Harvest Wine & Spirits

My girlfriend Charmane and I had the pleasure of stopping by Harvest Fine Wines & Spirits on the way to see some friends a couple of weeks ago. I've been following their blog for about a year and these people seemed to have a real passion for beer and wine. I guess I have a passion for beer and wine...well, I like to drink it. My love of drinking it usually reminds me of how passionate I am about things like bad commercials. Anyway, the day that I was there, I just grabbed a 6 pack of Naughty Nurse, (local brew from City Steam, if you haven't had the pleasure.) a 6 pack of Hooker Blonde (local brew from Hooker Brewery) and a bottle of Yellowtail. So as you can see, I'm not as nerdy about beer and wine as I am about, say, classic Simpsons trivia. But now I think I want to be.

That said, even during my short visit, I could tell that these guys knew their shit. The store itself is set to the side in a small plaza that shares a Chinese restaurant and a sushi restaurant. (Since our friends lived nearby, we actually ended up ordering delivery from the Chinese place later and it was great!) Coming in was a bit overwhelming at first. To the left of the entrance is a huge refrigerator full of single beers. I think I'd like to go back and take advantage of that so I can sample a couple things and not have to commit to a whole night with one beer. If you already know what you're looking for, there's an even bigger "beer cave" in the back that houses ALL.THE.BEERS. So many. I actually felt a little average buying my two regular favorites, which, when I buy them anywhere else usually make me feel so good. As it is, I normally have to drive to Bloomfield just to get it. But damn if I didn't want to buy some obscure beer that no one had ever heard of while in that store. Yeah, I had some beer hipster envy going on.

If there was any place I'd trust to point my inexperienced palate in the right direction, it's Harvest. I overheard one clerk helping some customers pair their beer with their dinner and that's an extra step that most package stores I frequent don't offer. Most are in the business of trying to sell me what's popular rather than offering me something similar. (Dear Atwood Liquors: If you're out of Sam Adams, Ciroq Peach is NOT a good substitute.) The guys at Harvest seemed eager to please the palate.

We finished our trip looking for the Yellowtail Pinot Noir/Shiraz blend. You'd think I'd feel bad about going for such a standard in a store that had oodles and oodles of fine wines, but I was already shamed about the beer. I was pretty maxed out. I will give a huge high five that they have it. I don't see that blend at a lot of stores and it's one of my favorites.

Overall, the customer service was extremely pleasant and I'll definitely return. Which is really saying something because I don't usually drive that far down Farmington Avenue. Beer nerds, make your way out to this store, not only for their impressive collection of both wines and beers, but the friendly and knowledgeable staff. I'll be back...ready to experiment. Get ready for a whole new level of judgement from me when I see you drinking a Heineken.

Set the Mic On Fire & All Mixed Up - Variety Shows in Hartford

Don't drink and blog, people.

Actually, that's not true. The internet would not thrive if not for a thought driven by a glass of wine. I guess I should say, leave edits to sobriety. On Saturday evening I came to my blog on my iPhone, simply to edit the title of this entry. Easy enough...when you haven't had a shot and a beer. The touch screen was not liking what I was doing and was giving me problems all along. Rather than just leave it alone til I was back on my laptop, my stubborn ass decided to force it to do what I wanted. All seemed well and good, but the result was seeing all that I'd typed completely erased on Sunday afternoon. Lesson learned.

So after taking a few days to curse and shake a fist at the screen, I've decided that I MUST get this post up again because the public needs to know what my drunken mistakes deprived them of.

This Sunday, Brighter Than Before Entertainment is bringing us a night of fun and laughter. On April 1st, Shish Lounge in West Hartford will be the home of Set the Mic on Fire. Though they've billed it as "a unique blend of comedy and poetry", you can trust these talented ladies to give you so much more than that. You may recognize most of the members of Brighter Than Before from the Greater Hartford/Springfield poetry scene or perhaps from their success putting on The Thick Chronicles this past winter. Whatever the case, you and I both know that they don't half-ass it when it comes to entertainment. The evening will be hosted by Shireal Renee and Big Chewy, and will feature the poetry of local favorites Alison McMeans, Brenda's Child, Crystal Senter Brown, Face, Hawk The Poet, Milton Jackson, Midnight and Mind.Evolution. Our comedians for the evening will be Jandayi Ms. Makinyoulaff and Veejay Wright and Evelyn Dillon will provide a tribute to the legendary Whitney Houston. Tickets are $15 if purchased in advance and $20 if you buy at the door. The festivities start at 7pm.

Then on Friday, April 13th MaPeach Productions is putting on All Mixed Up: A Comedy & Poetry Mesh. Darlene "Peaches" Brandon, Owner and Founder of MaPeach Productions, should be another familiar face to you as well. You can find her twice a month hosting The Love Jones Experience down at the Russell on Monday nights, as well as acting and performing her own poetry about town. She even directed two very successful productions of For Colored Girls... which I reviewed right here two years ago. This time, Darlene will take a step away from the scripts and host a show to bust your gut and soothe your soul. All Mixed Up will feature the poetry of NuNuu, M.I.D.N.I.G.H.T and Peaches herself. Three comedians who have graced the stages of places like Comic View on BET, HBO and prestigious comedy clubs nationwide will also be bringing down the house; Artie Rob, Solo and Hartford native Marshall Brandon. The beautifully talented, Grammy-award winning, TBPDIH-writer loving Charmagne Tripp will also be gracing us with some songs and to wrap up the evening, Big Jus is coming with his hot dance crew! All Mixed Up will be held at Vibz Uptown and the show starts at 8:30. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door and call (860) 986-4483 to buy.

Syllable: A Reading Series

Looking for something to do on a school night? Follow me, kid, I'll show you around. If you're in the mood to be entertained tonight, Syllable: A Reading Series will be taking place at La Paloma. The night will get started at 7pm and the theme of the evening will be "Luck". I'll be reading my own piece tonight. Sorry for the short notice, but better late than never, as my mom would say. (I know other people say it, but my mom is ALWAYS obscenely late. I feel she has a master's degree in the phrase.)

Syllable is a monthly themed reading series for writers to showcase their work. This goes for all kinds of writers. The unintended theme for tonight is non-fiction, though many other types are welcome such as works of fiction and short story, poetry, scripts, essays, songs...really anything you can create and read in 10 minutes or less. I had the opportunity to speak with Julia Pistell, the founder of Syllable, and she tries to leave the idea of work that is submitted open-ended. She reviews the submissions beforehand in order to facilitate the flow of the evening and the variety of submissions, so it's not a completely "open-mic." But from what I understand, people's work varies from month to month. I'm interested in seeing what people will write when given only a one word idea. Did I mention that I'm a Syllable virgin myself?

If you're shaking your fist at me because I didn't tell you about this in enough time, I apologize, seriously. That was my bad. But there are already dates and themes posted for the next two months: April 18th's theme is Light and May 16th's theme is Labor. Get your creative juices flowing and submit something for next month! Hope to see you out tonight!

Syllable: A Reading Series
Upcoming Events:

2/15: Love

3/21: Luck

4/18: Light

5/16: Labor

7:00-8:30 PM

La Paloma Sabanera, Hartford

$5 Suggested Donation

Email your submissions to syllableseries@gmail.com