#brewpubs

[mapsoffun]

Something that surprised me about Reno was that there’s a pretty strong local beer culture there, with multiple breweries around the city. One of them was a block and a half over from our hotel in the Eldorado Casino and Resort: Brew Brothers. Still a functioning brewery as well as a restaurant/tap house, Brew Brothers makes some solid beers in a chill atmosphere that you will quickly forget is in a casino. The food is fine--the mac and cheese I had on my first visit was serviceable, and not a ridiculously-sized portion which I appreciated--but the real draw are the many brews on tap. 

Does it live up to its title of best brewpub in America? Having been to probably more than my fair share of them across the country, I’m going to say no--just because the food needs to be there too in order to be the best, but it’s definitely a fine, solid option if you’re in downtown Reno and need a good place to chill out and have some chips and a trio of salsa, guacamole, and queso. 

ETA I just figured out that they opened a Brew Brothers here in Baltimore two years ago to replace the space vacated by Guy Fieri's restaurant in the Horseshoe Casino down by M&T Bank Stadium, only instead of the Reno brews they feature mostly local beers from the area, including several they commissioned from local breweries. Goes to show you how often I usually go to the casino, but maybe I'll have to check it out this spring or summer.

[morethanthisblog]

Parmesan Truffle Fries Recipe Truffle oil and Parmesan cheese are the key components in these truffle fries that are simply heavenly and will quickly become your favorite!

[bugborglesbian]

Parmesan Truffle Fries Truffle oil and Parmesan cheese are the key components in these truffle fries that are simply heavenly and will quickly become your favorite!

[leverage-ot3]

I’ve talked about this before but imagine what it’s like for someone in a country/place where eliot is Top Most Wanted and then your tech guy finds a breakout star baseball player on their visual scanner that looks EXACTLY like spencer. but…there’s no way that’s him, right???

and then the next year it happens again but this time it’s some one hit wonder country singer kenneth crane that has like 78 tween-run fangirl blogs dedicated to him. you see a grainy video of him being chased by a horde of screaming teenage girls and ??? no way Eliot Last Thing You’ll Ever See Spencer is a country singer star just. signing pictures of his face right…?

a few months later your intern shows you footage of an eliot lookalike who is in san lorenzo talking about how there is dog fighting in the presidential palace and you just. sigh. because of course. a scant few days later the political geography of the country changes drastically and damien moreau is imprisoned. …interesting

and then a year of silence goes by. he still shows up as blips on the radar but he must have a good hacker working for him because his tracks on the internet are expertly erased.

every time you ask through interagency channels some random interpol guy talks in (condescending?) riddles at you and it also somehow feels like he’s threatening you

and then your friend who recently got into foreign hockey teams sends you a dropyourgloves video of someone called jacques the bear. you immediately get a headache (and watch some more videos because even you can admit this guy is a good hockey player)

and you know he’s a Bad Guy but it’s been admittedly a bit entertaining seeing what claim to fame he will come upon next. and his most recent actions over the few years make you wonder.

a few months later your phone pings because multiple heads of state evacuated from DC. the reason? eliot spencer was in town. you hear two days later a bioterrorist was taken down by… the report was redacted. your hacker tells you spencer and two teammates were behind the successful operation. which, huh.

not even a full year later it is released that spencer is dead and… you don’t know how to feel.

[gnar-slabdash]

Actually: Game Time! Every character gets one fuckword in the whole original series. Where do you put it? ex. i just put in a vote for nate to say “i fucked up” instead of “screwed up” during his performance in the Long Goodbye Job

[onyxbird]

Saw a mention of "Thief juice: it's a mouth crime" in the Leverage tag and it sparked a glorious thought:

Brewpub menu using con names

A fair number of them look like straight-forward descriptions, nothing notable except perhaps the unusual inclusion of "the" before all of them, e.g., The Cuban Sandwich, The Cherry Pie, and The Apple Pie (most customers don't understand why the apple pie crust vents/decorations sometimes resemble life preservers, but it certainly doesn't occur to them to connect it to the very literal name).

Things turn significantly more confusing for most patrons with other menu items. Customers familiar enough with con-artist lingo recognize some of the established con names enough to figure out the naming theme, and some of them can guess at associations between some of the food and their namesake cons, but for the most part it's a mystery.

"The Fiddle Game" is Eliot's chili, at Parker's insistence. Hardison was initially a little concerned, since the "fiddle" is supposed to be an overvalued item that is actually essentially worthless, and, Parker, maybe we shouldn't be applying that to any of Eliot's food? But after Eliot gruffly cut him off and tried to pretend he wasn't a little choked up about it, Hardison decided not to stand in the way of Parker insights. (And he supposed she had technically named the chili after the con, not the fiddle itself, and the con was solid. A classic.)

No one on staff quite understands the private joke between the owners and head chef about using horsemeat in "The Lost Heir" burger--they all know it's actually bison.

And, finally, one of the most baffling to their clientele is also one of Eliot's few suggestions of non-literal con names for food, and an ongoing good-natured argument between Eliot and Hardison: Splitting a sandwich between two people with sides of soup or salad is "The Vegas Wake-Up Call." (It's like the Cuban Sandwich, but "the boyfriend shows up").

(BTW, for anyone else needing to reference Leverage con names, @glen-reeder compiled a list.)

[coochiequeens]

When I say "Stop transing minors" I don't just mean medically transitioning, I also mean stop exposing kids to overly sexualized situations.

By Shay Woulahan April 24, 2024

A 14-year-old girl who identifies as a “drag king” and is being transitioned to a “boy” has reportedly been performing sexually suggestive shows at LGBT clubs and bars across Vancouver, Canada. The minor, who is disabled and autistic, goes by “he/him/they/it” pronouns and is taking testosterone under the permission of her mother.

The child, who was born female but identifies as a “boy,” uses the stage name “Nova Tropica” and has performed in at least three LGBT bars in Vancouver, all of which are adult venues that serve alcohol. Among the clubs Nova has danced at are The Fountainhead Pub, Steamworks brewpub, and The Junction.

According to Gays Against Groomers, during her performance at The Foundationhead Pub, a gay bar located on Davie Street, the child danced with only tape covering the front of her breasts.

The child as seen in an uncensored video posted to Instagram.

Nova maintains a YouTube channel where she often uploads footage of her performances.

In August of 2023, she shared a video of her dancing on stage in a bar to the song “Bubblegum B*tch” and is seen collecting dollar bills from audience members. In another video, Nova is seen dancing alone to the Britney Spears’ controversial song “If U Seek Amy,” which is intended to sound out the letters “F-U-C-K me.”

In some of the videos posted to her YouTube account, she is seen dancing to an adult crowd wearing only a cut-out bathing suit, an outfit she has also posed in for photos shared to her social media while wearing clear, stiletto “pleasers,” a form of platform high-heel most frequently associated with stripping, pole dancing, and the sex trade.

As well as posting footage of her performances to YouTube, Nova also maintains an Instagram page where she posts clips of herself dancing on stage while exclusively adult crowds cheer her on. In many of the videos, Nova is wearing revealing clothing and, during one performance, she even spreads her legs for the audience.

On her Instagram, which was made private shortly after her activities were first exposed by Gays Against Groomers, Nova also frequently posted about her mental health struggles, though continuously insisted her “neurodivergence” was unrelated to her desire to transition.

“The only way they could even correlate is through the way I view my gender,” Nova said in the caption of one post where she described herself as a “demon boy” and said she’s “everything Lucifer wants her to be.”

In another post, in which she wears a cut-out swimsuit she has performed in, Nova said she “loves” how testosterone is starting to affect her muscle definition.

Nova’s transition has been supported by her mother Chrysta. On her own Instagram page, Chrysta posted about how she had been struggling to access hormones for her daughter since she was just 11 years old.

In the post, Chrysta acknowledges that Nova is experiencing poor mental health, but attributes her condition to “being born in the wrong body.” She also condemns the Canadian political parties attempting to pass legislation which would protect children from medical transitioning.

“I will not allow any government to MURDER my child,” Chrysta said in one post. “Forcing a child to live in a body that is not authentic to their person is MURDER.”

The post was made in reference to the People’s Party of Canada, which developed a 7-point plan to protect women and children from the harmful effects of gender ideology, such as banning men from women’s spaces and sports and banning genital mutilation surgeries and cross-sex hormones for minors.

Not only has Chrysta facilitated Nova’s transition, but she also confesses to monitoring her social media, meaning she is aware of the inappropriate videos and photos being posted online of her minor daughter.

In one post, she addressed rumors that an adult Drag King had behaved inappropriately in messages with her young daughter, claiming the concerns were “false accusations.”

But her notice was not the only suggestion that Nova has been in contact with adult drag performers.

On Instagram, Nova spoke about attending a youth summer “drag camp” hosted by “Rose Butch” and “DeeDee LaCraze.”

DeeDee LaCraze also operates a YouTube channel called “Drag4Kids” where he has made multiple videos in full drag singing nursery rhymes. LaCraze hosts his youth drag camp along side Rose Butch, a trans identified female who calls herself a “non-binary drag thing.”

The summer camp, held in July 2023, was made available for children as young as 7.

There has been an uptick in the number of children performing drag, often in bars and clubs, in recent years. Last April, a video went viral showing a young “drag queen” dancing at a party sponsored by a gay hookup app.

Arguably one of the most well-known “drag kids” is Desmond Napoles, who goes by the name “Desmond is Amazing.” Desmond rose to fame at only 11 years old in 2017 after being featured on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Soon after, the child appeared in YouTube and Facebook streams alongside adult men, and was even filmed joking about snorting ketamine.

With the increase in “drag kids” has come further scrutiny of the sexual predators involved in the drag scene. In 2022, a “drag kid” mentor and a former elementary school teaching assistant faced child pornography charges following an investigation into exploitative material shared on the internet.

[werewolfsmile]

Hey Leverage fandom! What's the proper name for these tanks in the S5 brewpub??

Behind the bar of the pub, are they just called beer tanks?? We see the same kind of tanks against the back wall of the HQ room, so I'm assuming they're brewing tanks of some kind but I have no expertise in this area. Do they have a more official name than beer tanks?? Someone please tell me!!

[acommonloon]

Cheers @justbeneath-thesurface2 !

[coquelicoq]

just saw my friend who speaks french and told her about my list of favorite french words to pronounce and as soon as she asked for examples i forgot all of them except ensemencement. so i was like, okay get this: ensemencement. expecting her to be like, never heard of it. but she was like, ensemencement! and i said, it's an insanely fantastic word but it probably doesn't come up in the wild in conversation like at all frequently :( because how often is it necessary to talk about the act of sowing seeds if you're not a farmer? and she was like well it was necessary to me. i used it for sure. and that's when i remembered that she was in france specifically to get a science degree which involved reading agriculture textbooks in french so yeah. without even meaning to i found the one american who already has a relationship with the french word ensemencement. serendipity.

[hospody]

U Fleků, Praha

[restinthewest]

The most joyful and pure creature on the planet

[independent-fics]

Ahhh Parker’s little smile hello to Eliot after she drops in in “The (Very) Big Bird Job”.

[liverpublians]

The Roscoe Head!

Today I had the pleasure of stepping into this cosy traditional Liverpool pub on Roscoe Street, close to St. Luke's (bombed out church) and the Chinese arch. It was a fab visit to this quiet, yet talkative pub! No music, no TV, just chatter and good bevvies. They advertised this whiskey blend liqueur called Shanky's Whip, what's that you ask? A whiskey (made in Ireland) with vanilla & caramel! It was yummy! I also had a terrific citra session-Pale Ale from Scotland called Jarl. Good, really good beer! Refreshingly light, yet flavorful! If you are looking for that warm pub with unique beverages, pop on in!

[mattie24601]

Debating whether or not I think Hardison still buys the brewpub if he's not trying to keep Eliot around. Cause like in the fic I'm writing Eliot lives in Kentucky with Aimee but Parker and Hardison are still in Portland. I'm thinking that maybe he still buys it and whenever Eliot comes to visit he spends like a day updating the menu. And all the staff know his as this weird dude who shows up every couple months to teach them how to make new dishes and then disappears for another couple months.

[swamp-world]

like i think that we really really really need to actually gain the social literacy and compassion to understand that. not tipping your server isn’t praxis, but the fact that it’s expected that the customer pay the wage of the server also doesn’t mean that the customer (often also stiffed and a victim of wage theft) isn’t obligated to do so, and that while this is within our own economic system a great injustice and act of violence that needs to be rectified, it is in fact not the greatest injustice in the world and seeing people comparing getting screamed at for war crimes to not being tipped demonstrates a drastic lack of any sense of proportion. this is me speaking as both a service worker and someone engaged in organizing. let me be absolutely clear that I am not saying that not tipping your server is praxis. if you are able to tip i think that you should. i also think that “it’s the social contract in america to tip your server” needs to be read as “the structure has been built so that resisting it is tantamount to being a class traitor, and there are no winners in this situation”. i make less than 1k a month. tipping at 15% is straight up not viable all of the time if i want to pay rent. that’s not praxis, that’s me trying to keep a roof over my head, same as the service worker who i can’t always tip. so much analysis of this matter on social media tends to boil down to brute utilitarianism that causes further fragementation among the working class, and not for unjust reasons.

but just as not tipping my server isn’t praxis, tipping my server also isn’t praxis. not because it doesn’t help the individual (it does) but because it functionally validates the extant system in which the customer directly pays the wages. especially in the digital age: whereas cash tips are often considered nontaxable income, digital tips are administered as directly taxable income by the employer. when tips are paid out as wages i think it’s a little unfair to consider them to be “gratuities”.

again: not tipping isn’t praxis, but i wonder often about how many people who parrot this point are engaged in labour organizing or support in any way other than tipping. everyone deserves to be paid for their labour. but likewise, putting the onus on the working class customer to do so doesn’t actually help anyone except for the employer.

if you’re getting pissed at other working-class people for not tipping high numbers, especially impoverished and/or marginalized people, i hope that you are also engaged in literally any form at all, no matter how intense or dedicated, to any kind of action or organization that supports increasing minimum wage and shifting this responsibility from the customer to the employer (i.e. working class to owning class).