Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Weekend

Weekends. The time to relax, and what better way to relax than during a nice cool Virginia summer's evening.

Rustico, how I love thee. For those unfamiliar, Rustico is a wonderful restaurant in Alexandria Virginia that serves up a wonderful gourmet menu and one of the best and most extensive selections of beer in the greater Washington DC area. The place is wonderful. Hidden away at the edge of Alexandria, the place is out of this world. It's large, the seating is comfortable, though during the dinner rush it is quite busy. The best beer selection I could compare it to (from memory) is RFD's, which I have last been to over 2 years ago, so the comparison may not be apt anymore. 30 taps, some great finds in there. Bottle selection is very good, and quite a few of them can be viewed from the bar area. The real nice touch is the pre-created beer samplers.

This past Friday I went there with my buddy Seth. We were able to sit at the chef's counter and watch all the pizza be prepared. Cool. Surprisingly I only had one beer while there - Stone Levitation. Levitation pours a copper color with a small white head. Aroma is a nice amount of malts, sweet fruits, and hops. Flavor is a well balanced beer of malts and hops, but contains an unexpected hop kick, which I was not expecting considering that this is a "light" beer. One of the best session beers I've had this year.

I was able to crack into one of the beers made by my co-worker's husband - a wonderful winter brew that I would liken to Anchor's Our Christmas Ale. If they sold their beer commercially I would purchase it. All the time.

Saturday I cracked into a collaboration beer, Alesmith Mikkeller Stone Belgian Style Tripel Ale which I found to be nice, mellow and quite approachable. Not over-the-top like so many "special" beers out there - that try to include mass quantities of alcohol in them to push some kind of envelope.

My weekend rounded itself out with a trip to Nationals Park, to see the Cubbies decimate the Nationals. Since there were more Cubs fans there it probably felt like a "home" game for them.

I've spent a LOT of time on Hulu lately, watching a lot of shows I've been missing and catching quite a few interesting things I've missed over the years. It certainly doesn't have the same quantity of instant view films that Netflix delivers, but it's entirely free - and quite nice.

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