In 1786 Robert Burns wrote a poem entitled Address to a Haggis. This poem is far from simple. It goes to great lengths to share the simple joys and love for something complex and life enriching yet completely misunderstood, the simple haggis. Haggis quite simply is sheep's stomach stuffed with meat and barley. It is a dish that transcends time and culture, something we know and love about beer as well. Simple yet complex foods go hand in hand with simple yet complex drinks.
On December 1st
Arcadia Brewing Company celebrated its 16th anniversary with their annual holiday and anniversary party. The party went from 9 in the morning till midnight, so quite the day of feasting and festing. This is one of the few times the tap room includes breakfast on their menu. This year was a feast of eggs, sausage, house made hash and toast served along side a halfpint of their 16th anniversary ale. The 16 is a
smoked wheat at 5.4%, fitting in perfectly with their usual house made BBQ. The day was filled out with breakfast, special menus for lunch and dinner and special tappings of
Shipwreck Porter and
Cereal Killer. Add in music from Belfast Gin, Fonn Mor, and Kalamazoo Pipe band and the party was moving.
Sitting in for the morning session, you tend to miss a bit of the comings and goings later in the day. But it is in the morning’s less hectic times that you find what a taproom like the one at Arcadia can really be. You see Arcadia's taproom is a pub instead of a bar. A pub is where people’s lives happen, it is something more than just a place to go and drink. While we spentour morning in the taproom we were surrounded by families stopping in to their favorite pub for breakfast and early lunches.
Of course later in the day the tap room would be something a bit different. This is still part of life. There is a time for quiet reflection, and then a time to throw back a few with friends and family. This brings us back to the haggis. It has become a tradition for this fest day for Tim Suprise toaddress the haggis. This is something more than just a simple time to elevate a simple food but atime to celebrate the lives that are a part of the pub.
