Nick 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.
