Here's the Gracie's / Earnest Drinks Newsletter, welcome if it's your first time. I try to make the newsletter fun so you read it because I am desperate for you to read it. Thanks for reading again if it's not your first time. (If you're not interested, there's an unsubscribe at the bottom and I'm sorry.) Today there's a picture right at the top of the newsletter to tell you about this excellent pop up we're doing on November 17 with Chef Amanda Lowery. 3 courses, 3 beer pairings for only $40. Comfort vibes with a little bit of sass. More on the other pop ups below, see the list here. Also, more on the Wine + Ice Cream Clubbelow. 3 curated wines + 3 pints of ice cream picked up monthly for $70. Also more on our Thanksgiving specials to make your special day specialer.
Let's talk bog spiders, which have nothing to do with ice cream.
It's official cranberry season, and as you must know, the cranberry is the Official Berry of the Commonwealth. (Unrelated, North Carolina can't decide and has both a state red berry and state blue berry. (You'll never guess the official blue berry of NC.)) Our state boasts 30% of global cranberry acreage, which is a lot and also a very nice and real fact. Cranberries are grown in bogs, but since bogs can't generally support a large person's weight, farmers harvest cranberries by flooding the bog and corralling the cranberries together like so many tart reddish sheep. And all this is needless preamble to get to what I really want to tell you about which is if you try to get a job at a cranberry bog you might get asked how you feel about spiders and that's a weird interview question and you might consider not telling the truth because what you want to do is farm cranberries like a cranberry farmer, but if you do have a problem with spiders and you don't say anything it's going to be another problem, a big one. You see, cranberry farms have been moving towards more organic farming methods which precludes the use of pesticides and so to keep the insect population down, the farmers encourage wolf spiders to live in the bogs. I'm sorry, I meant WOLF SPIDERS. And when they flood the bogs to harvest the cranberries, the WOLF SPIDERS, who are probably called WOLF SPIDERS because they look like little 8 legged wolves, don't ask me, I'm not an arachnobiologist, flee the deluge for higher ground, because while they can swim, they don't like it, and guess what the higher ground is, Joann, it's you. You're the higher ground. And so the cranberry farmers will ask you how you feel about spiders before hiring you because you might have dozens of swimming WOLF SPIDERS climbing out of the water up your legs and into your hair, but you've got to be chill with it because the WOLF SPIDERS are your fellow cranberry bog employees and everyone, even WOLF SPIDERS deserve a safe work environment. Wear a turtleneck or something. Maybe you're thinking, it's fine, WOLF SPIDERS don't bite, and if they do, they're not venomous, but they do bite and they are venomous, but maybe it all works out if you let them use you for higher ground. More bog spider info here. As always, there's a book recommendation if you make it to the bottom of the newsletter and you can pre-order and pay for Gracie's in Union or Earnest Drinks in Kendall Square. You can order delivery from both locations just by visiting those websites. Screaming bunny. Screaming frog. Screaming goats.
There’s still a few days to sign up for this month’s Wine + Ice Cream Club at Earnest Drinks. 3 curated bottles of wine + 3 pints of ice cream for $70. This month we have three wines perfect for the Thanksgiving table (or couch, or kitchen, maybe the park.) First, a Mexican white wine with a littttle bit of skin contact. It’s a woman-produced wine out of Baja California, which we love as women producers are severely underrepresented in the wine world, as is Mexican wine tbh. Next we have two “nouveau” red wines, which are the first wines of the 2021 harvest. These young, fresh wines aren’t meant for storing in your wine cellar (or, if you’re anything like me, the bottom of your closet.) They’re meant to be drank early and often, possibly while basting the turkey or blasting the potatoes. For ice cream this month, we have Orange Spice Cranberry Cookie, and Lemon Verbena and Fresh Mint Chip, both of which made with herbs from my garden. Harvest Series. Order by Saturday to secure your slot. Pick up is Saturday, November 20th from 12-2, but if you need us to hang on to it a few days it's no problem. You saying a shrimp fried this rice? There's a lot happening here. One time when I was very little, I went in the ball pit at Sesame Place and it was terrifying, much as I imagine this experience was. Definitely thought I was going to get swallowed whole.
Our first pop up with Chef Amanda Lowry is next Wednesday. Pints, Pretzels, and Pork Schnitzels coming up on Nomember 17. $40 for 3 courses and 3 beer pairings. Grab a ticket now. And then every two weeks for the rest of the winter Amanda will be popping up at Earnest Drinks featuring a variety of different menu themes. From casual 3 course casual fare menus to more formal menus like the Fest of Seven Fishes. Check out the full list here. So you know, Amanda was chef at Barbara Lynch's Butcher Shop for 3 years before the pandemic during which she opened Dovetail (where you can grab Gracie's pints) before moving on to open Punch Bowl in Brookline (where you can also grab Gracie's pints) with the Ziskin family. Her next adventure is at The Ford in Medford, opening early 2022. They should get Gracie's pints, I'm just saying. Please check out the full list of pop ups and buy your tickets if you're interested because they are limited. This is not a link, but a fun fact: English muffins are an American invention, and the majority of English muffins sold are sold by a Mexican company named Bimbo.
How about some Thanksgiving specials as like the fourth lead in this newsletter. Pathetic. Click this link and scroll down to see our Thanksgiving at home options can be ordered until the Friday before Thanksgiving and picked up Mon-Weds the following week. Peep the delicious vegetarian gravy and the out of this world herb butter. This cat hates potato salad. Bog spiders on top and now nightmare fuel diving caves.
I'm a Pie in the Sky seller for Community Servings again this year, maybe the 11th or 12th year and I've sold half my pie goal of 75. Community Servings is a wonderful local organization whose mission is to provide healthy and delicious meals to people who are too sick to cook for themselves or family. Each pie sold allows Community Servings to feed one of their clients for an entire week. If you need a dessert for Thanksgiving, consider buying one of these tasty pies. More on this next week. Earnest Drinks will also be a Pie in the Sky pick up location this year, but if you want to pick up in Union Square, we can arrange that. This is very satisfying.
Along with a new fall cocktail list, we've also got a trio of new Winter Hill Brewing Company beers at Earnest Drinks for you to drink with your lunch or dinner or ice cream. Really we've got plenty of fine beverages and you should come drink some of them because the winter is long and cold and we are warm and welcoming.
Earnest Drinks is a great option if you're planning a small vaxxed holiday celebration or if you need lunch brought to your office or looking for make your own sundae kits to give as gifts for clients or pre-made sundaes for your team at work. This is an area of the business we really need to improve, please help. Click this link to send an email for more information.
Is it time to party? We've got 26 different ice cream pies in Union Square. In Kendall, we'll make the pie to order if you give us a few hours notice.
You can see what pints or scoops we have available in Union Square if you want to. It's the time of the year where you should be clicking this link for ice cream pints to see what we've got and keep your freezer full. If you order in advance it's a real quick experience. We've still got some Frank's RedHot ice cream at both shops, order at Kendall Square or Union Square. Here is another song I like to listen to.
Your favorite ice cream store will write you a custom poem or haiku if that's what you want your favorite ice cream store to do.
Our dinner menu is available at Earnest Drinks Thursday-Sunday this week. You can make a dinner or lunch reservation at Earnest Drinks by emailing chris@graciesicecre.am.
I told you I was going to stop putting in pictures of the t-shirts. But I'm still going to flog them so get ready. Flamingo Out of Step T-Shirt: Union Square orKendall Square or Online and the Ice Cream Weather Tank Top: Union Squareor Kendall Square or Online.
And here's a link to a kids book I wrote a couple years ago. Or maybe you want online gift cards? Order here for Earnest Drinks in Kendall Square and Gracie's in Union Square. Did you know Gracie's is the #1 seller of pink plastic flamingos in Somerville (and top 5 in Cambridge)? If you're in a pinch for a flamingo, click one of these links and you can get a flamingo delivered. Union Square or Kendall Square.
Unrelated: Our hours
Gracie's in Union 2-9pm every day.
Earnest Drinks in Kendall 11-9 Monday-Friday, 12-8 on Saturday, 12-7 on Sunday.
Freezer update section: One of our freezers inadvertently got shut off earlier this week, which was almost a problem. You can see what ice cream we have in Union by clicking here.
Here is a list of stores you can get Gracie's Ice Cream pints besides either of our locations. Here's a helpful map if you're a visual person. Call ahead to the store to make sure the store isn't between deliveries.
Pemberton Market, Cambridge
Dave's Fresh Pasta, Davis Square
Formaggio, Huron Village AND Kendall Square
Broadway Marketplace, Harvard Square
Concord Market, Concord
Punch Bowl / Hilton Garden Inn, Brookline
Dovetail, Charlestown
Buckalew's, Melrose
Vidalia's Market, Beverly
Picnic and Pantry, Somerville, Bow Market
Bacco's Fine Foods, Boston
If you shop at a local specialty grocery store that's not on this list, it's very helpful to us if you mention Gracie's to them the next time you're there.
Thank you for reading, forward this to your friends so they can read it, too, and thank you for all your previous support. There are no exclamation points in the newsletter this week which is what we try to do regularly. Would you like a book recommendation? How about Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Ngyuen. This is beautiful writing about an immigrant family from Vietnam, and it fits in the same world as On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and A Particular Kind of Black Man, so if you liked those, you'll like this. It's good, you should read it. Buy it at Porter Square Books or Amazon.
Gracie's + Earnest Drinks team
Visit ordergracies.com or orderearnest.com and select delivery before check out. Getting stuff delivered to your house is fun.