Lost (and found) in Austin: FRANK.

Deep in the wilds of Austin, Texas (actually, the only thing wild about Austin is the night life....) Okay, I’ll start over.  Deep in the newly refurbished WAREHOUSE DISTRICT of Austin, a bustling node of coolness rife with new bars and restaurants, lies FRANK.

One could best describe FRANK as... well, a very cool bar, restaurant, and sausage emporium.  Yes, I said sausage emporium, and I wasn’t being ironic in any way.  The subtitle of the place is “Purveyors of Artisan Sausage”.  The designer sausages available on the menu here are many, tasty and varied including Jackalope and beer soaked Brats, and they are all complimented beautifully by a wonderful variety of local craft beverages, from wines, to a local vodka, to many craft beers, both local and from favorite popular craft brewers nationwide.   

There are wonderful happy hour deals, daily specials, and side dishes like beanie weenies and waffle fry nachos.  Mouth watering yet? And any place that has a huge dachshund mural on the wall can’t be all bad, can it?   

Learn much more about FRANK as well as the warehouse district of Austin here:

http://www.hotdogscoldbeer.com/

http://www.austintexas.org/

You can find it anywhere.

Place:  close to Newberry, Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Pickelman’s gas & truck stop & subway & eatery.  

These days, with all the miles we’re traveling, The Happy Hour Guys make a regular practice of scoping out beer coolers in local truck and gas stops.  Most of the time it’s a disappointing exercise, a macro-beer and wine mess featuring nothing local or interesting. 

But things seem to be changing.  

In a truck stop in the Eastern U.P., Jimmy wanders back toward the beer cooler and finds a veritable cornucopia of local and small craft brews on display and ready for purchase.  Great Lakes Brewing out of Cleveland, Arcadia from Maine of all places, Dogfish Head, and a new big favorite of ours, Founders Brewing out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.   In an earlier entry we found an incredible stock of New Glarus products at a small gas station in the middle of Nowhere Wisconsin.   

So what does this mean?  Truly, the craft beer movement in the US has reached a kind of critical mass if owners of small mom and pop gas and go places find it profitable to feature these kinds of brews.  There is a market for them, an audience!  

Have you seen great craft beer in unexpected places?  Email us and let us know!

Great craft/local beer:  IT’S NOT JUST FOR BEER GEEKS ANYMORE.  Woo Hoo!

Video #95: Boulder Beer; Ah, the Paddy-Oh!

One of the things The Happy Hour Guys are always striving to do is find the places you'll tell your friends about. The Boulder Beer company is one of those places - not only for the fantastic beers the produce, but also for the lively pub that is attached to the Brewery; and what's out back? Well, join us and see. Cheers!