The Sweetlife Festival is a musical celebration presented by Sweetgreen (one of our favorite local salad spots) that will be held on Sunday, May 1st at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.
The festival has an amazing lineup consisting of The Strokes, Lupe Fiasco, Girl Talk, Cold War Kids, Crystal Castles, Ra Ra Riot, Theophilus London, Walk the Moon, US Royalty, and Modern Man.
There will be plenty of food at the festival including organic and local concessions provided by Sweetgreen, Applegate Farms, Honest Tea, Stonyfield Farm and Keany Produce.
We’re huge Ra Ra Riot fans and we can’t wait to check them out this weekend! We sat down with
Ra Ra Riot violinist Rebecca Zeller to discuss some of her thoughts on food and eating on the road.
Rebecca Zeller - Photo Credit: Josh Goleman
What do you typically eat when you’re on the road?
On the road we try to eat really well because it’s one of the few ways we can spoil ourselves while touring. When we’re in a bit of a pickle it’s usually pretty easy to find good Thai food. I’m not sure why but we’ve had the most luck in random smaller cities finding really good Thai. We’ve all had to become good at finding something satisfying in grim situations. I don’t like supporting WalMart but occasionally (maybe only once or twice a tour) that’s really the only option short of McDonalds or Waffle House. Even there I can get a box of Cinnamon Chex, vanilla soymilk, and bananas, and be really content for a meal or two.
What are some of the best meals you’ve had on tour?
Hmmm we’ve had some really great meals these past few tours (but I’ll stick to the US tours). It’s hard to remember all the great meals we’ve had but the boys were most recently raving about Longman and Eagle in Chicago… very impressive apparently.
You’re an NYC based band, what are some of your favorite NYC spots?
I have so many favorite NYC spots… Locanda Verde, Dokebi, Shopsins, Articoke (pizza), DiFara’s (pizza), Dressler, Pinche Taqueria, M Shanghai, Lil Frankies, Vanderbuilt, Bar Toto, Rosewood, Song, Stone Park Cafe, The Grocery, Char No. 4, JPan, The Farm on Adderley, Ghenet, and the Sticky Toffee Pudding at Sheep Station in Park Slope is unbelievable.
What do you eat before and after your shows?
Before the show I don’t like to eat too much, being full on stage isn’t too pleasant (and if you drink too much water it just makes you feel like you’re going to puke the whole time
) However, I pick at our rider which is full of cured meats, cheeses, fruit, veggies, avocado…. If I drink before a show it won’t be too much, but some sort of nice whiskey, bourbon, or champagne….usually whiskey.
There’s something really sexy about a girl drinking whiskey. Anyway, what are some of your favorite recipes? Do you like to cook?
Favorite Recipe….that’s a tough one. I love making a big brunch for a bunch of my friends. A really easy recipe is a rosemary caramelized onion goat cheese frittata, a recipe I adapted from a warm goat cheese dip I found. It’s not really hard but the flavors work really well together and it’s a big hit and easy to make.
There will be a lot of vegetarians at the Sweetlife Festival, any tips for eating vegetarian on the road?
Well, I’m not a vegetarian, but it seems like it’s not too hard to these days to stick to dietary restrictions while touring. It’s pretty easy to find a Whole Foods or local coop almost everywhere. Also, most places have some sort of vegetarian/vegetable options. I don’t think it’s particularly easy but definitely possible. I’ve heard vegans say it’s quite hard to eat well on the road, which I can’t/don’t even want to imagine.
Ra Ra Riot will be playing at the Sweetlife Festival this weekend at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Their set starts at 3:00. Don’t miss it!!! I highly recommend purchasing their new album The Orchard, it’s one of my favorites. Thanks again to Rebecca and Ra Ra Riot for supporting EatMore DrinkMore. Tickets can be purchased here for $55.
The DC Beer Renaissance
by Chuck on April 27, 2011
outlasted every other local brewery in the struggle against the rise of post-war rise of mega-breweries. In 1956, Christian Heaurich could no longer compete against the likes of Anheuser Busch and was forced to close their doors.
Thankfully in recent decades the nation’s taste has shifted away from the uniform blandness of the mega-brewed beerthat once put poor Olde Heurich out of business and has moved towards more flavorful and complex craft-like brewers such as Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada. This shift has led to the resurgence of the microbrewery which has been grabbing an increasing (albeit still very small) percentage of the beer market.
Three breweries are set to begin producing beer from within the District this summer. DC Brau, 3 Stars and Chocolate City will all be brewing with a focus on the local DMV market. You can already find DC Brau at select bars throughout the area. Last week I tried their ‘Public’ pale ale at Church Key. Public is a crisp, refreshing and hoppy brew made from American hops and is an excellent ambassador for the DC beer scene.
Chocolate City’s Big Chair IPA is scheduled to hit DC bars later this summer. Ben Matz of Chocolate City Beer is eager to fill the microbrew vacuum that has developed in the District over the past half century, “I’ve noticed that as more of my neighbors are interested in small-producer craft beers, they are more interested in the local economy, local and sustainably raised food, and generally there comes a head scratching moment where people look around and ask ‘why don’t we have a brewery?’.”
Bill Butcher of the recently opened Port City Brewing Company in Alexandria
is very excited about the potential of the DC beer market “We have a 30 barrel system and it is running at full capacity after only three months of operation. I tell everyone that a market the size of DC should have 5 or 6 breweries of our size, not just one.”
The process of bring beer back to DC has been difficult for the three upstart breweries. Because there has not been a brewery in DC since the Eisenhower administration, DC permit and zoning officials were not informed or prepared to support the opening of a commercial brewery. The brewers have had to educate DC officials about what a brewery is and what a brewery is not as they went through city processes. Ben Matz has had dozens of educational conversations similar to ‘There is no hood over our oven in the plans because a brewery does not have ovens.’
Microbrews in other states, like Port City, are allowed to hold tastings and sell their product on site. No such laws exist in the District, so DC Brau has been leading the effort to change local law with the introduction of The Brewery Manufacturer’s Tasting Permit Amendment Act of 2011 which will allow DC brewers to serve beer on site. Also because of DC’s zoning laws, Chocolate City and DC Brau had to set up shop in difficult to access Ward 5, which could impact the number of visitors they receive once the legislation is passed. In addition to all of the paperwork issues the brewers still faced the difficulties of finding good brewing equipment, sourcing quality ingredients, fine tuning their recipes, and actually brewing beer.
The future of the DC beer scene is very promising. The Brewers Association will hold the 2013 Craft Brewers Conference in DC. Bill Butcher sees it as an “opportunity for us to show the craft beer world that DC belongs on the list of great beer cities in the U.S.” Ben Mentz agrees “all in all, we as a city are taking a huge step forward, I can’t wait to begin building DC’s beer scene and raising her craft brewing flag.”
Keep an eye out for the next installment of DC Beer Renaissance where we profile Ben and Chocolate City’s journey into the world of professional brewing.
You can read more from Chuck over at That’s What She Fed
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