted pork sholder and seared barbecue pork belly. The lightly sweet barbecue flavor on the vermicelli matched the citrusy notes of the mezcal Chichicapa. Although of all the dishes served this one suffered the most from temperature issues, the balance of sweet and spicy/smoky elements redeemed that issue. Plus, getting all of those portions out simultaneously is no easy task and most of the coursed dinners I've been to have also had that issue.

Course three was the dinner's main event. Roasted lamb was covered in a complexly spiced Oaxacan mole, rich in flavor and thick in texture. The dish came with a lamb tamal with incredibly smooth masa and a simple salad of thinly shaved squash and cucumber marinated in lime and cilantro to brighten up the more hearty elements of the plate.

This dish, paired with Del Maguey's Minero mezcal, which hails from Santa Catarina Minas, was my favorite combination of the night. Both the dish and Minero had a lot to think about. Distilled in clay pots, the Minero did have a distinct earthiness to it on the back end, complimenting the mole. The initial fruitiness of the mezcal contrasted the tart and herbaceous salad and the overall robustness of the plate's components went well with the roasted agave notes.

To finish, the dessert served up a bread-pudding like corn cake that tasted distinctly of its namesake. The accompanying spiced hot cocoa had a hint of orange flavor and a thick, but not completely smoothed texture. Served with the crema de mezcal—a blend of mezcal and agave syrup—the cake was equally sweet as the spirit. Made to to be an apertif or digestif, the crema de mezcal is a lot sweeter than your typical mezcal, which makes it more palatable for the beginning mezcal enthusiast. While it wasn't necessarily my favorite of the four spirit tastings because it took away from the mezcal itself, it did make sense in the context of a post-dinner drink.

Overall, the $30 four-course meal was an insane bargain, showing off both what chef Ramiro Scavo of Pasco can do in the kitchen and what the single village mezcaleros from whom Del Maguey source can do, which is to paint a broad spectrum of flavor with indigenous ingredients. The dinner was a brilliant look into the flavor of Oaxaca. 

Every Tuesday, Pueblo Vida Brewing Co. downtown releases a new beer infused with inventive ingredients to enhance the flavor of the original brew. This month has some great infusions to be released still and all you have to do is head over to the brewery, located at 115 E. Broadway Blvd., to test out the unique and limited quantity creations.

On Tuesday, April 14, Pueblo Vida will be pouring pints of pink hibiscus-infused dry hopped pale ale. Nothing says "I don't care what you think of me" quite like sipping on a pink beer, but the tart and floral notes combined with the hoppy beer mean you'll be drinking something a lot more interesting than just the beer equivalent of Tab. 

Coming up on April 21, you can get the Belgian golden strong ale infused with dark sour cherries, which was made to mimic the flavor of a traditional Belgian Kriek. Then, on April 28, Pueblo Vida will be cracking a keg of another infused dry hopped pale ale, but this time it will use lemon and ginger to add some tang and spice to the beer.

All infusion release events take place from 4 until 10 p.m. at the brewery location. For more information on upcoming Pueblo Vida releases and other events, visit the Pueblo Vida website.

Google defines the word bacchanal as "an occasion of wild and drunken revelry" (please don't look up what Webster's defines it as), and Borderlands' first ever Bacchanal promises to be just that. With two days of totally free music, art, comedy and, of course, beer (the beer isn't so free), the brand new community event will feature a range of entertainment options on Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12. 

The event kicks off at Borderlands Brewing Co., located at 119 E. Toole Ave., on Saturday at noon where attendees can peruse works of art from a range of Tucson artists. Organizer Ryan Malco says the event is an opportunity for them to showcase pieces from locals who might rarely get the chance to be seen otherwise.

"This community has so many wonderful artists who don't get opportunity to show their work," Malco says. "Borderlands is very happy to offer Tucson's artists a place to be seen by the community."

Owner Mark Erman of Ermanos made it pretty clear in his interview with us in a previous article that his new bar was in fact a bar first and not a restaurant. However, with a menu touting locally sourced ingredients, seasonal selections and unique flavor combinations, it seemed like this bar was promising some of the best bar food in town.

Starting off with the Zip burger, which is just $7 during happy hour and late night (Tuesday-Sunday: 2 - 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. to close), I was immediately impressed. For a "not restaurant," Ermanos certainly has other restaurants in town beat on the burger front. The moist, tender Double Check Ranch beef patty was thick and flavorful, accented perfectly with the house "Zip sauce"—a savory blend of soy and worcestershire sauces, butter and herbs that's been reduced and intensified. It's the kind of burger you'll be thinking about for a few days after you eat it. I could go for another right now, in fact.

Anyways, after that first successful taste, my table decided to kind of just go for it, ordering dish after  dish because that burger blew us all away.

The gnocchi and cheese with poblano chiles and herbs ($10) came in a small, hot cast iron dish. The flavor was similar to a standard mac and cheese, but the pillowy gnocchi gave the finished product more interesting texture.

The meatballs ($10) used the same Double Check Ranch beef that made the burger stand out and it's that attention to sourcing that really makes Ermanos' food much more than bar food. Using quality ingredients and augmenting them with stimulating spicing  combinations, which in the meatballs' case was orange, fennel pollen and whole grain corriander, allows those ingredients to take center stage, while still  Even the fries ($4), which were perfectly crispy, were served alongside a five spice spiked ketchup. Typically I forego ketchup, especially when they fries are good on their own, but the creative addition of five spice to the condiment made it tasty and exciting—much more than a ramekin of Heinz. 

In terms of beer, Mark's brother Eric Erman has done a great job of curating a list that features many different varieties and breweries. The staff was ready and willing to help with suggestions, should you have difficulty deciding as well. Some of the best brews I tried from that first visit were the Destihl Raspberry Berliner Weisse (a sour white beer tinted blush from the berries), Great Divide's Colette (a lightly vegetal farmhouse ale) and Dragoon's Pony Express (a complex and smoky American Pale Ale). But, with 34 taps total at Ermanos there's a lot more to try off the list—and that's not even getting into the wine selection. 

Really, the only way Ermanos isn't a restaurant is the fact that all service comes from behind the bar. Unfortunately that was also one of the only faults I found in the restaurant on that first visit. With a group of about six, someone else's tab was mixed into mine and removing those items off of my card took a bit of time. It's not exactly a major hinderance, but I did notice after I had left that I ended up being double charged for something anyways. Hopefully with time those glitches in the system will be worked out, allowing the bar and kitchen to shine as brightly as they do already.


Ermanos is open now at 220 N. Fourth Ave. Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. until 12 a.m. and Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. 

Calling all agave distillate lovers. On Tuesday, April 14, Pasco Kitchen & Lounge will be putting on a special four course dinner celebrating the food of Oaxaca and it's smoky, sultry spirit: Mezcal.

The Noche Oaxaca dinner will feature four different dishes, including fideo with BBQ pork belly and shoulder as well as a spiced hot cocoa and corn cake with a crema de mezcal. Each course will be served with a paired mezcal varietal from Del Maguey's single village mezcals. Like wine and scotch, mezcal is highly variable based on terroir so this event will be a good opportunity to hone your palate to those subtle differences while eating dishes native to those regions as well. Here's the full menu:


Best of all, all four courses are just $30 plus tax and gratuity, which is kind of a steal when you look at what you'll be getting. You can pick up tickets to the special dinner event at Pasco Kitchen & Lounge, located at 820 E. University Blvd.

On a few magical Saturdays, Dragoon Brewing Co. will join forces with Exude Yoga to present a super relaxing morning of stretching and brews known as Bakasana & Beer. This month, Saturday, April 4 is the day to head to the brewery, located at 1859 W. Grant Road Suite 111, for your beer and yoga.

While both are good on their own, the real reason to head to this special event series is that it's actually a really good deal. $5 cash gets you into the class and also gets you a beer, both of which run at $5 on their own typically. Plus, you can feel like you earned your local beer after burning a few calories in the Exude class.

Doors open at 10:30 a.m. for the class, which starts promptly at 10:45 a.m. and runs for an hour. The class is a bring your own mat event. Future Bakasana & Beer events are scheduled for May 2 and 16.

Fourth Avenue is about to get a cool new spot for beer, wine and late night eats when Ermanos opens between 8th and 9th streets. Now, before you get all up in arms that the name misspells the word brother in Spanish, you should know that it's a play on the brothers Mark and Eric Erman's last name. Feel better? Alright, let's continue.

The Erman brothers have dreamed of opening their bar for about ten years. Sitting in their beautiful restaurant just a few days before opening and the night before they train their staff, it's clear that Eric is getting a little choked up.

"I can't believe we're here," he says, looking around at the back lounge area. It's furnished with comfy black leather chairs and a large homey rug. 

Eric worked as a commercial brewer in Colorado for seven years while his brother was an environmental lawyer, eventually moving to Tucson with his wife to enjoy the climate.

After a few hiccups in figuring out their new space (it technically encompasses two addresses on two different streets—good thing Mark is a lawyer), they began exhaustively renovating the space—exposing the building's brick walls and skylight and repurposing the wood that was removed for dividing walls and tables.

"This wood is from the '20s. You can see the saw marks on the boards," Mark says, touching a new wall made from the building's reclaimed wood. "Our carpenter said that back then they would only fell trees for lumber that were over 100 years old so that means this wood came from a tree that was from the 1800s at least."

A large communal booth, more private nooks, bar seating and a patio offer a range of options for seating. 


With the finishing touches being put into place for the building, Eric discusses his plan for the beer program. You can expect 34 draft handles and a selection of over 150 bottles and cans of beer. He's also excited that Public Brew House will soon be open in the back courtyard area, brewing craft beer just feet from Ermanos' back patio.

"We wanted to build on the great beer community here," Eric says. "The scene has just exploded."

For wine, the team brought in a friend from Michigan named Anya Linda. Her goal is to incorporate a list of wines that are both accessible and drinkable but also feature more esoteric varieties to expose guests to new things. She hopes in the future to hold special tasting events in the lounge area as well, such as local vintner features and a popcorn and champagne night. 

"This place is the epitome of a labor of love," Linda says. "It's special and I think it will be the sort of place that anyone can come to."

Of course, it isn't all about the booze. Although Ermanos doesn't plan to offer full table service, a menu of "upscale garstropub" fare will be served for lunch, happy hour, dinner and late night. Using seasonal, local ingredients, many of the menu items, such as the soup and salad, will change regularly.

However, chef David Valencia Jr. knows the Zip Burger, made with a special sauce of soy sauce, worcestershire, butter, herbs and more, will be a menu staple. His right hand man, Jesus Cayeros, also made a grilled cheese for the menu that combines five cheeses and a sweet, tangy onion jam that the whole crew agreed would be a favorite.

The menu also features small tapas-style sharable plates for dinner, including chicken lollipops with a seasonal BBQ sauce, flatbread with chorizo and Oaxaca cheese and gnocchi with cheese, poblano and herbs, to reinforce the casual atmosphere.


Mark Erman says he wanted his bar to be a bar first with the feel of an indoor beer garden. He plans to have live music weekly once they open.

Ermanos is planning to be officially open on Wednesday, April 1 for full service. The restaurant's hours will be Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. until 12 a.m. and Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. with happy hour and late night menu deals. You can follow Ermanos on Facebook for more information and updates on the space.

I'm not much of a holiday lady. I don't decorate for Christmas or Halloween, I don't watch the fireworks on July 4 and I am wearing exactly zero green things today*. And while I do love it when drinking is encouraged, there's no way I'm cramming myself into a bar tonight. That sounds crowded and terrible, and green beer isn't much of a consolation prize.

But you know what does sound like a good time? Boozy cupcakes. Mother Nature Network—a website I have never visited before, but whose food section is winning me over with vegetarian breakfast lists and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt companion cocktails—presents a recipe for Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Baileys Frosting:

Ingredients
For cupcakes
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch table salt
6 ounces stout beer
1/4 cup melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/3 cup sour cream

For the icing
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
3-4 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda and salt until combined.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the stout, melted butter and vanilla together.
Beat the eggs into the stout mixture, one at a time. Then mix in the sour cream.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients a little at a time until it’s all mixed together thoroughly.
Lightly grease 12 muffin tins (or use non-stick spray or cupcake liners). Pour the batter evenly into the tins.
Bake from 18-24 minutes, checking at 18 minutes and continuing to bake until they are set in the middle.
Allow to cool.
While cooling, make the icing.
Combine the softened cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer (hand or stand mixers will both work). Add the confectioners sugar and mix. Slowly add the Baileys and mix until icing is the desired consistency.
When the cupcakes are cool, frost with icing.

Grab an apron, cancel your bar plans, and get drunk at home where the booze is free and the cupcakes aren't for children.


*Pinch at your own risk. I'm a kicker.