Friday Night Recap: Indie Craft Parade and The Trappe Door

Indie Craft Parade's VIP gala was Friday night. A couple of my fellow indie craft fans and I got all dolled up and headed downtown for the festivities.

(I'd like to preface this post with this: I've run an arts festival.  It's freaking hard work. Hats off to the ladies at Indie Craft Parade for giving their time and efforts to put this together... but alas, I am a blogger, so here goes...)   They ran out of wine.  An hour into the event. It is my guess that it was the fault Community Tap who was providing beverages for the event, however, running out of wine at an art event is bad news.  Especially when it is a VIP Gala that people pay money to come to... not a lot of money... we're not talking black tie occasion here, but still... the equivalent of an art opening.  There was beer and water... coffee from Coffee and Crema and no wine by the time we arrived.  We are BIG wine drinkers.  We were also disappointed that the food vendors for the rest of the weekend including O-Cha and FiggyWhigs Cupcakes weren't going to be set up until Saturday.

Food was provided by Ribault St. Catering.  Pimento cheese with a cracker, pulled pork on veggies, chocolate moose dessert and other tasty bits, but tiny portions. The guy assembling food was making it as fast as it was disappearing. We decided to jet before the raffle drawing so we could actually eat something and partake of some tasty beverage on this beautiful Friday night.  

I was happy to see new work by my buddy Jimmie Lynn Dykes of Wingo Designs and I stopped in to say hi to Foundling (I wear a pair of earrings from this girl all the time) and Betty B (Christopher Park Gallery) who was also there making her rounds.   Parachute Clothing had some great Greenville T-shirts and it was good to see one of my old TRAM artists, Mike Merritt, selling his bird houses.   Sweeteeth chocolate company was sampling their peanut butter and chipotle chocolate bar and their new caramel sauce (YUM! I'll be featuring this company on the blog soon but head to Scratch or O-Cha to get your own).  Beautiful Briny Sea Salt, a small batch artisan salt company was also sampling.

I have to say that including food products at the festival was and A+ move!  After all, we all know food is art!  (Someone should have an artisan food fest!!!!) The overall experience felt sort of anticlimactic...but it was a nice group of artists and some nice stuff.

We decided on The Trappe Door for dinner, a new Belgian restaurant that has the town a'buzz.  After descending the steps into the dark little restaurant/bar below Barley's, we found a table (without reservations) and ordered some drinks. A nice fruity and crisp Alsace One and a Bacchus Sour Brown Ale.  Folks, the beer was magnifique.  What would that be in Belgian? Yum? It was honestly like taking a swig of beer and chasing it with wine.  I have been on a serious search for a beer for months  and found it in this Belgian brew.  (Greenville Beer Exchange carries the beer in case you want to give it a try.)

For appetizers were ordered Duck Spring Rolls with an orange sauce and Shrimp Croquette.  The Duck Spring Rolls were crunchy and had a nice ginger flavor, but we weren't excited about the orange sauce, and the presentation wasn't all that pretty.   The Shrimp Croquettes were deep fried chopped shrimp and gruyere cheese fritters with a warm tomato coulis.  When we cut into the thick fried outer shell, the creamy mixture of shrimp and cheese oozed out. It looked so good, but after one bite we were all reaching for the salt shaker.  The tomato coulis was just mediocre too.  Fancy bar food...nothing to write home about.

For my main course I had pork and cherry sausages made in house with dried cherries and served over leek mashed potatoes, smothered in sherry onion gravy with creamy brussel sprouts on the side. The sausages were super lean and fell apart when I cut into them.The gravy and potatoes were nicely seasoned and the shredded brussel sprouts were amazing...the high point of dinner, I think.  I have to figure out how to make these at home!

We also ordered the pork tenderloin (moist and rich) with mustard cream sauce, potato cake (soooo good) and green beans and the Wild Mushroom Penne Pasta (so-so).  We were stuffed and opted out of dessert but the Belgian waffles with fruit and whipped cream delivered to the table next to us were tempting.

If you're out with friends and just want a place to grab a beer and fill your belly, your on target headed to The Trappe Door, but if you are looking for an earth rocking swoon, you might want to stay at Street Level.

Thank you friends for letting me drag you along on my food adventures!