We go to a "Bar" for the "Growlers"

Wine and Growlers, Project Survival’s Cat Haven, Dunlap, California
First, let me assure you the tiger was not given any alcohol. The lions also abstained. No cats partook of alcoholic beverages during Project Survival’s Wine and Growlers event, not even Annabelle, the domestic shorthair. What’s more, Cat Haven’s founder didn’t, either. He never does.

I have this inside information because Dale Anderson, my brother, is the founder, and we grew up in Sonoma County -- wine country. Our parents moved up from Southern California when Dale was a preschooler, and friends and family were always coming up to visit, and they always took wine tours (Dale says he could still give the Christian Brothers tour). Those winery tours bored the heck out of us, so as children, we vowed to each other we would not drink.

He just stayed more faithful to the vow than I did. 

During those years in Sonoma County, the dream that eventually became the Cat Haven began when a man brought a mountain lion for one of Dale’s junior high classes.At first, Dale just wanted a big cat of his own, but over the years, the dream grew. He founded Project Survival, an organization dedicated to preserving cats in the wild. As part of that mission, the Cat Haven has about 30 cats -- from cheetahs to leopards to jaguarundis and Pallas’ cat -- people can see so they’ll be encouraged to support wildlife conservation.

The admission fees help keep the facility running, but the mission of Project Survival is much bigger than that. Through events and donations, they support researchers in the wild and projects that help mitigate problems where the cats and people share territory. The organization has to be creative in their fundraising -- thus, Wine and Growlers.

The event was for people 21 and up, with local cheese and chocolate rounding out the offerings from local vineyards and breweries.  We’ve been to Project Survival’s Cat Haven countless times since it opened, but for this night only, we’re calling the Cat Haven our bar, since wines from Kings River Winery, Marechal Vineyards, and Riffelhof Vineyards and beers from House of Pendragon and Tactical Ops were all available for tasting. Riffelhof Vineyard even released a new wine, Feline Fierce Zinfandel, at the event.

For most folks, the main draw for the evening was the opportunity to take a sunset tour through the grounds; to hear Titan the lion roar, to wait for Dianna the white tiger dive into the spring-fed pond to chase her ball, or to see snow leopards Anna and Elsa. People came back from their tours talking excitedly about what they’d seen, and then they enjoyed their beverages while they sat in the picnic areas watching the sunset and listening to Boxcar Figaro, a local band.

After we helped a little with setting up for the event, we took the opportunity to ask the two questions we always ask, “What makes for a good bar?” and “Whether you go or not, what makes for a good church?”

We asked our friend Jennifer, a keeper and administrator at the Cat Haven, who’s also a very delightful person. She said a good bar needed “atmosphere,” and as I always do, I asked her to expand on that. “Friendly and inviting,” she said. “You can order a drink without pomp and circumstance. Just order a beer and have instant friends.”

When I asked what makes for a good church, she said, “I have a skewed view on that. My boyfriend’s grandfather was a fire and brimstone preacher. He said most people came to church just to judge one another. To feel good about yourself by tearing other people down. It’s hard to find a legitimate church where you love your neighbor as yourself.” She said the best church she had been to was a Hispanic church in South Dakota. They didn’t even speak the same language but were still so very friendly and welcoming.

I also asked Kalene, who was pouring samples for House of Pendragon, our questions. It turns out she was filling growlers the night we’d visited HoP, and she said that in her non-brewery hours, she works in a preschool. In a good bar, she said, “It’s all about the bartender. If they’re friendly and strike up a conversation. Some won’t give you any attention, Ugggh. They’re rude. It’s all about the service.”

And what about a good church? “It’s based on the pastor. If I don’t like the message, if it doesn’t speak to me, not relevant to me, I won’t stay.” She told me a bit about her church history. Her family went to a church that had a good children's program and youth ministry. She loved the high school ministry of the church, particularly her youth pastor. But when she graduated and moved on to “big church” she didn’t like the pastor, so she didn’t stick around. Since then, though, she’s been going to People’s Church where she really likes the pastor.

In the past, my brother's brought big cats to churches, but I haven't seen a big cat in a bar. So enjoy the pictures of big cats in this post now. You’re as likely to see them here again as you are to see Dale with a beer.

We Walk into a Pop Up

Garden Cocktails Pop Up at The Lime Lite, Fresno, California
Pop-ups are a thing these days. You don’t need a brick and mortar space to get a business started. You also don’t have to run your business strictly through the internet. There are pop ups with everything from pizza to pop tarts. When we heard about a pop up bar with garden cocktails, we knew we needed to go.

Garden Cocktails is the bar that “popped up” at The Lime Lite Restaurant and Lounge in Fresno. We were not strictly in The Lime Lite; we were in the tented patio area next to the restaurant, with tables and a bar that looked a lot like the bar inside, though we were not. (The patio bar faced the window behind the bar in the restaurant, so we were looking at the backs of the bottles behind the inside bar -- which was kind of cool.)

People were enjoying their dinners at the tables on the patio, kept warm by heaters overhead. At one end of the tented area, Luke Fisher, who owns Garden Cocktails, had set up tables. The front table was full of beautiful fruit, vegetables, and herbs. The back table was full of bottles. Gabi, Luke's fiancee, stood at a tall round table on one side, where she took orders.

We asked about drinks. Gabi handed us a paper menu, and we stepped back to consider our choices. Mindy decided to go with the Wild Toyon Berry Gin Fizz (berry infused gin, Cara Cara oranges and Mandarin juices, soda water and egg whites), and I ordered Sage Heaven (whiskey, raspberries, sage and ginger). Gabi charged Mindy’s card with one of those small square devices attached to her phone -- a recent addition to the business, which usually uses a larger tablet for financial transactions. (These devices for using credit cards have certainly made pop ups easier in an increasingly cash free world.)

When Luke had a breather from mixing drinks, we asked him what set his cocktails apart. “I grew the majority of what you see here. The rest is from farmer’s markets,” he told us. And not only local farmers markets; he goes where he needs to go for the best fruit, such as Santa Monica for mangoes and berries. He’s even willing to go to Costco if he can establish the provenance of the fruit, ensuring it is fresh and wholesome (turns out, Fresno Costcos often stock local fruit). It’s all part of what he called his “farm to cocktail program.” He said, “If you’re going to put stuff in your body, you want to know what’s there.”

Most places that make cocktails, according to Luke, have settled into “redundant combinations of sugar, citrus, and spirits.” He credits his search for cocktail innovations to Matthew Biancaniello, the author of Eat Your Drink: Culinary Cocktails. Luke worked with Biancaniello in Southern California, but eventually moved back to Fresno, where he was born and raised. His parents live in the area and have practiced sustainable living for many years. The 5,000 square foot family garden provides much of the produce for Luke’s venture.

Luke has been working on these cocktails for five years, but he’s been a bartender for twenty. He started branching out with pop up events a little over a year ago, but he says catering is currently his bread and butter, and he hopes to “move in a direction no one else is moving” with cocktails that have “a taste that will blow your lid.”

An unusual citrus fruit in the fruit bowl on the front table caught Mindy’s eye, and Luke offered it to her as a sample. (We forgot to write down the name of the fruit, but it was like a kumquat in that it could be eaten skin and all, though it was larger and shaped even more like a pear. It might be a mandarinquat) Like much of his citrus fruit and his herbs, he grew it. Luke even freezes and cuts his own ice, cutting it up with a butcher’s knife.

As Luke went back to preparing drinks for other patrons, I took the opportunity to ask Gabi our standard two questions, “What makes for a good bar?” and “What makes for a good church?”

Gabi said that a good bar has several elements: “A bartender knowing you name; a place you can go and be yourself, where there’s no pressure to be anyone other than yourself.”

She said she’d grown up in the Fresno area, attending charismatic churches but she got tired of certain aspects of the non-denominational church scene. She takes issue with the pressures of emotion driven worship that she described as “experiencing God through chord progressions.”

While attending college at a Christian university in Southern California, she went to what she described as a liturgical Baptist Church. A number of PhDs from her school taught, and much of the music was performed by classically trained musicians. Since returning to Fresno, she hasn’t been able to find any church like that. She’d like a more contemplative worship service, like some Episcopalians do, but different theology. She wishes she could find a worship service that was more introvert friendly, unlike your average charismatic or evangelical service.

Mindy found an opportunity to ask Luke our two questions. He said the bartender or staff “should have a servant’s heart. Growing up, you should have been the kid who shared your lunch.” He said the staff in a good bar will project an attitude of “they matter more than me.”A good bartender listens to people he serves, and he remembers what they talked about last time they were together, mastering how to attend to people.

A church, he said, should do “almost exactly the same thing” as a bar. Luke was born and raised in the church and attends a church in Fresno, but some practices in the church bother him. “I think we need to change our tradition of trying to woo the Spirit in the church.” Applying emotional pressure to people seems to him to be a “slap in the face to the Lord.” “Too many churches attack people’s morality instead of loving them. “God is just enough” to judge people, yet “we get caught up in the outcasting” instead of recognizing that “if you’re running with Him you want to do what makes Him happy. We should strive to be the light of the world but not carry the mantle of it.”

There are good and bad pop ups in this world. As a kid, I loved pop up books. As an adult, I hate pop up ads. Luke’s Garden Cocktails is a very, very good pop up.

We Walk into a Wine Bar

The Tasting Room, Fresno, California
Over the last couple of years, we’ve heard people speak passionately about their love or disdain for dive bars. This week, we visited a place that may be the aesthetic opposite of a dive bar: a wine tasting room.

Your mental picture of a dive bar is probably dark and perhaps a bit dirty, with people of questionable repute at the bar and around the dimly lit tables. “Tasting room” conjures images of elegance and refinement (and maybe reminds you of episodes of Frasier rather than Cheers). Dive bars suggest “come as you are;” a tasting room might seem a little snooty.

“Snooty” would be the word to describe a number of winery tasting rooms I’ve visited, but it’s not the adjective to describe The Tasting Room in Fresno. It is a clean, well lighted place, but it’s also casual. Several groups of people were seated at high or low tables around the room, and there was room for us at the bar. Quotes on the wall celebrated wine, some of the decorations were made with corks, and lots of bottles (mostly full) were on shelves around the room and behind the bar. There was also a TV playing the last minutes of an NBA game (Sacramento Kings vs Miami Heat), and as in any good bar, the bartender was quick to take our order.

Recently we’ve been to a number of breweries (and as we’ve often mentioned, we are not beer fans) where we usually try to decide which brew sounds least unappealing rather than hoping to find something we actually like) must decide which brew sounds the least unappealing rather than hoping something we like. But at The Tasting Room, Mindy was happy with her options, because she actually likes wine.

Even more exciting, it was fondue night! Cheese fondue was an option, but we’d eaten dinner. Instead, we ordered chocolate fondue with marshmallows, shortbread, apples, bananas, grapes, and strawberries for dipping. Mindy said we should have had red wine with it, but we’d already ordered white wines -- a Pinot Grigio for me (it was the cheapest option) and a Riesling for Mindy.

While the bartender, Melissa, asked questions about our project of bar blogging, Mike, the man at the bar next to Mindy, joined in the conversation. We told about our year of traveling and highlights from visits to both bars and churches. Mike and Melissa told us about The Tasting Room (and Mike told some stories about his recent visit to bars in Alabama and Atlanta).

We learned that The Tasting Room is around eight years old, but has had several different owners. Mike had been friends with previous owners of the bar. In fact, he had tasted every wines they served, and he even had a key to the place. He said that If he wanted a bottle when The Tasting Room was closed, he’d let himself in, find the bottle he wanted, and leave money on the counter. When those friends sold the bar, Mike quit coming.

“When they sold, it was like I lost a part of me.” But the other day, he came across one of his friends' old business cards while cleaning his desk and decided to visit again. The place had been an important part of his life and memories rushed through his mind when he came through the doors. In the course of our conversation, we asked the questions we always try to ask at bars: what makes a good bar and whether you go or not, what makes a good church.

“Wine is my passion. I love what it represents,” Mike said. “Look at us. We’re sharing this experience over wine. We can talk.” As for what makes for a good church, he said, “Probably the same thing you find here. You find people you can connect with. At a bar or church, it’s the same thing.”

We asked Melissa the same two questions. She wanted to know if she should answer for a wine bar or a normal bar. As it turned out, her answers worked for either. “It’s about who’s your customer base. You get nice people.” She added that when you’re working with people who enjoy wine. “It makes life easier.”

She’s been a bartender for a number of years, and she likes this place better than some of her previous experiences. She worked the opening shift at a downtown bar (at 6:00 am). “People would get out of jail in the morning and come in for a drink.”

I asked about church, and she said she hadn’t been to church for a long time. She last went when she was eighteen, eight years ago. She left because she didn’t like the strict rules based on she wasn’t sure what. “Churches need to be welcoming,” she said, in opposition to what she had experienced. She said she’s still looking now for a religion to believe in. She has a small son, but doesn’t want to force a faith on him. She said she’d let him decide what to believe when he grows up, though she may allow him to be baptized, since that's what her family will probably want.

Once again, we found what we’re looking for in a bar: a chance to talk with pleasant people. If this involves drinks we genuinely like, all the better. Plus chocolate? Who could ask for anything more?