Kale, Swiss chard, collards: Eating greens on New Year’s Day, the lore goes, brings good luck and wealth. For all of the bounty and none of the hassle of cleaning them, join Slow Food Triangle (www.slowfoodtriangle.org) between 4 and 7 p.m. on Jan. 1 for its third annual Traditional Southern New Year’s Day event, held this year at Fullsteam Brewery (726 Rigsbee Ave., Durham, www.fullsteam.ag, 682-2337).
Fullsteam’s bar will offer a slew of brews. In addition, the folks from Wine Authorities (www.wineauthorities.com) and 3Cups (www.3cups.net) will serve wines by the glass. Proceeds benefit a healthy snack program at Club Boulevard Elementary School in Durham. The meal will start at 5 p.m. with greens, Hoppin’ John, cornbread, hearth-baked bread and sweet potato pie. Vegetarian options will be available, too. Event sponsors include Scratch baking (www.piefantasy.com), The Splinter Group (www.thesplintergroup.net), Anson Mills (www.ansonmills.com) and Counter Culture Coffee (www.counterculturecoffee.com). The cost of the evening is $15 for Slow Food members, $18 for nonmembers and free for children under 10. To purchase tickets, visit the Slow Food website.
On New Year’s Eve, kick it with your favorite celebritiesdead or alive, real or fictitiousbeginning at 9 p.m. for the New Year’s Bullywood Bash at Bull McCabes Irish pub (427 W. Main St., Durham, www.bullmccabesirishpub.com, 682-3061). At midnight, the pub will cover the bar tab for the person with the best celebrity costume and will serve Champagne to everyone. Also, throughout the day, Bull McCabes will sell $5 burgers and vegetarian quesadillas. And for the evening’s festivities, DJ One Duran will spin Top 40 hits.
On the Indy‘s latest trip to Sam’s Quik Shop in Durham (1605 Erwin Road, www.samsquikshop.com, 286-4110), we noted that the local beer mecca was out of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale. According to the friendly sales clerk, there is a shortage of the popular India pale ale, and the brewery is carefully apportioning its supply to shops.
Crispy and hoppy, with an alcohol content of 7 percent, Two Hearted Ale is getting harder to find ’round these parts, at least in stores. The Indy recently snagged the last six-pack at Parker & Otis, and we often longingly gaze at the beer fridge at Wine Authorities hoping it will magically appear.
So we called the brewery, located in Kalamazoo, Mich., hoping someone there would calm our fears, or at least our shaky hands. The marketing person was out of the office, but the person who answered the phone said ours was the second call she had received that day about the alleged shortage. However, she said she had no information that the brewery was running low: “Don’t start worrying quite yet.”
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