New in the Woo THE WINE BABES - CANAL DISTRICT WINES

JENNIFER RUSSO

It all began with a matter of convenience – why drive to another town to grab more bottles of wine for parties or a glass of the good stuff while Netflix binging, when you could just open a wine shop right down the street? That is what wifewife team Olivia and Rachel (aka Livy and Rae) thought when they saw an opportunity to create a shop of their very own.

Wine beginners themselves, Livy and Rae wanted to offer a boutique style shop where people who love wine could come together and see rotating selections of some of the best, while being a part of the strong small business culture that we have come to know and love in Worcester. Known as the “wine babes”, the owners and extended staff tell Pulse that they, as a woman-owned-and-operated entity, are “reclaiming the term Babe and also having a little fun with it.”

The General Manager of the store, Brittany, is a seasoned wine expert, with a Level 3 certification from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, having taught multi-level wine classes weekly in Jamaica Plain, and was promoted to GM of Coda Bar and Kitchen in Boston. Livy and Rae consider themselves “baby-beginners” in the wine world but are learning fast working with Brittany and have the passion and business know-how to bring quality wines to the area.

The store sells a selection of 24 wines (8 red, 8 white, and 8 rose/sparkling), focusing on smaller producers with sustainable farming practices, women-winemakers, and people of color winemakers. You won’t find these wines in big retail stores, making this a unique shopping experience where you will get that bottle that stands out from the rest.

“The first thing we do is create an approachable, fun atmosphere where we hope people feel like they can be truly open and curious about wine, no matter their level of knowledge,” the Wine Babes tell us. “We tend to have a bottle open in the shop to pour samples – the guest can let us know if they like the sample or, if not, we can use that as a starting place to help guide them toward what they might like.”

When asked how they hope to make their mark on the scene, being a woman-owned business in a traditionally male-dominated field, their response was simple and to the point: “The same way women make their mark in every field…by being twice as good at everything we do.”

The Wine Babes work with Gilbert Distributors, a mother-daughter business, to curate and source their wines to offer a variety that is both diverse and reasonably priced.

Canal District Wines is a friendly and fun place where people can learn as much as they want to learn about wine. It is located in the bustling Worcester Public Market on Green Street, just across from Table Talk Pies and, in fact, they have paired one of their wines with each of their fellow market vendors for a truly immersive experience.

There will be new inventory in January and once the weather warms up again, they are looking forward to activating their sidewalk/storefront. Their formal tastings have also been a huge hit –and they can work with guests to offer custom, private tastings for your next get-together. Learn more about the shop, current wines, and their tastings at www.canaldistrictwines.com

Visit the shop at 160 Green St, Worcester.

HOT & NOW

What’s hot and happening now in the restaurant scene PAUL GIORGIO

NO SKIN OFF MY CHIN. Ken Chin’s on Worcester’s Mill Street has emptied its wok after 48 years in business. Prior to its Mill Street location, the restaurant was downtown on Pearl Street. This is a real loss to Worcester.

BROWN RICE OPENS. Brown Rice Thai Cuisine opened at the end of November on West Boylston Street in West Boylston.

IS ALTHEA’S ABOUT TO EXPAND? The Park Ave restaurant may be expanding after the owner purchased the space next door that was occupied for a long time by Neal Rosenblum Jewelry. It would give the restaurant an extra 5500 sq ft.

DUDLEY ROCKS. That’s the name of the new restaurant/club. It will offer early dining before turning into a club late in the night. It is just down the road from Webster’s Indian Ranch and will be owned by Jessica Valby

TINY WOULD BE PROUD. Quinn’s Blue Plate in Holden was set to open in December. It occupies the space that the Blue Plate, an iconic Holden landmark, occupied for generations. Tiny Stacy the former owner would be proud of how Tim Quinn has reimagined the local hotspot.

MORE DOUGH. Mochi Doh an Asian donut and ice cream place will be opening on Harding Street in Worcester’s Canal District. This follows as Worcester was named the number 1 place in the country for donut aficionados.

MORE CANAL NEWS. Jeff Mararian who owns the building that houses the Rock Bar, recently purchased the building that was home to Mambo and before that Blu. He says he has one restaurant going into half the space.

TATNUCK SQ JUST GOT SWEETER. The new home of Mrs. Moriconi’s ice cream is at 1116 Pleasant St. Owner Julia Moriconi said this location fell into her lap by chance. She is sharing the space with On the Rise Bakery.

THE WEX GOES ASIAN. The Wexford House, a Shrewsbury Street restaurant which closed in April 2020, has been sold to a family of Asian-cuisine restaurant owners. Son Vo, Tram Vo, Cynthia Tsang, and Hannah Vo purchased the Worcester restaurant. The four are siblings who own and manage four restaurants in Central Massachusetts. They also own Pho Sure in Shrewsbury, Kaizen Sushi Bar & Grill in Sturbridge, and Chashu Raman + Izakaya in Worcester.

IT’S NO BULL. The former Bull Mansion on Worcester’s Pearl Street is now home to Nuestra, which kicks off a soft opening in December. The restaurant will serve drinks and small dishes before building up to a full menu inspired by Puerto Rican culture in January.

CROSSING THE SAHARA. Word on the street is that Sahara Restaurant on Worcester’s Highland Street will be closing. The restaurant, which serves Middle eastern food, has been around for over 20 years.

GRAB A TEE TIME. X golf is expected to open at the end of the month at the Trolley yard Plaza on Worcester’s Grove Street. X Golf will feature 9 golf simulators, a full bar, and food menu.

DRINK GREAT BEER IN THE NEW YEAR

SHANNON JUTRAS

Hello Fellow Beer Lovers, We meet at an unusual time for beer enthusiasts. That time of year when we set good intentions for our health and our livers beg for rest. These are inauspicious days to start a beer-based relationship, I know. There are those who will encourage you to observe a dry January, but not me.

As a commercial brewer and all-around beer enthusiast, I instead urge you to invest in good, local beer this winter. Great beer. Award-winning beer. Beer like Funk Daddy, an 8% sour IPA from Greater Good Imperial Brew Company that was nationally recognized for its excellence in September.

One of 9,680 beers submitted to the 2021 Great American Beer Festival (GABF), Funk Daddy took home a silver medal in the American Sour Ale category. Without going too deep on all the nerdy details, I assure you this award is a very big deal. Each July, breweries around the world tenderly package their best beers, ciders, and meads and send them to Colorado to be evaluated by some of the world’s most qualified beer judges. This competition is a unique opportunity for breweries to get unbiased feedback about their products from experts.

When I spoke with Meredith McNamara, Greater Good’s Co-Director of Operations: Supply Chain, Analytics, and Brewing, I was curious: Did she foresee Funk Daddy’s acclaim?

“I honestly thought that Pulp Daddy [Greater Good’s flagship hazy IPA] would do very well. I thought maybe the sour category was a little too competitive. We all know Funk Daddy is fantastic, I just wasn’t sure about the judge’s palates.”

Although the Greater Good team was in Colorado for a separate event, the Craft Brewer’s Conference, they had no idea they could attend the GABF awards ceremony. Meredith was at a bar when her phone started blowing up with congratulatory texts from friends. She sent a message to the Greater Good crew with the big news: Funk Daddy had just won a silver. Much excitement and profanity ensued, and unbeknownst to her, two of her coworkers jumped in a cab and raced to the awards ceremony.

While she finished her beer and watched the rest of the livestreamed awards, her colleagues Pat Fahey and J.T. Ethier popped up on the screen, crossing the stage to accept the medal. She spit out her beer in surprise. “I was like, ‘What are you guys doing up there? How’d you get there?!” The team was fable to celebrate together at the Willamette Valley Hops VIP party, where they had the opportunity to mingle with some of the industry’s biggest names, including the owners of Rolling Rock.

In addition to being part of the production team, Meredith handles supply chain procurement for Greater Good, an often overlooked element of the beer production process. Like every other industry right now, beer is impacted by supply chain issues, and anticipating and avoiding shortages to key ingredients like hops and barley is critical to keeping consistent products on the shelves. In fact, in the days before their big win, she was in Oregon to take part in Willamette Valley Hops’ annual harvest. When I asked what she had gained from her experience of seeing such large scale hop production up close, I was struck by the broader relevance of her answer. “It’s really important for us to see how much is going into our beer… It’s not just the people who mill in and brew, and cellar and then pour your beer that get it into your pint glass; it’s hundreds of other people. It’s the people harvesting our raw materials, it’s the people who are crafting our cans, it’s truck drivers.”

This sentiment, dear drinkers, is why I invite you to dive even deeper into your appreciation of beer in the new year. Every can you crack or glass you clink is a collaborative triumph of hundreds of people in your community, around the country, and around the world, working together to fill your cup. If that’s not worth toasting to, I don’t know what is.

Happy New Year! Stay thirsty.

Funk Daddy Tasting Notes

Appearance: Hazy, pale golden hue with gentle lacing Aroma: Hay, mild funk Taste: BOLD lemon, citrus, pleasant tartness Overall Experience: This is a surprisingly sessionable sour. The IPA base offers complexity from the interplay of sour yeast and heavy hopping rates, while citrus lovers will rejoice at the assertive lemon character.

NEW YEAR SELF CARE

Self Care Sunday by MKoby Art

JENNY PACILLO

Let’s be real about New Year’s resolutions for a minute. I typically make mine during that dead week between Christmas and New Year’s after living it up over the holidays. I feel guilty for overindulging and this influences my unrealistic promises to lose weight and clean up my act, even though deep down I know I’ll never follow through on any of it. By mid January I’ve abandoned my ridiculous plans to hit the gym every morning and I feel guilty all over again. I’m going to flip the script this year and focus on self care rather than self criticisms, and so should you.

Journaling has a number of benefits, but the best part is you don’t have to get out of bed to do it. Reflecting on your day in a journal helps to relieve stress, improve your memory, and even increase creativity. All it takes is a paragraph or two each night to help clear your head and start fresh in the morning. Take the classic yet affordable route with a Moleskine or get back to basics with a Mead Composition notebook. There’s even the Five Minute Journal that offers prompts and exercises to help beginners get into the swing of journaling. Wrap up your busy day with a gratitude journal instead of trolling social media, and enjoy a more peaceful sleep.

Every dermatologist will tell you about the importance of keeping your face moisturized, especially during the winter months. It can be tricky to find the right one for you, but it’s definitely worth the work. Neutrogena is always a great choice, specifically their water gel Hydro Boost. It’s affordable at less than $20 and will keep your skin feeling smooth and hydrated. Maybe that Christmas bonus that everyone hopefully got is burning a hole in your pocket. In that case, check out Origin’s Age Defense Moisturizer with White Tea for $50. This SPF 40, vegan product will protect your skin from the cold as well as the daily pollutants we all encounter. so you can enjoy the convenience of supporting a small business in the name of good health, it’s a win win.

One of the most affordable ways to feel like an A list celebrity is to end your day with a hot bath, and you cannot forget the bath bomb. I feel like the bath bomb fad has passed, but I’m still all about turning my bathroom into a spa. Get your laptop safely set up in the bathroom, find a good show, and hit autoplay. Turn the water up to boiling and toss that bath bomb in for the most relaxing evening ever. Lush Cosmetics is top of the line in my opinion. All their products are ethical, handmade, and never tested on animals. Coat yourself in glitter with the colorful “Unicorn Poop” or relax in lemon and rose oils with their “Black Rose”. If you really want to chill hard, swing by your local dispensary for a treat and just soak your troubles away.

I’m not trying to take this to a dark place, but the past two years have been challenging at best in a lot of ways. It’s important to have goals and resolutions, but it’s also very necessary to go easy on yourself. Think of all the things you accomplished in 2021! You deserve that smoothie or quality moisturizer. So relax in the tub with a bath bomb and write your little heart out in that journal before bed. We have a whole year ahead of us to hit the gym or clean out our closets, what’s the rush? I think we should all focus on our mental health and wellbeing before tackling 2022. The old saying “New Year new you” can go directly in the garbage, it’s all about New Year self care from now on.

Dry January is a great idea on paper, but in reality I’m not about to say no a glass of wine, or two, after a stressful day. However, I can offset that with a healthy smoothie a few days a week. There’s always the option to juice up at home, Pinterest has roughly one million easy smoothie recipes so all you need is a decent blender. There are a number of local cafes with amazing smoothie menus right here in Worcester too. Trade in your latte for a Mochachino Smoothie with espresso from Root and Press on 623 Chandler Street. Or hit up the Nu Cafe on 335 Chandler Street for a number of real fruit smoothies and juices. Both cafes offer online ordering for quick pickup

420

IN THE 0 5 8

TRAVIS DUDA

The Green New Year

As we enter 2022, here are some things I’m hopeful about, regarding our favorite weed. By many accounts, it appears that Democrats are looking to move on some initiatives aimed at decriminalizing marijuana this spring. Specifically to establish modern banking services for the nearly $18 billion industry and purge the criminal records of thousands of marijuana offenders. Many of my colleagues would like to see cannabis removed from the Controlled Substance list and have the records purged for people convicted of marijuana-related crimes. Also the SAFE Banking Act would look to provide the cannabis industry access to the types of banking practices that most other companies receive, including loans and checking accounts. This could also simplify the purchasing process, and do away with the weird rounding and foreign atm fees that happen when you forget cash. That said, I don’t think we’ll see national legalization for a few more years, however, if the Senate were to instate some of these policy changes, we’d definitely be one step closer. These along with a collection of other bills would help lay the groundwork needed for national legalization and would continue the progress we’ve made.

Kids These Days

In more good news, according to a recently federally funded survey, high schoolers used significantly less cannabis in 2021. I’ll repeat that, despite the growing access to legal cannabis, and a pandemic that caused for a lot of alone time, 32,260 self reporting 8th through 12th graders across 319 schools reported lower use of cannabis than the previous year. By the numbers, the numbers are down 5-10% from the previous year. These numbers shine in the face of those that swore the increased availability of cannabis would cause an uptick in youth use. This could be evidence the established regulated cannabis models might actually lead to lower marijuana use among adolescents. Or this could speak to a lower amount of purchasable street level bud. Either way it’s the types of numbers we need to see to put a nail in the prohibitionists narrative.

Way More Than Half Baked

Ok, we’re wrapping up this month with a fun story. It was the brownie heard round the internet. On December 8th, 2021 Norwood-based company, MariMed Inc. celebrated National Brownie day by baking an 850 pound pot brownie. This extra chunky confection was 36” long by 36” wide and 15” thick and packed a walloping 20,000 mg of THC. MariMed Inc. baked this bulky brownie in celebration of Bubby’s Baked, their new line of cannabis-infused edibles. A spokesperson said the brownie was going to be split up and sold at dispensaries, though I’m hoping all the employees got to take home a nice big chunk. Also, I have heard no reports on how it tastes, though my guess is “weedy”. I’m all about these weird publicity stunts to grab my easily distracted attention. I want to see a joint as long as Park Ave, or the world’s biggest weed gummy bear. The sky’s the limit, both literally and metaphorically.

Hope you all have a great 2022.

Thanks for reading and happy trails! -Travis (@hunchbacktravis)