‘Round The Table Pub

by A.J. Coltrane

The Bad News: Gary’s Games and Hobbies is no more. Gary finally decided to retire.

The Good news: Gary’s longtime store manager (Tim) has opened Round The Table Pub in Lynnwood, right on the border with Edmonds — It’s next to Edmonds Community College.

From their website:

‘Round the Table is all about bringing people together … ‘Round the Table.

Sure we serve beer, cider and other drinks. And yes, we sell games and puzzles. But what we’re really about is getting people away from their computers, sitting together around a table doing something: talking, playing, laughing, discussing, bonding … in other words, having fun.

Here’s the extensive beer list.

We stopped in one night and learned to play Amerigo. While we played we enjoyed a couple of beverages.

A bit about Amerigo — The theme is discovering/colonizing islands in South America during the era of sail. Well, here (boardgamegeek description):

In Amerigo, the players help Amerigo Vespucci on his journey to discover new land. The players explore the islands of South America, secure trading routes, and build settlements.

The actions available to players are determined through the use of a specialized cube tower, which has appeared in the Queen titles Im Zeichen des Kreuzes andWallenstein. At the start of the game, this tower is seeded with action cubes, which come in seven colors, with each color matching a particular type of action. During the game players will drop additional action cubes into the tower – but some of these cubes might get stuck in the floors of the tower while other cubes already in the tower are knocked free. Thus, players need to play both tactically – taking advantage of the actions currently available in the best way possible – and strategically – using their knowledge of which actions do what to play well over the course of the game.

The game board is composed of nine, twelve or sixteen tiles, depending on the number of players. Players sail their ships through the landscape created for this game, landing on islands to plan and build settlements, which then supply resources and allow the player to earn victory points. Players might want to invest in cannons to protect themselves from pirates roaming the waters or acquire progress tokens to gain special advantages.

The islands are actually colonized by fitting tetris style pieces into the randomly odd-shaped islands. We had a lot of fun with it. The “cube” tower is an interesting mechanic. Right after we sat down and ordered a beverage I made the faux pas of thinking that my sailing ship meeple was actually a horse or something — I placed it on the table upside down. Fortunately the crowd is not the judging type…

—

Back to ‘Round The Table Pub: It’s clean and well lit. There’s plenty of space to stretch out. There are around eight tables for gaming — you can either select a game from the wall or bring your own. Tonight they’re having a Euro game night *and* a Belgian beer tasting. Check the calendar, they run a lot of beer and/or game events.

Also: Tim’s a super nice guy.

Highly recommended place to spend an evening.

Beer of the Week: Smuttynose Old Brown Dog

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Way back in my college days, we were in the early years of the craft beer revolution. I was living in Boston and that generally meant that craft beer was either Sam Adams, Harpoon, Rogue or Red Hook, all beers that were generally from sizeable enough breweries they had at least regional distribution. I remember going into the package store in the mid ’90’s (what is a package store? That is for another post) and seeing a beer from some new brewery in New Hampshire (a whopping 40 miles from Boston) with a harbor seal as its logo. I remember looking in the case and seeing they had 2 beers – Shoals Pale Ale and Old Brown Dog. Since I was on a limited budget, I went with the 6 pack of Old Brown Dog (hey, what can I say, I am a sucker for a good dog picture), thus beginning my long love affair with the beers of Smuttynose Brewing. They have since expanded their brewery and are regionally distributing to most states east of the Mississippi (sadly, not out on the West Coast). When I was back in NJ over the winter, it afforded me an opportunity to pick up a 6 pack of this old friend and bring it back to Seattle with me.

From the Smuttynose website:

Old Brown Dog has been cited as a classic example of the “American Brown Ale” style of beer. Compared to a typical English Brown Ale, Old Brown Dog is fuller-bodied and more strongly hopped.

Old Brown Dog has been around for many years. It was first brewed in 1988 at the Northampton Brewery. In 1989 it won a silver medal in its category (American Brown Ale) at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Color: deep reddish brown

Malt Bill
North American 2-Row, Munich 10L, C-120, Chocolate

Hops
Bittering: Cascade and Galena
Flavoring: Willamette

Starting Extract 15° Plato
Terminal Extract 3.26° Plato

ABV 6.7%

IBU 18

Recommended Food Pairings
Griiled meats, especially sausages, ribs and steak

Silver Medal 1989 Great American Beer Festival

The beer pours medium amber in color with a cream colored head. It shows significant notes of grain and yeast with hints of toffee and caramel supporting. The beer starts out with a light sweetness coupled with hints of toffee followed by pleasant grain middle with just a hint of roast flavor and malt before finishing dry with an ever so slight pleasant bitterness that lingers happily in a semi-long finish. As the beer warms, the deeper roasted and toffee flavors become more prevalent, particularly on the finish where it lingers pleasantly with the light bitterness. Deep and complex, I had no idea this beer was as high on the alcohol content as it is, since it is well balanced without any hints of the alcohol. If you ever get a chance, give Smuttynose Old Brown Dog a shot.

Smuttynose Old Brown Dog comes in from the yard and gnaws on 3 bones out of 5.

On a side note, a few years back, Smuttynose did a one-off, imperial version of this beer called Older Brown Dog. I wanted to try it and I was able to find a single bottle of it on a trip back to Boston. I shipped it back to Seattle, but it, alas, did not survive the trip, and I never got a chance to try the beer.

GNOIF: Head West Young GNOIF! — The Recap

by A.J. Coltrane

GNOIF #12 Recap — Head West Young GNOIF! (Territorial/Expansion/Western Theme)

Games That Got Played: Bang!, Cards Against Humanity, Citadels, Star Fluxx, Forbidden Island, Gardens of Alhambra, Lost Cities, Small World, Ticket To Ride Europe.

Games That Didn’t Get Played: Black Rock City, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Fjords, Power Grid, the other Ticket to Rides.

Record attendance! It was a very full, and at times, very loud house. It’s a good thing that we weren’t playing golf or tennis or chess or something.

I’m guessing it was noisy at times due to the games that were played:

Loud games: Bang!, Cards Against Humanity, Star Fluxx

Medium volume games: Forbidden Island, Citadels

Relatively Quiet games: Gardens of Alhambra, Small World, Ticket to Ride Europe

Quiet Games: Lost Cities

So it was the loud games making it loud. And the Jello shots.

It’s really getting to the point now that people are able to get their games going without involvement from the hosts. That was the original intent, and it’s nice to see it happening. Also, more eyes on the rulebooks means that we’re gradually eliminating incorrect play.

Fun times! Expect a Recommended Games post on Small World soon.

Mythcrushers – The NJ Edition

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A friend recently posted a link to an article titled “11 Things Only People from New Jersey Understand.” Being a long-removed Jersey boy myself, I thought it was an interesting list, but one, alas that definitely had some misconceptions, even if it was written by a Jerseyite. What does this have to do with a blog on food, sports and games, you might ask? Well indulge me a minute.

2. There Are Certain Foods You Can Only Eat When You’re In New Jersey

The list of things I have to eat when I’m in New Jersey, and try not to eat anywhere else are:

Bagels

Pizza

Corn

Tomatoes

Salt Water Taffy

I’m a total Jersey food snob because the rest of the country just doesn’t make them the same. And then there’s the ultimate NJ dish that doesn’t even exist anywhere else…

Ok. I want to bust this myth completely since I have heard it all of my life and it is simply not true. First off, corn and tomatoes make no sense. Yes, NJ is called the Garden State for a reason, but you can get stellar corn and tomatoes IN SEASON just about anywhere these days. The in season label applies to NJ also. Let’s face it, unless you spend half your year in the southern hemisphere, there is about a 2 month window for getting good tomatoes, and rarely they are from the local meagmart. Any farmer’s market will carry great produce in season, or just do what Coltrane and I do – grow them yourself.

Anyone that says you can’t get great pizza or bagels outside of NY/NJ is just being a snob. I actually know people who would laugh at the idea of eating pizza and bagels outside of NYC as a silly concept, so there are levels of snobbery here. Everyone who grows up in NJ has their favorite pizza place, most likely one that is currently being run by the 4^th or 5^th generation of an Italian family. I can think of at least a half-dozen excellent, non-Neapolitan pizza places in Seattle that make a pretty good version of a NY/NJ pizza. I have had some truly terrible pizza also, but that is another story. Is it exactly the same, no, but I never expect that someone is going to make a pizza exactly like Pompeii Pizza in Bayonne, NJ. Heck, none of the other pizza places in Bayonne (and there are a ton of them) make a pizza exactly like Pompeii. I guess what I am trying to say here is that, while pizza in NJ may be the best on the planet, there are plenty of excellent versions of it in other cities, you just need to spend time looking. The same thing applies to bagels.

I will just skip salt water taffy – it isn’t something I particularly love to begin with and I have had equally uninspiring versions of it elsewhere.

3. The Mere Mention Of Taylor Ham, Egg, And Cheese On A Roll Activates Four Different Regions Of Your Brain

Taylor Ham is the single best brand of pork roll available on the market. Taylor literally invented it. For this reason, it is not appropriate to call it pork roll–you must call it Taylor Ham in homage to John Taylor. Calling it anything else is disrespectful to the master.

Taylor Ham is definitely something that you will not find at a restaurant/deli anywhere else in the country. Heck, you are hard pressed to find anyone outside of the NYC/NJ/Philly area that even has any idea what Taylor Ham is. It is, for lack of a better description, a bastardized version of Canadian Bacon (the meat, not the movie). Strangely, while I can’t remember seeing it on any menu anywhere I have ever been outside of NJ, I can occasionally get it and scrapple (a hyper-local Philly specialty) at Ballard Market in Seattle. I have no idea why, but I can if I want to make it at home.

9. The Best Time To Eat At A Diner Is 2 a.m. When You’re Drunk With Your Best Friends

There’s only one type of non-chain eatery that has consistently good food at any time of the day and that’s a New Jersey diner. I remember going to the Chester Diner at 2 a.m. after working the late shift at the Chester Movie Theater and meeting friends for a gyro and pancakes. And you know what, they would taste exactly (amazingly) the same if I went at 2 p.m. on a Sunday after church. It’s a marvel of modern Americanized Greek technology.

Diners are just the best. Period

I grew up a half block from a diner and yes, there were many drunken late nights with friends eating really crappy food at 2 AM. Diners don’t seem to exist much outside of the east coast and are pretty much non-existent on the west coast and I do miss them, especially when I want breakfast for dinner. Like pizza places, everyone in NJ has their favorite place that has been there forever and still probably has the 40 year old personal juke boxes mounted to the wall in the booths.

10. Worshiping Bruce Springsteen And Bon Jovi Is Just A Natural Part Of Growing Up

Ok, this has nothing to do with food and maybe things have changed in the 25 years since I moved from NJ, but Bon Jovi was always considered to be a bad joke, not an idol. The Boss however, that is a different story. Springsteen is just about as close to a god as you can get in the state. I have seen The Boss play in 7 different cities, and none of those concerts came close to the energy of the 4 hour marathon he played in 1993 in NJ on the Human Touch/Better Days tour in front of the home crowd. Did I mention that the show I went to happened to be the 8^th of 10 shows in 12 days he played in NJ, and he played for 4 hours? Yep, it was the most energized concert I have ever seen. Either way, it should tell you where Springsteen ranks in the NJ idol list – he is The Boss. When you say The Boss in NJ, everyone knows who you are talking about. I can honestly say that I have never had a conversation with anyone in NJ about how great Bon Jovi is.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Early Morning Espresso Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

February was stout month for NW Peaks and we got a returning favorite in Stuart and a new beer – Early Morning Espresso Stout. This beer is brewed with beans from Ballard Coffee Works, who are one of the places around Seattle that you can find NW Peaks beers, so this was a collaborative effort as well as the first time that NW peaks is brewing a coffee beer. I was excited as it was a combination of a brewery I love and a coffee roaster that produces some of the best quality beans in the city.

From the NW Peaks website:

The Name. The mountain. Early Morning Spire is set in a magical location of the Eldorado, Inspiration, and Mcallister glaciers. It is actually situated slightly off the glaciers in Marble cirque. Early Morning Spire offers great rock climbing in a remote place, so remote that it is best to take 3-4 days to climb (the approach is via Eldorado – nearly summiting – over a col into the marble cirque). While it has great rock routes, Early Morning spire can be done as a scramble, although getting from the glacier to solid rock might be treacherous depending on conditions. The name derives itself from a group that had to bivy near the summit (cold, unprepared), which caused them to summit just after first light.

The Espresso. We made this an espresso stout so what better name than Early Morning Espresso Stout – two of our favorite beverages made into one. We collaborated with one of our great customers – Seattle Coffee Works (Ballard Coffee Works) who puts out one of the finest products in the Seattle area. In the end, we chose to use their Emerald City toddy – delicious by itself – to accentuate the flavor and aroma of the coffee.

The Beer. Early Morning Espresso Stout was brewed to feature the coffee from Seattle coffee works. The base beer has a mild roast character, low body, and slight sweetness to support the espresso. The espresso flavor is at the forefront and brings in minimal acidity and coffee astringency. Instead, the cold toddy really adds to the flavor and aroma of the beer without contributing any harshness or excessive acidity. The result is a 5% ABV smooth, light bodied, light roasty stout with a great espresso flavor and aroma. Watch out, there will be a lot more caffeine in a pint than other versions, making it a great choice to have at first light.

The beer pours jet black with a beautiful tan head and eye-popping notes of roasted malt and ground espresso dominating the nose with just barely perceptible notes of chocolate hiding in the background. The beer starts out slowly, with hints of sugar, milk chocolate and light fruit notes before giving way to building coffee profile – it starts out mellow before becoming a deep, rich espresso. The bold coffee slowly fades into the finish, joined by a barely perceptible bitterness, touches of milk chocolate, caramel and malt coupled with a silky mouth feel. Coffee is definitely the star of this beer but it knows when to give way to the other flavors, producing a deep, rich beer. In talking to the head brewer about this beer, he would have liked to dial the coffee back just a bit to let the beer stand out more, but I think the balance was nice to the point that this beer would be an easy sell to even those who don’t like coffee beers.

NW Peaks Early Morning Espresso Stout hits the snooze button with 5 alarm clocks out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Icicle Brewing Von Priebe Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It is nice having a brewery back in Leavenworth, since the town is seemingly being overrun by wineries. Icicle Brewing is a pretty sizeable operation, having opened in 2010 and they have a nice selection of standard offerings as well as a few specialty beers on tap. On a recent visit, I got to experience the Von Priebe Porter – their base porter infused with vanilla.

The beer pours jet black with a tan head and offers strong notes of coffee and roasted malt dominating with hints of toffee and vanilla on the nose. The beer starts off with a strong coffee component that fades quickly into a more mild coffee and roast component with just a touch of bitterness. The beer finishes slightly sweet with notes of lactose and a slightly boozy vanilla note in a pleasantly long fade with more roasted flavors. Warm and inviting – would have liked some of the flavors to linger a touch longer and the booziness of the vanilla to be a touch more restrained, but overall it was an enjoyable and deep beer on a cold day.

Icicle Brewing Von Priebe Porter carries itself well with 3 sharp points out of 5.

Jose Fernandez in 2014

By Blaidd Drwg

Jose Fernandez has a goal for his sophomore season – to have an ERA of 1.95. Not a bad goal for a 21ish year old who pitches in a pitcher’s park. David Schoenfield had a great article about that here.

Fernandez posted a 2.19 ERA in his rookie season. Pretty damn impressive, so what are the chances that he does it again?

One of my favorite things that he mentioned in the article:

Look, I wouldn’t bet on a 1.95 ERA but I wouldn’t bet against him either. Since 1950, only 15 different starting pitchers have had least two seasons with an ERA under 2.25. Since 1980, only three have done it — Greg Maddux (five times), Pedro Martinez (four) and Roger Clemens (three).

Odds are definitely against him, but scoring in the league is down, so you never know. My point in posting this – If you don’t think that Pedro Martinez belongs in the HOF, think about the above statement. In the expansion era, which saw the highest scoring in baseball history, Pedro Martinez had an ERA below 2.25 four times and an ERA less than 3.00 another 4 times, including 2002 when his ERA just missed the cutoff at 2.26. Oh, and his ERA+ during that stretch from 1997 to 2005? Just a lousy 187. That is Sandy Koufax dominant folks (actually it is significantly more dominating than Koufax, but that is for another post).

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Crystal Pale Ale Cask

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Cask beer really affords the opportunity to understand exactly what a specific hop does to a beer, especially if you have the opportunity to taste the base beer side by side with it. Pale Ales tend to be great vehicles for this so it was nice to see Populuxe doing a Pale cask with Crystal Hops. What exactly do Crystal hops do to the beer? From beerlegends.com:

Crystal Hops was born in 1983, created in Corvallis Oregon. Drink a Rogue Brutal Bitter, and say colchicine induced tetraploid three times. This type of Hallertau was crossed with USDA 21381M, which is resistant to downy mildew.

Out comes a hops variety, which is a half sister of both Mt. Hood and Liberty Hops.Crystal Hops bears a low alpha acid rating of 3.5%-6.0%, and carries a relatively high myrcene oil content. This combination makes it ideal for aroma additions as it bring with it a mix of woody, green, some floral and fruit notes, with some herb and spice character. Crystal Hops lends itself to a number of beers like Light Ales, such as Goldens, Pale Ales, Aroma for India Pale Ales, and even Stouts and Lagers.

The beer pours hazy orange in color with significant amounts of citrus and notes of spicy hops on the nose. The beer drinks light on the palate, starting off with light grain before moving into hints of hops and resin and finishing off with a nice citrus fruit and mild citrus peel bitterness that lingers pleasantly for a long time.

Very easy drinking and approachable, a great beer for just kicking back and drinking on a lazy afternoon.Populuxe Crystal Pale Ale Cask runs through and doesn’t break anything with 3 chandeliers out of 5.

I Don’t Know Why You Say Goodbye…

By Blaidd Drwg

…I say hello. Why do I have the feeling I have used that one before? Anyway, just a couple of tidbits from the transaction wire on opening day.

Vlad Guerrero signs a one day contract with the Angels and retires.

Vladdy probably would be a HOFer if he had not spent most of his prime years playing in Montreal. He will forever be remembered by me for 3 specific things:

1) In 2002 in the last game of the season in Montreal, wrapping a double in the 5^th inning of the game to tie the Expos single season hit record with 206 and getting a tremendous ovation for it. For years, that score card hung on my wall.

2) In 2003 in the last game of the season in Montreal (see a pattern here), getting pulled from the game in the 7^th inning after taking the field for warm-ups. It was known that Vladdy was going to be signing somewhere else in the off-season (the Expos weren’t going to attempt to keep him) as a free agent and he was loved the way that Dawson, Raines and Carter were in that city. He trotted off the field to a 5 minute standing ovation and 2 curtain calls. I have never seen anything like that before or since and that is how a departing player who is that loved should be sent off.

3) In 2004, after signing with the Angels, was a 10-1 shot for AL MVP. Vlad had been murdering the ball in the NL for the last 4 seasons and I liked the odds. I put down a c-note on that line. Needless to say, he paid for my 2005 trip to Vegas.

Of course, in what seems like it should have been an April Fool’s joke, Vlad signed his contract on the field before last night’s Angels game and was honored with throwing out the first pitch to the only other player in Angels history to win an MVP – Don Baylor. Baylor received the pitch and then proceeded to break his leg trying to catch the pitch. Seriously.

The Diamondbacks announced the retirement of C Henry Blanco and added him to their coaching staff .

Henry Blanco is 42 and has hit about .150 over the last 2 seasons and probably should have started his coaching career years ago. I will be honest, I had absolutely no idea he was still even playing until this article a couple of days ago.

Grady Sizemore makes the Red Sox opening day roster.

Not only that, but he is their starting CF! It is a great comeback story for a guy who has missed most of the last few seasons with injuries, but I can’t help thinking that he is going to break down about a week after he has to play a few cold weather games. My guess, he is on the DL before April 15^th.

The hyphen is back!

Ryan Rowland–Smith made the Dbacks roster. You remember him – failed M’s pitching prospect from Down Under who imploded in 2010 and then dropped off the planet. Well, he is finally back in the bigs after 4 seasons in the minors. Hopefully he sticks around, I always did like him.

Beer of the Week: Stoup mk Special Bitter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have a soft spot in my heart for bitters (both the beer and the flavoring agent in mixed drinks), probably because it is a style of beer that, when it is done well, is deep, complex and enjoyable, but easy drinking at the same time. There seems to be a resurgence of the style in the Northwest and this winter it seems that a good number of breweries were rolling one out, which means that there were lots of them for me to try. Stoup threw their hat in the ring with the mk Special Bitter, which clocked in at 5.3% ABV and 35 IBU.

The beer poured deep amber red in color with significant notes of grain and malt and just a touch of hops and citrus on the nose. The beer starts off dry with just a hint of toffee before quickly moving off into the grains and malt, finishing with just a tough of bitterness and a long slightly sweet malt profile that keeps lingering coupled with a very subtle fruitiness, which become notes of dried fruit as the beer warms. Lightly bittered and hopped, this beer is easy to drink and balanced with enough character to be interesting and leaving you wanting more.

Stoup mk Special Bitter comes in from the cold with 4 neighborhood pubs out of 5.