Ribs, Beer Club & Nathan's Famous!

Summer is FINALLY here!!!  Trey and I kicked off the season by attending the Twin City Ribfest (held right here in Winston-Salem, NC).  We were pretty excited to go because we'd never been to a ribfest before.  Unfortunately, it was kindof a let down...I mean we got there, paid money to get in, paid money for an 'over 21' wristband, paid too much money for one beer, and walked around the entire festival in about 15 minutes. 

BUT...The ribs were good.  Really good.  There were probably fifteen vendors there from different places around the southeast and we just happened to choose Big Boned BBQ Co. by a random decision.  One thing I wish I did do though was buy the '2 bone coupon' where you could go around to different booths and sample 2 ribs at almost every booth. 

BEER CLUB: 21-23

We are almost at 25 beers at the Mellow Mushroom!  Those will definitely be celebratory brews next week after we spend the weekend moving from one apartment to another.  Fortunately, our new apartment is about three blocks from the Mellow Mushroom and now we can walk there (...which could be a good thing or a bad thing...I'm not sure yet).

Beer #21: Hummin' Bird!  Yet another 'Red Oak' beer.  It is a light lager that is refreshingly smooth on a hot summer's day :)

Beer 22: New Holland Mad Hatter.  An IPA that's pretty darn 'hoppy' but pretty darn delicious.

Beer 23:  New Holland Golden Cap -a Saison Ale (yeah I don't really know what that is either...).  It was okay, just not what I prefer.  BUT it was on special that night!

Charlotte Nathan's Qualifier 2010

Well, this was the third year in a row I've been to the Charlotte Nathan's Qualifier and every year, someone different has won!  I would like to thank whoever decided last year to move the contest inside, because it was very awesome once again being in the cool mall instead of outside in 100 degree weather.  Good call. 

Some of the rumoured entrants (Wing Kong, Juliet Lee) didn't show up at the contest so it was pretty clear from the get-go who was going to win: Pat.  He ended up eating 30 hot dogs & buns which was enough to qualify for Nathan's on July 4th.  I think someone ate 13, Richard Foley ate 11.5, Super Paul ate 10, and that's all I could really figure out.  The one & only drawback to having the contest in the mall is that the sound from the speakers really echo and it is hard to understand the announcers.  I attempted to 'tweet' the contest but it is hard to multitask.  Jamie usually does the cell-phone tweeting, but she couldn't make the contest this year. 

The 2010 Nathan's Famous shirts are pretty cute this year.  Supposedly you can buy them at Old Navy but I went to the one in Concord Mills after the contest & no such thing was to be found.  In other news, all 3 Hungry Sisters will be flying out to New York City on July 2nd and are super-excited about being in Coney Island once again on July 4th!!!

--Sadie