Girls’ Day at the Breweries

Yet another girls’ day is in the books. For May, I planned a relatively laid back day of shopping, brewery hopping and a quick gift exchange for Heidi’s birthday! What? We can definitely have girls’ day at the breweries, can’t we 🙂 I mean, our resident beer drinker, Heidi, IS more of a domestic beer gal, but…we’ll try anything once.

Initially, I was trying to find someplace nearby that served those extreme Bloody Mary’s! You know, those crazy looking things with an entire meal on a skewer? I wasn’t having any luck, so I had to change course pretty quick. Still on the lookout for an extreme Bloody Mary somewhere nearby! There’s plenty a few hours away and I’m sure we’ll get there at some point, but it would be nice to have one within an hour or so.

We began the day at Christine’s house where we started our morning off right with mimosas…errr…prossecosas (yes, making words up again) – Prosecco instead of Champaign! Don’t judge – we love mimosas. And Marys! And, well, cocktails and shots and wine, oh my!

You know what else we love? Beer! And there will be some of that later 🙂

Ohio Makers & Shakers Event

After our mimosas and a wee bit of conversation, the gals and I headed out to the event center at Cherry Valley Lodge for an Ohio Makers and Shakers shopping event that I’d found on Facebook. Do you guys do that? Find events on Facebook to attend? I use that feature all the time to find new and interesting things I’d otherwise not know about.

There wasn’t a ton of details listed, so we weren’t sure how many vendors were going to be there. The FB description claimed ‘dozens’ which could have meant anything from 24 to 72!

All we knew is that it was sponsored by The Window Guy & Co., Backwoods Fest and Ivory Barn, so we figured we’d give it a shot. And, the $2 admission seemed like quite the bargain – what else you getting for $2 bucks these days. Not a gallon of gas, let me tell ya! In my neck of the woods, it’s currently double that! Grrrr!!!

Anywho, the vendors were spaced out very nicely and you didn’t remotely feel like you were on top of one another while you were walking around. Of course, we got there early and it wasn’t very crowded at all.

I didn’t count, but my guess is there weren’t more than about 20 vendors there. It literally didn’t take us an hour to walk through. The other negative was there wasn’t a lot of product variety. For example, there were about 5 different vendors selling cups. They were all nice, certainly, but it would have been great to have a little more of a product mix. Of course, I did manage to find a few vendors to purchase from and one whose card I took for later.

Rock Woodworks – The gentleman from Rock Woodworks is a woodworker who creates stunning works of art such as cutting boards, serving boards and some home decor items. The magnificent craftsmanship is evident the moment you look and touch the products. These would make superb gift ideas and I’m keeping this in the back of my mind for the upcoming holidays. I LOVE being able to give one-of-a-kind gifts that CAN’T be bought at a big box store!

Mama Made Threads – About a year ago, the significant other impulsively bought a camper from a friend. Something straight outta the 70s. Seriously, the interior is currently covered in the orange and brown from that era. I feel like I should be wearing bell bottoms to even enter.

We’ve just starting working on the camper to get it ready to roll. It needs all sorts of stuff done – not just inside the camper. Under the hood, too! Of course, the interior is what I think about. I’ll leave the under the hood stuff to the beau 🙂

As I was roaming around the event, I spotted Mama Made Threads and all this adorable camping stuff. I walked away with a great t-shirt and cute towel for the camper. Of course, her stuff isn’t all about camping – that’s just what caught my eye. Be sure to give her a peek and see what you can find.

MS Aromatherapy – All four of us girls ended up purchasing wax melts that literally smelled aaah-may-zing! Heidi and I got Strawberry Guava, Christine got Fruity Loops (identical to the cereal, I tell ya) and Jules got Champagne Toast. Take a peek at what she has to offer – because everything smells fantastic!

Honestly, we all love supporting small business when we’re able. Do you guys support local?

According to the card I picked up when I walked in the door, there’s another event scheduled for December 3rd back out at the Event Center at Cherry Valley. Mark your calendars now for some shopping fun later on!

If you go, take a page out of our book and make a day of it by hitting some local breweries when the shopping day is done.

The Breweries

Trek

Trek was literally a few miles away from Cherry Valley, so we arrived there pretty early in the day. I think there were two other cars in the parking lot and, when we walked in, I think I saw one other table of folks having a few brews.

The gals and I took a seat in the bar area. Christine, Jules and I all ordered a Cream Ale, which would probably be considered the most similar to your average domestic beer. Think Budweiser, Coors and such. Heidi ordered a pale ale which had a few more sour notes than the ones we had.

She wasn’t a giant fan, but as she said, ‘There’s no wasting beer. I’ll drink it.” And so she did! Almost as good as the ‘there’s no crying in baseball’ line, no?

We were a tiny bit peckish so I ended up ordering a Tot appetizer, topped with cheese and bacon just to hold us over. It was a perfectly acceptable dish – nothing earth shattering, but it certainly filled the void in my tummy! We polished it off pretty quickly. We girls do know how to eat, after all 🙂

Stein Brewing Company

It took a little while for the GPS to get us here, not because it was far away, but there were a bunch of road closures and work going on in downtown Newark. We were confused, the GPS was confused, but eventually we made it. And I’m so very glad we did.

Stein is located in an older, industrial looking building that’s been repurposed! I LOVE it when that happens! We later learned they’ve only been open at this location for a few months, but they do have another spot in Mount Vernon that’s been around since 2017. I’m putting that one on our TO IT list, too 🙂

You know me, I had to indulge in some selfie love before heading inside.

We finally made our way in and the atmosphere was fabulous – lots of woods and metals – a very industrial feel. There was outdoor seating, as well, but we opted for the indoor experience.

The waitress popped over and explained the wall of beer we’d been eyeballing since the second we walked in the door! Yes, yes, you heard me…wall of beer.

Let me say it again! Louder this time!

WALL OF BEER!

I kid you not, there had to be over 30 taps lined up along a wall in the center of the restaurant. We were each handed a card to swipe for our brews. It was like your very own beer debit card! How frickin’ cool is that! Not a lush over here – I promise! I just like all things unique 🙂

The options were a full glass of any beer OR you could opt for a flight in order to sample different beers from the wall of beer (I love saying that). Basically, you just swiped your card and poured your brew.

OMG – it was kind of awesome if I’m being completely honest! I was a bit giddy! I love fun, interactive things 🙂

Heidi, Teeny and I all chose to go with the flight so we could get our hands on different beers. My absolute favorite was one called Orange Cream – it was literally like drinking an Orange Crush. Tasted nothing like beer! I ended up drinking my flight and going and getting a full glass of that delectable nectar.

I would go back to Stein just for that particular blend. Soooo good!

For lunch, Julie chose the meatloaf sandwich, Heidi and I split the buffalo chicken dip appetizer and nachos and Christine went for brussel sprouts and tenders. We were all pretty impressed with the food.

What was even better was that appetizers and the WALL OF BEER was 1/2 price. Happy Hour and all! My meal with a flight, glass of the Orange Dream, errr…Cream and the Buffalo Chicken Dip (I paid for one and Heidi took the other) was around $13 bucks. Really? If it wasn’t so far away, I’d make this a weekly stop!

I’m so sorry to say I don’t have too many decent pics from this point forward, because as I was snapping them, I proceeded to drop my phone directly into the buffalo chicken dip! Yes, yes, I did it!

Still SMH and rolling my eyes over here 3 days later!

I yanked it out quickly, but it was covered in that thick, gooey buffalo chicken dip. I rapidly began wiping everything off, but the dip had gotten everywhere. In every tiny little crevice of my poor phone! I tried snapping a few pics afterwards, but they were pretty blurry. Once we made it back to Christine’s place, I ended up having to immerse phone in rice, pop something out of the charging port and later that night, if FINALLY began charging and working correctly again.

I need a new phone anyway, so maybe I’ll put that on the list soon!

Overall, though, Stein was simply SUPERB and I think all of us would visit again if we were in the area. Or maybe even if we’re not! It’s that good 🙂

After our last ladie’s night out, it was good to have some great food this time around!

Dankhouse

After we left Stein, we popped by another one on our list, but we didn’t stay too long at all. It was starting to cool down pretty quickly and we weren’t really prepared for sitting outside.

Dankhouse was a really funky little place with artwork and graffiti all over the walls.

The best area was outside, where they had a large spot with a fire pit, cornhole games, lots of picnic tables and two food trucks that appeared to be permanent to the space.

Heidi and I had a quick little glass of beer before we all headed home. We didn’t hang out long, but this one could be a fun place to come hang out again when it’s warmer.

Although it was a pretty quiet and tame girls’ day, we had fun, enjoyed one aother’s company, made new memories and experienced new things. Isn’t that what life is all about?

Until next time, make plans with your friends and go experience all life has to offer. Remember that life is short and tomorrow isn’t promised!