Tap List | Boulevardia: A Guide To Eating & Drinking
Taps & Tastes is one of the food and drink experiences at Boulevardia. (Contributed | Boulevardia)
Published June 5th, 2018 at 6:00 AM
Boulevardia is about to take over the Stockyards District for a weekend. The fifth annual mashup of a music, food and beer festival, thrown by the Boulevard Brewing Company, is Friday, June 15, and Saturday, June 16.
“We want the food to compliment the beer and music, so it’s a three-headed monster of enjoyment,” said Chris Phelan, senior director with O’Neill Marketing & Event Management and a Boulevardia board member.
Before you attend, we’ve put together an eating and drinking to-do list.
Boulevardia Drinking Guide:
Are you headed to Boulevardia for the beer? I hope so. In the general festival universe, you can get Bou Lou, a wheat beer made with pineapple and coconut that is a collaboration with Tech N9ne. For the first time, you can get beer cocktails, like the Powell’s Cooler — a strawberry-lemon concoction featuring J. Rieger & Co. vodka and Boulevard’s KC Pils — and Amigoni wine. There’s also an official festival beer: Boulevard Sour Grisette, a collaboration brew with Second Shift and Mikkeller Baghaven.
The main beer draw is Taps & Tastes, a ticketed tasting on Saturday with 58 breweries and a host of local eateries. Danner is tasked with creating the beer lineup. He typically starts in October of the previous year and hopes to find breweries that are unavailable in Missouri or new to Boulevardia.
“It’s not enough to make great beer,” Danner said. “The brewers have to be awesome people. People want to interact with the people who make the beers, and I want them to have the opportunity to talk to the leaders of our industry.”
There will be a whole collection of wild ales. Whiner Beer, which is owned and operated by former Boulevard brewer Brian Taylor, will bring Ultraviolet, which the brewery describes as having “lots of berry and oak on the nose with a puckering sour finish.” Shelton Brothers will bring Mikkeller Baghaven’s Rubus of Rose, “a blended Danish wild ale fermented and aged in French oak foeders then aged on red raspberries.”
In the world of saisons, you can try Jester King Brewery’s Provenance Lemon Lime, a “fermented saison made with Texas limes and lemons,” and Side Project Brewing’s Abricot du Fermier, which has been aged in wine barrels with apricots. Danner also pointed to a stout, Blue Owl Brewing’s Professor Black, which the brewery describes as “a sumptuous sour cherry stout with a swanky finish.” It’s not the only cherry brew. Scratch Brewing Company will have a barrel-aged Black Cherry, brewed with wild cherry bark and aged in a red wine barrel.
“Scratch Brewing makes some really weird beers — beers made by walking or foraging,” Danner said. “They find ways other than hops [like Juniper branches] to provide balance and bitterness to their beers.”
Boulevardia Eating Guide:
You can treat Boulevardia like a progressive lunch or attend one of the more formal dining experiences (Father’s Day Brunch or a three-course Saturday beer dinner at Voltaire).
The food lineup for the festival is centered on food trucks. Mission Taco Truck, Magnolia’s on the Move (start with the red velvet waffles) and Urban Cafe’s food truck (three words: crispy pork belly) are new additions this year. A few restaurants in the West Bottoms will also have options for festival-goers. Rockstar Burgers will have burger bags to go, while the Golden Ox, which is slated to open this weekend, is planning on mini prime rib sandwiches.
In the Makers Market, you’ll also find Thou Mayest Coffee and the Seven Swans Creperie.
While Taps & Tastes has its share of rare beers, the ‘Tastes,” component shouldn’t be overlooked. Sailor Jacks (the seafood-centric, nautical-themed eatery in the former Foundry space), Andre’s (chocolate-covered almonds), and Lidia’s, will all be serving during the beer and food tasting event inside Boulevardia.
If you want to splurge, the Father’s Day Beer & BBQ Brunch ($65), from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 16, is a spread featuring Jack Stack Barbecue, Hana’s Donuts, and a bloody mary bar. There are also still tickets available for the three-course beer dinner ($85), featuring Boulevard and Dogfish Head (brewer Brian Selders will be on hand), at 5 p.m. Saturday at Voltaire.
Rare Pairs | Beer Dinners
Port Fonda (4141 Pennsylvania Ave.) has a four-course dinner ($45) with Evil Twin Brewing beers. Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. tonight (Tuesday, June 5).
EJ’s Urban Eatery (1414 W. Ninth St.) is hosting a beer dinner at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, featuring Free State Brewing Co.’s beer. The four-course dinner ($50) begins with ahi tuna, fried green tomatoes and Free State’s Copperhead Pale Ale. It ends with a strawberry rhubarb tart paired with 2015 Old Backus Barleywine.
Happy Gillis Cafe & Hangout (549 Gillis St.) has a six-course dinner ($75) with The Bruery from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 13.
Tap Notes
Colony Handcrafted Ales (312 Armour Road, North Kansas City, Missouri) released a pair of brews designed to be drunk together for its two year anniversary. The beer equivalent of an Arnold Palmer is a combination of Laura Palmer (an “iced tea ale” made with Hugo’s black tea) and Hey! Arnold (a sour brewed with lactose and lemonade).
Strange Days Brewing Co. (316 Oak St.) has its Japanese Black IPA, brewed with Szechuan peppercorns and ginger, back on tap.
Boulevard’s Linkin’ Up Hop Dust IPA, a collaboration with Zipline Brewing Co., is out in bottles and on taps this week.
Over at Boulevard’s Tours and Rec Center (2534 Madison Ave.), they’ve got a smoked bock; a whiskey-barrel aged coffee stout that uses Messenger Coffee, clocking in at 11.8% ABV and a Chocolate Chip Cookie Stout.
Free State Brewing Co.’s Owd Mac’s Imperial Stout will be released this weekend. (Contributed | Free State)
This Week
Tuesday, June 5
Rock & Run Brewery and Pub (110 E. Kansas St., Liberty, Missouri) begins distribution of three of its brews today. Fun Run IPA, Witish Invasion and Saminator are going out on kegs and should start showing up around town in the next several weeks.
Rock & Run is also hosting a five-course beer dinner on its patio beginning at 6 p.m. A grilled romaine salad with Maytag blue cheese and smoked bacon will be paired with Goldfinger Tart, and a grilled espresso hanger steak with chimichurri butter will be served with Fun Run Session IPA.
Wednesday, June 6
iTap (403 E. 18th St.) hosts a free trivia night, courtesy of Left Hand Brewing Company. Trivia starts at 7 p.m., and it’ll feature Left Hand’s Milk Stout Nitro, BlackCurrant (cream ale) Nitro, Peach Beerllini Radler and Juicy Goodness (a dry-hopped Golden Ale).
Thursday, June 7
Double Shift Brewing Company (412 E. 18th St.) drops Monster Tribe, a new IPA, which brewer Bryan Stewart described as a “West versus East Coast IPA at its core.” The IPA was brewed with El Dorado, Calista and Citra hops.
The fourth annual CRAFT KC, a mashup of local brewers and makers, is from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at The Mulberry Room (1321 W. 13th St.). Ticket sales benefit the Heart of America Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Check out beers from seven local breweries (including Servaes Brewing, which is in the works), alongside tea towels, apparel, soap and Beer Paws (dog biscuits made from spent grain).
Cinder Block Brewing Company’s (110 E. 18th Ave., North Kansas City, Missouri) Backyard BBQ Series kicks off with a Luau-themed edition from 5 to 9 p.m. Cinder Block will screen “Point Break” outdoors, hosting a luau contest, serving a Hawaiian buffet (Huli-Huli chicken, coconut rice) and a strawberry basil mead.
Friday, June 8
The eighth annual Wine & Brew Walk is from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Independence Square. Tickets, which include a souvenir wine glass, are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. Check-in is at the Exchange Event Space, 113 W. Lexington Ave., Independence, Missouri.
Saturday, June 9
Good things come to those who wait. And sometimes that means waiting three years. Free State Brewing Company releases its 2015 Owd Mac’s Imperial Stout from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at its East Lawrence production facility (1927 Moodie Road, Lawrence, Kansas). This is a big beer (12.5% ABV) that has been aged in Templeton Rye whiskey barrels for three years. Owd Mac’s will also be on tap, along with a 2015 barrel-aged Stingo and Lateral Roots 2017.
The eighth annual Westport Summer Beer Festival is from 5 to 9 p.m. The festival, presented by Sporting Kansas City (a few players will be in attendance), is in front of McCoy’s Public House (4057 Pennsylvania Ave.). There will be more than 80 beers from more than 30 breweries (Funkwerks, Brooklyn Brewing, COOP Ale Works), as well as a few local distilleries. Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door.
Double Shift Brewing Company will release Strawberry Field Trip in bottles and on tap. This is the second year that Double Shift brewed the strawberry kettle sour, which is made with lime and mint. Brewer Bryan Stewart noted that the beer has a “moderate sourness with effervescent qualities of mint and fresh lime zest and juice.”
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This article has been updated to reflect that Shelton Brothers is bringing Mikkeller Baghaven’s brews to Boulevardia.