The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current, December 05, 2018, Image 12

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The times., December 05, 2018, Image 12

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Newspaper Page TextNick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com She (Times gainesvilletimes.com Wednesday, Decembers, 2018 Try this ‘fun to drink’ treat Danny’s Donuts serves bubble tea for curious customers BY LAYNE SALIBA lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com If you know about it, then you already have your favorite spot. You may drive to Atlanta or you may head to Athens, but if you’re in Gainesville there’s one place that has your fix for bubble tea. Also known as boba tea, bubble tea is the sweet, milk- and-tea drink with gummy, chewy pearls of tapioca — or boba, which is where the name comes from — filling the bot tom. It’s usually served in a cup or glass with an oversized straw, so you can suck up the tapioca pearls with sips of the beverage. If you’ve never tasted it or heard about it, you’ve at least seen it on Instagram, maybe through a photo of someone at Danny’s Donuts. That’s where you can try it out in Gainesville and Theresa Vin, an employee at the doughnut shop, said Danny’s has some of the best around. “I drink it all the time,” Vin said. “I really do. I love it.” Boba tea comes in many flavors. At Danny’s, you can get traditional fruit flavors, which tend to be the most popular: Strawberry, mango or honeydew. Then there’s another popu lar option: Taro. It’s a root veg etable that has a more savory or earthy flavor, while still having a hint of sweetness with the boba at the bottom. “It tastes good,” Vin said. “It’s kind of like a smoothie, but a different type of smoothie.” Danny’s also has coconut and green tea flavors. If you’re into the sweeter side of things, they can make java chip, espresso, mocha, coffee, vanilla or caramel. Traditionally, boba tea is made with actual tea and milk. But at Danny’s, they use a pow dered mix to add the flavor for simplicity’s sake. They mix that powder with milk and ice, blend it, then pour it over the tapioca pearls and top it with whipped cream. “Everybody makes theirs a little different,” Vin said. The traditional way to make the Taiwanese drink is to use black, green or sometimes oolong tea. That tea is then mixed with milk and flavor ing in the form of syrup or honey, poured over the boba and served cold. Sometimes, a cocktail shaker is used to mix the drink, creating a beverage more liquid than smoothie. Vin said she doesn’t like most other places that make bubble tea. “I think we have one of the best,” Vin said. “It’s a fun thing to drink ... The flavor, ours is sweet and other places aren’t as sweet.” Photos by AUSTIN STEELE I The Times Danny’s Donuts offers a variety of bubble tea flavors including taro, shown here, along with other traditional fruit flavors. Andy Nuon, owner at Dan ny’s Donuts, said he saw there were no family-owned dough nut shops in the area, so he opened up his first location on Main Street in Gainesville. He also saw there was no one sell ing boba tea either, so with its popularity rising, he decided to add it to his menu when the Gainesville store opened. Since then, he’s added two more shops. Another in Gainesville along with one to open in Oakwood. And with each new shop comes more boba tea for customers to try. “There’s no boba tea around here,” Nuon said. “Also, it’s something new. Because a lot of customers, they’ve never had boba tea before, but when they try it, they like it.” Theresa Vin, an employee at Danny’s Donuts, prepares bubble tea, also known as boba tea, a sweet, milk-and-tea drink with texture-rich pearls of tapioca pearls the bottom. AUSTIN STEELE I The Times Beer Me is a newly opened craft beer store in Flowery Branch. Local growler plans weekend pizza pop-up Wet weather likely to postpone popular event BY NICK BOWMAN nbowman@gainesvilletimes.com Still holding out hope for an upscale pizza place in Flowery Branch? Weather depending, you might get a bit of good news this weekend. Word spread in the past 18 months about plans for a new restaurant in the works by Antebel lum owner and chef Nicholas St. Clair in Flow ery Branch — a Flowery Branch pizza shop named Peyton’s Pie based on the St. Clair’s for mer pizza shop in Suwanee, which closed in June 2017. But the project was not to be in South Hall this year. The St. Clair family announced in May that they wouldn’t be pursuing the project for the time-being. “We’re just kind of pulling back,” St. Clair told The Times in May. “I just had a newborn, so we’ve got three babies ... and keeping up Antebellum takes a lot of time and dedication.” Still, the idea hasn’t faded away in South Hall. St. Clair is planning a pop-up pizza bake this Sun day at Beer Me, the brand-new growler bar across the street from Antebellum in Flowery Branch, beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday. But — and this is a big, big but — the wood-fired pizza oven has to be placed outside, making the event entirely weather-dependent. So far It’s not looking good this weekend. Keep an eye on the event page online to see how things shake out on Sunday, but Antebellum own ers said the pie night is likely to rescheduled to January. Even though the event is likely to be postponed, it’s revealed a real desire in Flowery Branch for downtown events. “The response has been kind of overwhelming,” said Marc Stampfli, a co-owner of Beer Me, about the pop-up event. “It’s been a lot — 83 people going and a few hundred who are interested in it.” The event has already attracted a large amount of attention online — all of it tied to pent-up demand not only for the upscale pizza shop, but for a place to kill some time and hang out in down town Flowery Branch. “Just for the month that we’ve been open, we’ve definitely notice that people in the area have been kind of craving something really local for them to come hang out,” Stampfli said. “We’ve met quite a few people who live in the downtown area or within a few miles, and there hasn’t been, for lack of a better word, a night-life hangout spot really ever in downtown Flowery Branch.” And that shows in the record. In the past year, Flowery Branch voters have approved early alcohol sales at restaurants on Sunday via the brunch bill, the city council has approved a Gainesville-style downtown dining district, and now the city is considering a multi use project (including downtown apartments) in the city’s core. Oregon fields produce some of country’s best Pinots Where do the finest, most expen sive pinot noir wines originate? If you said “Burgundy,” move to the head of the class. If, however, you declared “Oregon,” consider yourself very close. Two regions in California — the Russian River Val ley and the Carneros — offer some fine examples of pinot noir. But Ore gon holds the title of Numero Uno. I was reminded how good Ore gon’s pinot noirs really are when I recently sampled a trio of single vineyard Pinots — along with a champion chardonnay — from the prestigious Willamette Valley in Oregon. These were wines from Left Coast Estate, and they made quite an impression. Red Burgundies are made from the temperamental pinot noir grape, just as white Burgundies come from the easier to handle, but no less stunning, chardonnay grape. Reds, especially those from the incomparable Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, rarely are seen out side of upscale restaurants, high-end metropolitan wine shops and in the vaults of uber-wealthy collectors. Just to give you an idea of the values placed on these benchmark wines, the 2005 Romanee-Conti currently sells for up to $20,000 per bottle. Not a wine to uncork with a plateful of Johnny’s Barbecue. They are so bloody expensive because (1) they are truly wondrous, and (2) there’s not much of a supply. Oregon, however, is blessed with climate and geological conditions that produce some of this country’s finest Pinots. Are they as wonderful as the DRC Burgundies? Maybe not. But (1) Oregon’s wines are across- the-board enchanting, (2) there is an abundant supply and (3) the prices are far more sensible. The Left Coast Pinots I’m lead ing up to each cost less than $50. Left Coast Estate is a medium sized estate that focuses on the area’s terroir, or taste of place. It is sustainably farmed, with those practices certified by an indepen dent, third-party organization. The estate’s land also is home to ancient oak trees, some up to 450 years old. USA Today voted Left Coast as Oregon’s Top Tasting Room of 2017. All the reds are 100 percent pinot noir from the Willamette Val ley; the white is 100 percent char donnay, from the same valley. In reviewing wines I taste them by themselves and also with appro priate food. But since good Pinots are a taste-aroma sensation unto themselves, I examined these solo. Left Coast Estate Cali’s Cuvee Estate pinot noir 2016 The back label tells us this wine was “Named for our left-handed daughter.” The fruit is grown in ancient sandstone soils amid prehistoric fossils. Typical fla vors of black raspberry and dark chocolate are subtle but there. I detected a hint of cinnamon in the nose — but my nose is weird. Tan- RANDALL MURRAY murrwine@aol.com nins are soft, and the finish is long and deeply appreciated. In terms of value wines, this one is great. Price: About $26. Left Coast Estate Right Bank Estate pinot noir 2015 The Right Bank Vineyard is at the winery’s highest elevation. As a result the wine is slightly more com plex than the Cali’s. This one has big shoulders, and is heartier than the Cali’s. Close your eyes and take a deep sniff. You’ll think you have a glass full of dark cherries mixed with soft-smelling earth. Broader tannins reveal this wine will age well for several years. It’s rich, mellow and quite satisfying. Price: About $48. Left Coast Estate Truffle Hill Estate pinot noir 2015 This is the big boy of the bunch. Truffle Hill is viewed as the finest growing area on the estate because of its sun and wind exposure and rich soils. I wish I could say I dis covered a truffle nose, but sadly I did not. There are truffles in this vineyard, however. What I did dis cover was a pinot noir that knocked me over with its quality. There is that Burgundian sense of soil, with rich yet restrained fruitiness. Wine writers like to slather all manner of adjectives on wines they admire. I just say: Man, this is one superb Pinot. Price: About $48. Left Coast Estate Truffle Hill Estate chardonnay 2017 Don’t drink this one for a year — at least. I did, and I hope I get the chance to try the same vin tage in 2020, good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise. Chardon nay is back on the top of the list of America’s favorite wines. And this one is an object lesson in why that is so. Still did not smell truffles, but the aroma of crisp apples with an undertone of pears makes this a lus cious sipping wine. It’s barrel-fer mented so expect the oaky-vanilla nose. Price: About $28. Good news: These are excellent wines, and benefit from some aging. Bad news: Although all are distrib uted in the Peach State, they may be difficult to find. Ask your wine shop to get some for you. You’ll be a happy sipper. Randall Murray is a Gainesville- area resident. Have a question about wine? He can be contacted at murrwine@aol.com. His column appears on the first Wednesday of the month and on www. gainesvilletimes.com. WINE OF THE MONTH VIETTINEBBI0L0 PERBACC0 2015 The wine: Rich, full-bodied dry red table wine. The grapes: 100% Nebbiolo. The source: Langhe district, Piedmont Region of Italy. The verdict: Just about everybody knows about Tuscany. But there’s another premier wine region in Italy: It’s the Piedmont (or Piemonte) and it makes a truckload of good, very good and “Holy cow, that’s terrific” wines. This is a “Holy Cow” red. This brawny offering comes from the heralded vineyards of Vietti, a family- owned producer with a stellar reputation. And this Nebbiolo does nothing to diminish that rep. From the 2015 vintage the Perbacco is young and vigorous, with mild tannins and spicy flavors. I promise it will be much better in five years. Suspecting you won’t wait, allow me to advise you to pair this wine with hearty fare, such as burly soups and stews, red meat and sharp cheeses. Your taste buds will be grateful. The price: About $28.