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Dublin Dr Pepper Is Gone, But Not Forgotten

robbwalsh — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:00:51 +0000

Lori Dodd at the Dublin Dr Pepper plant

Yesterday was the last day to buy Dublin Dr Pepper at the plant. Anyone who tells you this was amicable resolution to the lawsuit filed by Dr Pepper/Snapple against the Dublin plant needs to watch the TV interview with the tearful owners as they shut the place down.

If you are wondering what all the fuss is about, check out this story in the Houston Press about the Dublin Dr Pepper tradition, here’s an excerpt:

The flavored syrup that all Dr Pepper bottlers use is manufactured in St. Louis. Local bottlers just add the carbonated water and the sweetener, which is why it was so easy for the Dublin plant to continue to use cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. The franchise agreement that bottlers have with Dr Pepper doesn’t require them to use any particular sweetener—but it does limit the area where they can deliver products.

And the product that the bootleggers want is a retro-looking eight-ounce bottle full of cane sugar-sweetened Dublin Dr Pepper. Though the bottles look old, they are actually new disposable bottles. I drank one while we walked around the factory. There was a wonderful mouth-filling quality about the sugar sweetness that had me smacking my lips.

The disposable eight-ounce bottles are popular, but true connoisseurs have their own bottles. Although Dr Pepper discontinued reusable bottles in 1990, the Dublin Dr Pepper plant still refills old Dr Pepper bottles for loyal customers.

I looked at cases upon cases of bottles going back to the 1960s and 1970s that were waiting to be washed. It’s amazing that so many people keep these old bottles in circulation. Manager Lori Dodd told me that there are collectors with bottles dating all the way back to the 1930s — those have to be hand-filled. The factory itself maintains an inventory of over 100,000 old reusable Dr Pepper bottles.

The Dr Pepper plant is so revered in Dublin that on Monday, June 9, in an annual rite of summer, a crew of workers will drive around the city limits taking down the signs that read “Dublin” and replacing them with signs that read “Dr Pepper, Texas.”

Well so much for that 120 year-old Texas tradition. Why the corporate headquarters of Dr Pepper/Snapple found it necessary to close down the oldest Dr Pepper bottler in Texas and a living museum of their own history is baffling to anyone who respects our food culture.

Long Point Creole

robbwalsh — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:06:21 +0000

Longpoint Creole is the title of a short talk I’ll be giving at the Houston Public Library tomorrow as part of Writing and C/Siting, a series of lectures and readings in the Houston Inside Out Symposium series.

I’ll encourage listeners to go try my favorite Thai restaurant and one of the most flamboyant interior Mexican restaurants in the city–located a few doors apart in the same shopping center on the east end of Long Point Road. The best bun bo Hue in the city is right across the street. I’ll also be talking about the Salvadorean, Korean, Polish, Czech, Chinese, Tex-Mex and French/Korean food found on Houston’s most international food street.

Writing & C/Siting Houston
Symposium: Houston Inside Out
Saturday, November 12 | 1 PM – 3:30 PM
Central Library | 4th Floor Program Place

Houston Inside Out explores “place” in Houston from the ground level perspective of artists, journalists, historians and writers who share their thoughts about the ways and especially “the wheres” through which the city is known to its residents. Symposium participants will focus their presentations on distinctive communities, neighborhoods, gathering places and unique locales in the city and surrounds.

Writing and C/Siting Houston is a collaborative project of the University of Houston Downtown Cultural Enrichment Center, the University of Houston Folklore Archive and the Houston Arts Alliance Folklife and Traditional Arts Program in cooperation with the Houston Public Library. Writing and C/Siting Houston is made possible in part with support from Humanities Texas and the Houston Arts Alliance.

Deli Man: Starring Ziggy Gruber

robbwalsh — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:47:33 +0000

Houston delicatessen owner Ziggy Gruber and his Post Oak restaurant, Kenny and Ziggy’s are starring in a movie. Erik Greenberg Anjou, a New York-based independent filmmaker, was in town last week with his production crew working on the documentary which is tentatively titled: Deli Man.

The director choose Ziggy Gruber as his star because of his outgoing personality and because he is may be the only third generation Jewish deli man who is still actively running a restaurant. The unlikely Texas location is part of the movie’s appeal. “The fact that the best New York Deli in the country is located in Houston blows people’s minds,” chuckles Ziggy Gruber.

According to the director, “Ziggy’s story, including his move from New York’s Lower East Side to Texas in an effort to continue the family business and tradition, is emblematic of the wider story of the Jewish delicatessen; its storied if not heart-stopping delicacies and its reflection of the migration and development of both Eastern European and American Jews.”

Erik Greenberg Anjou’s previous films cover subjects as varied as college football history and abstract expressionist painting, but his particular interest is in Jewish culture and its perpetuation. Two of his projects – A Cantor’s Tale (www.acantorstale.com) and The Klezmatics: On Holy Ground (www.klezdoc.com) – have found an enthusiastic home on the film festival circuit and on PBS affiliates.

The film is schedule for release in a about a year. We’ll keep you posted.

The Barefoot Heathen Anthem

robbwalsh — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:13:30 +0000

Be the first to spot the anachronism in Rodney’s Crowell’s Telephone Road video and win a Lone Star beer at El Real!

That's Quite a Cookie

robbwalsh — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:45:07 +0000

Yes, that’s a real cookie. The cover story of this week’s Houston Press (and Dallas Observer) is about the Texas Cottage Food Law. Some of the people who would benefit from the passage of what’s being called “The Bake Sale Bill” are talented home cookie designers like Callye Alavarado who have been banned by local health departments from selling their cookies–or even giving them away at bake sales! Hence the frosted sugar cookie art.

The pastry chef who designed the cookie on the cover was Nuance Stone at Frosted Bakery in Houston.

The Dallas Observer version of the story is titled: Bake Sale Bandits.

Fried Turkey Junkies

robbwalsh — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 15:43:08 +0000

Cajun Fried Turkey Getting the Injection

Why do I get such a kick out of shooting up the bird? Is the injection of garlic butter and spices really necessary? Or is it just a lot of voodoo?

If you are going to do the deed for the first time, check out this lengthy illustrated description of the entire process including plugs for brand name fryers and thermometers from the website Brian’s Belly where their inspiring motto is “Eat, Drink, and Be Heavy.”

Here, in short, is what you are going to need:

One 10-15 pound turkey
3 to 3.5 gallons of peanut oil
8-16 ounces of liquid seasoning (marinade)
Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
26 quart (at least) pot
Burner & propane tank
Oil thermometer
Meat thermometer
Turkey stand
Lengthy hook
Oven mitts, or the considerably more manly asbestos gloves

(Hey Brian, you forgot to list the big needle and syringe!)

Cowboy Troy at the Watermelon Festival

robbwalsh — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:19:06 +0000

Texas country hip-hop artist Cowboy Troy will be the headliner at the Hempstead Watermelon Festival on July 18th. Hempstead is the watermelon capital of Texas. The festival is timed to coincide with the peak of the watermelon season. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to be there.

Crazy 'bout a Mercury

robbwalsh — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:47:17 +0000

Ford announced it will discontinue the Mercury line of automobiles today. This doesn’t have much to do with food unless your parents took the family out for burgers in a Mercury station wagon. So humor me a minute while I say:
Goodbye Mercury. And Muchas Gracias Alan Jackson.