The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Lunchtime links

We've just completed Sprint 50 at my day job, which included upgrading our codebase to .NET 6 and adding a much-desired feature to our administration tools. Plus, we wrote code to analyze 500,000 emails from a public dataset for stress testing one of our product's features. Not bad for a six-day sprint.

The sun is out, and while I don't hear a lot of birds singing, I do see a lot of squirrels gathering walnuts from the tree across the street. It's also an unseasonably warm 7°C at Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters, going up to 10°C today and 12°C by Thursday. So Cassie and I will head to the dog park in just a few minutes.

First, though, just a couple things of note:

And with that, Cassie has some running around to do.

Cultivate by Forbidden Root, Ravenswood

Welcome to stop #66 on the Brews and Choos project—and the final stop on the Union Pacific North Line!

Brewery: Cultivate by Forbidden Root, 4710 N. Ravenswood Ave.
Train line: Union Pacific North, Ravenswood
Time from Chicago: 19 minutes (Zone B)
Distance from station: across the street

Until July 2020, Band of Bohemia occupied the space directly across from the Ravenswood Metra station that Forbidden Root has taken over. Band of Bohemia became the world's first Michelin-starred brewpub in 2018, so its abrupt closing and subsequent bankruptcy saddened Chicago restaurant aficionados. Since then, Moody Tongue has become the world's second Michelin-starred brewpub, earning not one but two stars in 2020.

Cultivate by Forbidden Root seems to want to follow in their footsteps. I snuck in after getting off the train from Kenosha on Saturday and got to see the new space on its opening night.

I only experienced one minor opening-night oddity, when the hostess said yes, I could take the open seat at the bar, and she hoped I would come back soon. I couldn't tell if she were suggesting I come back another night or not, but they served me beer and house-made potato chips, so I guess the latter.

Since I had spent the afternoon on a Brews and Choos Project excursion, I really a couple of tastes. I tried the Footwear Connoiseur, which I found well-made and well-balanced with a long finish, but I can't really say much else about it. The Abstract Concepts had lots of orange and grapefruit flavors; my notes say "not a lot of depth but the surface is great." The Back to the Golden Ale tasted a bit more syrupy than I prefer, but was still not a bad beer.

I will try more of their beers in future.

I get what they're trying to do, and I hope they succeed at it. Looking at the menu, though, after reading each description I found myself saying "but why?" But of course, because they want a Michelin star (or at least a Bib Gourmand placard).

Like I said, I'll revisit them soon. This summer I'll even take Cassie to their 30-seat beer garden when it opens.

Beer garden? Yes, no reservations
Dogs OK? Outside
Televisions? No
Serves food? Yes, full menu
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes

Not the pub crawl anyone expected

A group of pub-goers in Yorkshire got trapped with an Oasis cover band after freak snowfall made the area impassible:

Dozens of people, mostly strangers, spent the weekend snowed in together at the remote pub after heavy snowfall blocked the exits.

The Tan Hill Inn, which calls itself the U.K.'s highest pub, was hosting the band Noasis when snowfall made leaving the area dangerous for staff, musicians and pub-goers.

So they stayed — and stayed and stayed — all weekend, waiting for the danger to pass.

The band was trapped at the pub as well, causing them to miss their next gig in Essex. "We're very sorry to announce that we are stranded in Yorkshire, snowed in at the venue after last night's gig at The Tan Hill Inn," the band wrote on Facebook.

I mean, I guess there are worse places to be trapped. At least they had food and beer.

Public Craft Brewing, Kenosha

Welcome to stop #65 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: Public Craft Brewing, 716 58th St., Kenosha, Wis.
Train line: Union Pacific North, Kenosha
Time from Chicago: 1 hour, 40 minutes (Zone K)
Distance from station: 800 m

As our music director sometimes says with a pained look on his face, "there were a lot of good things in there." So with Public Craft Brewing, which seemed entirely the opposite in many ways from Rustic Road just around the corner. The high ceilings and well-lit seating area felt a lot less intimate than Rustic Road, for starters, though I complement Public Craft on keeping the music low enough that no one had to shout.

I spoke to one server who said the space felt like a furniture store. And then I spoke to another server who said the space was a converted furniture store. They even kept some of the furniture, which looked quite comfy.

I sat at the bar, however, and had a 4-beer flight while chatting with the bartender and his partner. They do make good beers. The Reality Czech Pilsner (5.0%) had more hop flavor than I expected, but still kept the light, clean feel and finish of a good Pils. Strangely, I had no first impression at all of the Bits & Pieces Mosaic IPA (6.1%), but on second tasting I got plenty of hops (but not the hop porn I've come to hate) and a good fruity flavor balance. The Lakeshore Haze New England IPA (5.4%, 14 IBU) had good citrus as one would expect, and a surprising amount of malt flavors. Finally, the Chocolate Birthday Cake Imperial Stout (9.5%) lived up to its name. Wow, that one was a lot of flavor, and like Rustic Road's porter, a good dessert beer.

Beer garden? Sidewalk patio, seasonal
Dogs OK? Outside
Televisions? None
Serves food? Yes, specializing in tacos
Would hang out with a book? Maybe
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Maybe

Rustic Road Brewing, Kenosha

Welcome to stop #64 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: Rustic Road Brewing, 5706 6th Ave., Kenosha, Wis.
Train line: Union Pacific North, Kenosha
Time from Chicago: 1 hour, 40 minutes (Zone K)
Distance from station: 900 m

Kenosha, Wis., is the end of the line for the Metra Union Pacific North Line. It takes a while to get up there, longer than to any other Metra station. (The South Shore Line isn't a Metra railroad.) Plus, the weekday train schedules make a day trip nigh impossible Monday to Friday. So yesterday I left Cassie to her own devices and hauled on up to the Badger State.

I really liked Rustic Road. The brewery moved into its current downtown storefront in 2018, and seems to have gone out of its way to hire quirky and fun servers and bartenders.

I tried a $9 flight and a decent chicken Caesar salad. First, the Helles Belles Lager (5.1%, 18 IBU) had a not-too-syrupy, well-balanced malt profile and a clean finish, a good expression of the Helles style. The Haze Craze #10 New England IPA (6.1%, 35 IBU) had a slow build to real fruit flavors, some of which came from their experimental BRU-1 hops. The latest Haze Craze (#11, Triple New England IPA, 6.24%, 40 IBU) had tons more hop flavors than #10, and really exploded on the palate. I wound up getting a full pint of it with my salad, because after tasting the Highland Porter (9.1%, 32 IBU) and its huge coffee , vanilla, and chocolate flavors, I realized I had to save that one for dessert.

If I visit Kenosha again, I'll stop in.

Beer garden? Sidewalk patio, seasonal
Dogs OK? Outside
Televisions? Three, avoidable
Serves food? Yes, full menu
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes

Winter is coming...

...on Wednesday. And to remind us of this, yesterday didn't get above freezing at my house. It finally went above freezing at 3:04am, according to my thermometer. And at Chicago's official weather station at O'Hare, yesterday was the coldest day since February 21st.

Today won't get too much warmer. Still, in about 90 minutes, I'm taking the Brews & Choos Project out of Illinois for the first time. Kenosha, Wis., has two breweries within a couple of blocks of each other and the Union Pacific North Line's northern terminus. Cassie had a stomach issue on Thursday, which for reasons I won't explain but you can infer, turned out to be a hunk of one of her toys. So she will have a quiet day at home while I almost finish all the stops on the UP-N.

Overdue shifting of externalities in the UK

Fed up with manufacturers releasing Internet-connected products for the home with inadequate security that puts everyone in the world at risk, the UK has finally cracked down:

Default passwords for internet-connected devices will be banned, and firms which do not comply will face huge fines.

The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill lays out three new rules:

  • easy-to-guess default passwords preloaded on devices are banned. All products now need unique passwords that cannot be reset to factory default
  • customers must be told when they buy a device the minimum time it will receive vital security updates and patches. If a product doesn't get either, that must also be disclosed
  • security researchers will be given a public point of contact to point out flaws and bugs

The new regime will be overseen by a regulator, which will be appointed once the bill comes into force. It will have the power to fine companies up to £10m [$1.3m] or 4% of their global turnover, as well as up to £20,000 [$26,700] a day for ongoing contraventions.

About bloody time, I say. Yes, people should know better than to connect open Internet ports to their home networks, but most people in the world do not understand what any of that means. We don't make people mix their gasoline with air when driving anymore for the same reasons.

Stewie

The stew turned out fine, except I used just a touch too much chipotle powder:

I also made a lot. Including what I ate, I made about 4½ liters, including the one jar (front row, second from right) of just stew broth:

So, two notes to self:

  • Upping the herbs and spices worked fine, except for the chipotle powder. Keep that under a teaspoon next time.
  • Use less liquid. Remember that mushrooms are mostly water.

Still, it tasted great, and I get to have it six. More. Times.