Let's raise a glass to our very own neighborhood beer festival!

The man behind the new East Nashville Beer Festival is Matt Leff, an East Nashville resident who says he was inspired to create the new festival by both his love of beer and the challenge of putting together an event. “I enjoy all the components that make something like this a reality,” says Leff. “I truly feel that our community and the greater Nashville community can help create a unique and successful beer festival. I was inspired also put this together when I realized the only large scale beer fest in Nashville was the Music City Brew Festival. I personally feel our city can support more than one.”

Leff’s plans are on a pretty big scale for a first-time festival, which should give all our neighborhood beer aficionados something to look forward to all winter. There will be some 30 breweries represented, including a number of operations that don’t currently distribute here in Nashville. In addition to all the beer, there will also be home brewing sections with demonstrations and brewing education, live music, and food and craft vendors hailing from here in East Nashville as well as the rest of the city. And while you’re feeling good drinking all that excellent beer in one place, you can also feel good knowing that 50 percent of the festival’s proceeds will go to the Ride For Reading charity.

What's better than one local beer festival? TWO local beer festivals!

Right now the festival is still running the gauntlet of city approval so location and dates are subject to change, but the current plans call for it to be held at East Park on April 9, 2011, from 12pm-5pm. General admission tickets will be $35. There will also be $10 tickets available for designated drivers – Leff says he hopes to be able to offer DDs drink tickets that they can later redeem at local bars. Of course, having a beer festival in our own neighborhood means a lot of us will be able to forgo cars altogether, perhaps opting for the luxury of a taxi ride home at the end of the day.

The East Nashville Beer Festival has a number of confirmed and committed sponsors already in place, but there is still room for more. “Being a new festival, we are tailoring agreements for each sponsor, but we do have some basic guidelines and offers,” says Leff. “Basically it’s a tiered system. We understand the need to be flexible in this first year, so we look forward to working with anyone in the community who’s interested in coming on board.” With plans calling for somewhere in the region of 1,000 to 1,500 guests, local businesses really couldn’t ask for better exposure in the community. For more details on sponsorship options, send an email to sponsorship@eastnashvillebeerfest.com.

You can keep up with all the latest details on the upcoming East Nashville Beer Festival through the festival’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

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This isn’t really what I wanted to talk about. You see, the other EastNashvilleBlog.com food writers (J. Kirk and M. Lavigne) are lame-o types who left town during East Nashville’s Fourth of July debauchery. So now I (Bobby) must play the foodie role in describing my experience at the Third Annual Hot Chicken Festival at East Park.

First of all I’d like to say, as a spicy food junkie, how great it is that Nashville loves hot chicken so much that they put together a festival for it during my second favorite holiday. You spiceheads know who you are: you’re the guys at Thai Express who order the Royal Thai spicy, making the waiter laugh a little and say, “Yes sir.” Then, being a spice junkie, you grab the waiter’s arm, stare him straight in the eyes, and say “No…seriously. Tell the cook to make it how he would eat it.”

As a spicehead, I have to say that nothing I ate at this year’s Hot Chicken Festival was that strong. My cohorts and I arrived at twenty minutes after the festival began. Sure enough, the Prince’s line was quite long – longer than last year’s – snaking around the Otter’s and Chicken Shack (Murfreesboro) lines. This won’t come as much of a shock to the locals, since Prince’s is a Nashville institution. Our fair citizens have waited hours and hours to sample some of Prince’s dead-on spices ranging from mild to insane.

I held our spot in line while friends and loved ones went about sampling Dee’s Q sandwiches (Dee’s just might be the best BBQ in all of Nashville, no lie), New Orleans style snow-balls, fresh-squeezed lemonade, and samples of watermelon available for small donations. (Ten cents will get you watermelon, kids!) There was also the brilliant idea of providing free wet-naps and antacids. Whoever thought of this should be kissed. And let’s not forget the mist tent, where you can find free and cooling relief only to later realize you’ve washed your sunblock off. Also featured were live bands, and a spicy chicken cook-off where food was free for maybe two minutes. The cookoff contest was judged by local politicians, and one of those country stars that isn’t as good as all your other favorite country stars. I’d tell you who won, but I didn’t feel like paying attention. Congratulations to whoever that was!

Mr. Shamwell's favorite BBQ joint

An hour and forty minutes after arriving, I got my basket of delicious Prince’s Hot Chicken. When I originally placed my order they had run out of the “HOT” spice so I settled for medium, which wasn’t bad; it wasn’t the sweat-fest I was looking for, but you could tell the spice was there. For the average consumer I would say the medium spice was probably pretty kickin’. Prince’s flavors were on the money as usual, with the chicken cooked tenderly and perfectly beneath the crisp seasoned skin. Even if I didn’t get my kick, I got amazing flavor.

After Prince’s I immediately headed for the Bolton’s line. Bolton’s Chicken and Fish has a bit of a reputation in its own right. Similar flavoring and good heat cry out that Bolton’s is no slouch in the art of Hot Chicken. Unfortunately after twenty minutes of barely moving in the Bolton’s line, it was clear that the festival would likely be over before I got my second wind of chicken. This leads me to my only serious complaint about the Nashville Hot Chicken festival: it wasn’t long enough. A few hours more and I would’ve given every chicken establishment my money (except Otter’s). Thousands of people come out to show a lot of love to the Hot Chicken – we need time to spread our love around! Despite this, the Hot Chicken Festival is great family fun and becoming a wonderful Nashville tradition. Long may it reign!

Other restaurants and eateries featured at this year’s Hot Chicken Festival:

Eastside Fish: “The crunkest fish in town” lives up to its title with amazing soul-style food. Their fried fish will bring a country boy back home. Eastside’s hush puppies and sides don’t disappoint. The turnip greens have pig fat in them, and therefore taste great. My only problem is that they seem a wee bit overpriced. Otherwise it will definitely fill that soul food craving.

Fleur de Lis Flavor: Serving up a no-brainer by selling chocolate covered frozen bananas and snowballs; think sno-cone in a bowl. The more you sweat on yourself, the tastier it gets!

Dee’s Q: Is always out of sight! My personal favorite BBQ joint. Dee’s feeds you right with plenty of options. The pork is always tender and juicy, and they feature a wide variety of sauce flavors for your meats. If you get a side of okra with a family pack, they load up a whole styrofoam plate. I can never finish them no matter how hard I try.

Otter’s II: We have an Otter’s in East Nashville, but going there would require stepping in to that big, stupid building on the corner of Main and Spring. This I refuse to do.

Thanks for reading, and remember: the Fourth of July doesn’t stop until you run out of fireworks and beer!

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