Food Dance

Food Dance Cafe, a Kalamazoo classic, is celebrating August as "Beer Month." That's all the excuse I need to give them a little plug and wax poetic about a terrific group of foodies that make eating in and around Kalamazoo a bountiful experience.

Food Dance is a restaurant that celebrates local ingredients. They can tell you about the farmer that raised your greens, poultry or beef. They've recently moved into a new space, only a few blocks from their original, but world's away in terms of space, concept and potential. Besides probably tripling their dining room space, they've elevated their bar & dinner game, something that has been blossoming nicely from their early roots of breakfast and lunch in the Haymarket building.

On top of all that, they've added a market! Now you can take Food Dance home with you. Imagine having the same expertise that runs a leading fine-dining restaurant contributing to the food in your fridge. I don't have to imagine it, I have experienced it. Gourmet olive oils, delicious cheeses, Michigan wine, Michigan BEER, it's all there in a quaint, efficient space.

I was finishing up hanging our art-show tonight (Art in Fermented Form) before tomorrow nights beer & cheese tasting. I didn't feel like cooking anything complicated, and didn't feel like carryout ~ the solution? Nieman's Ranch pulled pork, expertly slow cooked in Short's Pilsner, sold cold. Fresh asian slaw, Zingerman's onion rolls and an intriguing jar of bbq sauce from Benton Harbor, MI. (I'll be back with the name later). We also got a loaf of Journeyman Seedy-salt bread, but that was for our loaf a week-habit, not tonight's dinner.

Ok, I get home, drop the pork in a large skillet, pour a little New Holland Lucid in for flavorful steam and to keep it moist, and cover it. After it warmed up, I put just a little sauce in to mix it up. Next up, ~Bun, meet pork...topped with more sauce, covered with slaw...then the bun crown. That next to salad of mixed greens and fresh corn. Get down! That was a REALLY good pork sandwich in about 15 minutes.

I could go on about their dining room menu, beer list, wine list, service, management and local contributions, but tonight I was moved by what a nice meal was made on an impulse buy on the way out of their market.

Tomorrow, I'll be there hosting a guided beer and cheese tasting and our framed label-art will be hanging for a month. Do yourself a favor and check out their new place, you deserve it.

I'll be back sometime to share my recipe for grilled halloumi cheese from their cheese-case. Another awesome treat.

Cheers,

Fred