SANTA MONICA, Calif., – The Brewers Association (BA), the not-for-profit trade association that represents the majority of U.S. breweries, will be among the first to register .beer web addresses under the new Internet top-level domain .beer when it becomes available to the general public on September 25, 2014.
The launch of .beer by registry operator Minds + Machines is part of a major overhaul of the Internet’s naming structure top-level domains by ICANN, the Internet’s governing body. Over 1,000 new domains will be introduced onto the Internet over the next 18 months providing choice, relevance, and name availability to communities and businesses globally.
The public can register their .beer names at http://www.mindsandmachines.com/beer or at any participating domain name registrar. New .beer domain names will start at about $25 a year.
Among the .beer web addresses already registered are craft.beer, pumpkinfest.beer and homebrewers.beer. Well-known brewers like Elysian Brewing Company and Bear Republic Brewing Company have also already come on board to welcome the new Internet name.
Antony Van Couvering, CEO of Minds + Machines said:
“We are in the middle of the largest transformation of the Internet to date. New top-level domains have been embraced by the likes of Amazon and Google, and we’re about to see a tipping point where people naturally adopt domain endings that signal a particular interest, location or activity. We believe that everyone who is passionate about beer will adopt .beer as their natural Internet home. We are proud to be working with the Brewers Association and timing the launch of .beer to coincide with their Great American Beer Festival® in Denver,North America’s most famous beer event.”
Brewers Association Director Paul Gatza said:
“As the online landscape continues to evolve, the Brewers Association is working on behalf of our members-the country’s small and independent craft brewers-to ensure they have access to robust online representation. We’re pleased to count the BA and some of our members among the first .beer registrants.”
In 2013, craft brewers captured a US market share of 14.3% in retail dollars and a 7.8% share by volume. In the first half of 2014, the sector continued to see double-digit growth with 10.6 million barrels sold in the first six months of the year, an increase of 18% from the first half of 2013.
The Brewers Association is an organization of brewers, for brewers and by brewers. More than 2,300 U.S. brewery members and 43,000 members of the American Homebrewers Association are joined by members of the allied trade, beer wholesalers, retailers, individuals, other associate members and the Brewers Association staff to make up the Brewers Association.
There are 3 breweries in my zip code. I should really drink at them more often.
Using U.S. Census data from 2010, the Brewers Association (BA) believes that more Americans than ever before now live near breweries.
BA economist Bart Watson reports that 52.9 million Americans, or 17.1 percent of the population, live in a ZIP code tabulation area with a brewery.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, ZIP code tabulation areas are “generalized areal representations of United States Postal Service (USPS) ZIP code service areas.” In other words, an aggregated collection of smaller zip codes used for Census accounting purposes.
While a nice umbrella factoid, it alone doesn’t paint the picture of where all of these breweries are actually located, which is really the crux of the analysis the industry trade group published yesterday.
Not surprisingly, Watson wrote, breweries are more often located in “heavily populated” areas. While the average U.S. ZIP code tabulation area claims 9,371 people, the average ZIP code tabulation area with a brewery has more than double that at 23,035.
Despite the fact that 60 percent of all zip code tabulation areas have fewer than 5,000 people, Watson adds, 46 percent of brewery tabulation areas boast between 20,000 and 50,000 people.
These figures suggest that there’s room to grow. According to Watson, more than 3,800 zip code tabulation areas with larger than average populations do not currently have a brewery.
In fact, of the more than 33,000 zip code tabulation areas in all 50 states, Washington D.C, and Puerto Rico, only 2,295 have a brewery.
“It drives home just how diverse geographically the craft brewing movement has [become],” Watson wrote in the blog.
Potentially useful for those with Google Now. It seems you just have to search for the flight you want using google.com/flights at some point and they will start tracking the cost for you.
If you use Google Flights and Google Now, you might see a card pop up letting you know a price has dropped on a flight you've been eyeing.
Android: Google Chrome is a solid web browser for Android, even if it's not the best one
. OMG! Chrome discovered a neat hidden feature that makes Chrome give answers to questions in the dropdown suggestions box while searching.
I totally forgot to post this comic I did for Macworld last week! It looks like, in light of the magazine's impending closure, that I'll get to do two more.
Austin runs on craft beer, and the city's ever-expanding brewery scene offers plenty of opportunity to get up close and personal with your favorites. The city boasts many fine brewpubs like North by Northwest and Black Star Co-Op with regular business hours, but most local breweries offer tastings and tours as well.
With Oktoberfest just around the corner, Eater rounds up the when, where, and how of brewery visits in the Austin area. From the old school tours at Live Oak, to the wide grounds of Jester King's farm brewery and the Texas pride suds at Twisted X, there's a beer for everyone. If there are any places missing from the map, hit up the tipline or comment below.
Update! Want to tour these fine establishments without having to worry about driving home? A commenter suggests taking an Austin Brew Bus tour. — Nadia Chaudhury
Hey, this is that app Flip was showing us at bowling last week.
Web/iOS/Android: Plane Finder delivers next-level flight tracking in real time, showing you exactly where the plane you're tarcking is and when it will land.
We ate at Peace on Friday and it was delicious. Looks like we should check out Balkan around the corner as well.
1) A new Serbian restaurant opened in North Austin. Balkan Cafe & Grill serves regional specialities like cevapi (a minced meat kebab) and pljeskavica (the patty form), as well as more familiar fare like dessert crepes. Yelper Gary H. notes that happy hour goes until 9 p.m., and they offer roast lamb on Saturdays. Their address is 11800 North Lamar. [Yelp]
2) Middle Eastern restaurant Peace Bakery Deli is now open at 11220 North Lamar Boulevard. Run by a Palestinian family, their fresh and house-made dips and salads caught the eye of a local Chowhounder. Yelpers and Chowhounders alike praise the friendly service. [Chowhound/Yelp]
3) Former Whole Foods executive chef Casey Livingston has founded Independence Fine Foods in way South Austin. The restaurant offers a variety of salads, sandwiches, and other prepared foods to take out or to eat in. Additionally, they offer coffee and pastries. Their address is 1807 W. Slaughter Lane, Suite 100. [Eaterwire]
4) A branch of California-based chain Fat Sal's Deli opened on the Drag at 2604 Guadalupe. They specialize in giant sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, and wraps. [Eaterwire]
5) Georgetown boasts a new red-sauce Italian American restaurant. Frankie's Pizza and Pastaserves all the classic staples, including cheesecake and cannoli for dessert. The address is 121 N. Interstate 35 Frontage Road. [Yelp]
· All Opening Reports [EATX]
Bring on the heart-pounding highs and the gut-wrenching lows; the crazy rituals and the bitter rivalries. Football season is back!
Whether you're a "12th Man" or wearing a cheesehead, chances are you’ll be watching the game with smartphone in hand. Eighty-four percent of us now watch TV while multi-tasking on other devices nearby. And today, the language of fan rivalries is a visual one. Just look at the resurgence of search interest for GIFs on Google Trends. Why say it in words when you can throw shade with a meme?
This year, there’s a way for mobile-clutching NFL fans to take their smack talk to the next level. Madden GIFERATOR is a new project created by our Art, Copy & Code team, in partnership with EA Sports and agencies Heat and Grow, to help launch EA Sports’ signature football game Madden NFL 15.
During every NFL game, the Madden GIFERATOR will create a live stream of memes using Madden NFL 15 video game footage (as GIFs), triggered by the action on the field. The GIFs will appear in real time on MaddenGIFERATOR.com, on social media, as well as in ads on popular sports and gaming related apps and sites across the the Google Display Network. For example, if Seattle’s Richard Sherman picks off Aaron Rodgers tonight, you might see a GIF of Sherman with the headline “Weren’t you supposed to catch that? Aawwwwwkward” in the stream, alongside a real-time update on the score and game clock.
You can also take control of the GIFERATOR and design your own GIFs, choosing the team, the player, the background and the headline, ready for sharing across the web.
The Madden GIFERATOR is the latest in our Art, Copy & Code series, where we partner with brands and their agencies to create useful and fun experiences, powered by Google technology. We wanted to tap into the growing trend for fans to comment on and interact with games from their phones—plus, we have a weakness for GIFs. The GIFERATOR fuses live NFL game data with a database of Madden images, players, backgrounds and headlines to create relevant memes on the fly.
So this season, when your team delivers those clutch plays, head over to MaddenGIFERATOR.com, choose the perfect image, customize it with your best smack talk, and send it to your fellow fans (if you want to be nice) or your rivals (if you’ve got a wicked streak). Here’s a little inspiration before tonight’s Seahawks vs. Packers standoff:
Posted by Mike Glaser, Marketing Manager, Creative Partnerships
Austin Beerworks rechristened their Peacemaker beer as "Anytime Ale," and by "Anytime" they mean "All The Time, Like Every Hour, For Days." To celebrate the release, the brewery released a 99-beer multipack to select stores around Austin, retailing for only $99. It's legit. Austin Beerworks explains on Twitter, "Is it a joke? Yes. Is it real? Also yes. "
“I don’t know, man. I can’t remember anything after the third PGGB.”
“Didn’t that guy tell us you aren’t supposed to have more than two?”
“Psh. Please. He was a total dweeb. Did you see how he was dressed?”
“Yeah, that was weird. Hey, did he have a second head?”
“I’m still unclear on that, myself.”
“Say, who were those other two guys? One of ‘em said he was a reporter or something? He kept talking about the merits of towels.”
“Gah, I can’t remember. Something about a car. At least he had a personality. That other fella was pretty pathetic. Didn’t even drink any PGGBs. Just tea.”
“Hey, dude, while we're talking, let me ask you something: Do you ever feel like every original idea has already been hatched by the single mind of a genius, and that anything we have to add to the topic couldn’t possibly touch the pioneering and archetypal notions said genius shared with the universe before expiring way too early?”
August 14th, 2014: Hey you know how I wrote a comic called The Midas Flesh? Well GUESS WHAT there's a Boom! Studios Humble Bundle going on right now, and that means for just $15 you can get the entire series, as well as over ONE HUNDRED other comics, including Lumberjanes, Bee and Puppycat, Bravest Warriors, Robocop, and tons more! CHECK IT OUT, Y'ALL
August 7th, 2014: Dinosaur Comics has over a decade of comics for you to read! That's a lot of comics, and who wants to go back and read them all in one sitting? YOU? >Perhaps! And that option is available to you. But now there is another option: get a curated selection of Classic Favourites delivered to you every day!
Dinosaur Comics is now syndicated on GoComics, and if you go to that site you can get new-to-you comics delivered right too you! ALSO: the comics are at a slightly higher resolution, which may blow your mind. ALSO: you can comment on the comics, which is something I've never had here, but now you can do it there! So it is time to share your opinions.
I've been wondering why stores were selling 4K tvs since it seemed like there was nothing out there available for home 4K anyway. Maybe I missed it but I don't know of any 4K media players. I guess streaming is the answer although this is the first one I've heard about. Considering our internet pipe can't even handle regular HD streams, I don't think we'll be upgrading to 4K anytime soon.
In chapter 1 of House of Cards, Frank Underwood famously tells Stamper to "Look at the bigger picture." With House of Cards season 2, that bigger picture is here! The best quality video in the world is now streaming via the Internet.
We’re excited about the picture quality we’re seeing in Ultra HD 4K, and we’re even more excited that expert reviewers of the first TVs capable of streaming Netflix Ultra HD 4K, including the Samsung HU8550 and HU9000, seem to agree. This is just the the beginning, expect more TVs that support Netflix in Ultra HD 4K in stores soon from Samsung, Sony, LG, and Vizio. If you buy one of these new TVs, just connect it to a power outlet and the internet, turn it on and sign into Netflix. Ultra HD 4K streaming will work out of the box.
To get the highest quality Netflix experience in Ultra HD 4K, we recommend available bandwidth of at least 20Mbps. This provides enough throughput for the stream, which is about 16Mbps, plus headroom for service variability. And speaking of variability, there are many things that can affect the data throughput to a specific device on your home network. One of those variables is how a broadband provider chooses to handle incoming bits from Netflix. Any broadband provider that’s directly connected to Netflix will deliver a better experience, especially during primetime.
Market researchers predict that consumers will buy a million Ultra HD 4K TVs this year and even more in subsequent years. We expect it will likely take up to 5 years before Ultra HD 4K becomes mainstream; when most of the TVs on store shelves are Ultra HD 4K.
Today, our catalog of Ultra HD 4K movies and shows is small but packs a punch: the second season of the Emmy Award winning show House of Cards, and several nature films from noted photographer and filmmaker Louie Schwarztberg.
Later this year, we expect to add another multi Emmy Award winning show Breaking Bad, and more Netflix original productions. As more content producers shift their production and mastering to create Ultra HD 4K output, and more Ultra HD 4K TVs are in the market, we’ll bring more of that content to you.
What’s Next?
We’re excited about bringing you Ultra HD 4K, but it’s been a joint effort with our partners to create the TVs, the streaming tech, and the shows we all love. We’ve all worked hard to design products and produce shows that support the broader feature set of Ultra HD 4K. This, of course, includes the Ultra High Definition 3840x2160 resolution, and 10-bit color precision, but also framerates up to 60 frames per second and richer colors.
Fellow AV geeks... we know you want more details on the tech behind Netflix Ultra HD 4K. In a future post on the Netflix Tech Blog, we’ll share some of those details with you. In the mean time, on behalf of everyone at Netflix who worked on delivering Ultra HD 4K, enjoy the bigger picture!
Austin is a barbecue city, but there's still plenty of vegetarian enthusiasm to go around. To balance out the city's love of meat, Eater readers share their favorite vegeterian dishes around Austin. From fried avocado tacos from Torchy's to local veggie plates at Cenote, here's a map of 33 great options.
See a favorite missing? Hit the tipline or in the comments below to make your case.
It is basically, if you are a Simpsons fan, like finding a coupon for a hundred free Krusty Burgers, and then finding out that they'll be served to you by Krusty himself. It's like getting a personal concert from Bleeding Gums Murphy. Or riding your skateboard, successfully, over Springfield Gorge. Or finding out that Mr. Burns returns your affection. Or ... well, if you are a Simpsons fan, you get the idea. If you were Homer, you'd probably give it a loud "Woohoo!"
The "it" is Simpsons World—a project that will be, from the sound of things, like the ultimate DVD box set for the sitcom that has been the longest-running in American history (and that, as Wikipedia helpfully reminds us, "parodies American culture, society, television, and many aspects of the human condition"). Simpsons World won't be a DVD set, though. It will be a continuation, basically, of the 12 days' worth of Simpsons programming that the FXX network, which has exclusive cable rights to the show, will air at the end of August. It will be fully digital.
Simpsons World, Vox's Todd VanDerWerff reports from a presentation at the Television Critics Association conference today, will be a website. It will be an app. It will be, he declares, "one of the greatest feats of engineering in human history."
It won't, but if you are a Simpsons fan, the project will actually be pretty close. (Woohoo!) Here's what it will feature, according to VanDerWerff:
All 552 episodes of the show that have aired to date, which can be watched in any order at any time
Clips of episodes
A feature sharing Groening's commentary on certain scenes and elements
A feature that points out movie and other references in the show
Archival shorts, possibly, from The Tracey Ullman Show that gave rise to The Simpsons
Complete scripts of the show, scrolling alongside the episode as it plays
The ability to share lines from those scripts on Twitter or Facebook or other social media platforms
An episode database
A character database that allows users to cross-reference characters with other characters and locations
The ability to sort episodes according to particular themes, topics, and characters
Of all of these, it might be the last three—arguably the nerdiest three—that are the most interesting. Because those last three are the databases. (Mmmm, Homer might say, delicious, delicious data.) What Simpsons World seems to be promising is not just the complete series in one place, in its 552-episode entirety, but also a way for viewers to break down that series into its constituent elements: characters, themes, plots, places. Through its interface, fans will be able to break the show down and build it up again, mixing and remixing its repeating gags. They'll be able to analyze it. They'll be able to categorize it. They'll be able to take its genius and turn it into data. And vice versa.
Which is a fairly small thing, but a fairly big one, too. The archival approach to TV shows, after all, has generally made a point of selling the summative. Like The Wire? Buy "the complete fifth season." Like Friday Night Lights? Buy "the complete series." Even in digital form, on Amazon and iTunes and such, the assumption of the power of completeness has taken hold, a kind of conceptual skeuomorphism that has been based on the promises and the premises of the VHS and the DVD. While, sure, you may get the occasional deleted scenes and blooper reel and director's commentary in those sets, the real thing you're buying is a sense of compilation and comprehension. You are, literally, having it all.
Simpsons World, on the other hand, is taking the basics of that whole transaction and flipping them. The site-and-app is promising completeness only as a starting point. It is also promising ... well, the opposite of completeness. It is promising elementalism. It is breaking down the show—Springfield, and its wacky stories and people and places—into its component parts. It is outlining itself. It is taking what is usually the extremely nerdy work of extremely devoted fans (take this amazing specimen of Arrested Development appreciation) and doing that work itself.
What, actually, is a TV show? What can it be? Though the series that, maybe better than any other, "parodies American culture, society, television, and many aspects of the human condition," we might be about to find out. Woohoo!
Video clip included. The contestants were avoiding the Texas Wine category like the plague, but did better on that than some of the other questions.
Fall Creek Vineyard and Grape Creek got a surprise this week when their wineries were featured on Wednesday's episode of “Jeopardy.”
For the first time in history, the long-running game show included a category of five answer-questions all about Texas wine, including this $400 question: “The Hill Country’s Fall Creek ...
“Best first date ever!” Jinkins recalled. “And he made a killer potato salad to boot.”
They have now been married 23 years.
As a kid in Ann Arbor, Mich., in the 1960s, Roth had dreamed of living in his very own treehouse. So did just about anyone who’d read “Swiss Family Robinson
” or seen the Disney movie. But he never got around to building one until 1983, after he got his college degree in sculpture and photography in Vermont. “Treehouses make you feel like a kid,” Roth said. “I thought: I’m 25. It’s not too late!”
Roth’s friends let him use a corner of their property, where he built a multitier platform around a big maple tree. He lived there during the summer, cooking in a fire pit, bathing in a pond, and sleeping in a crow’s nest 35 feet off the ground.
Although Roth and Jinkins would go on to raise their two daughters in a terrestrial house — “groundhouses” as treehouse folk call them — Roth had blazed a new career path. Today, he and partner Chris “Ka-V” Haake own The Treehouse Guys LLC
, a Warren, Vt.-based construction firm that specializes in building wheelchair-accessible projects for organizations such as the Make-a-Wish-Foundation, Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp
in Connecticut, and Zeno Mountain Farm
in Vermont.
In recent years, however, Roth and Haake have been increasingly called on to build high-end backyard treehouses. And business is booming, with projects this year alone taking them to Indiana, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and two Hawaiian islands. “As hurting as the economy has been, it seems like it hasn’t affected us,” Roth said. “A good year is three to five [projects]. This year we’re doing eight.”
The story is much the same for Tree Top Builders Inc.
, a West Chester, Pa.-based business whose work hugs trees in 22 states. “It’s just nuts. It’s crazy,” said owner Dan Wright. “We have a bigger backlog than we’ve ever had.” In Massachusetts, he’s built treehouses in Weston and Andover and has one on the books in Westborough that he’s racing to get to by the end of July.
The success of “Treehouse Masters
,” a reality show that has millions of viewers and was the second most watched program on cable’s Animal Planet in 2013, hasn’t hurt the treehouse trade. The series follows gung-ho Seattle-area builder Pete Nelson and his crew as they construct ultra-high-end projects around the country, including a brew house with stainless-steel tanks in Ohio and an aerial man cave in Washington state with a flat-screen TV and a bar overlooking a koi pond. The show’s success even got Roth and Haake their own pilot, “The Treehouse Guys
,” for the DIY Network. (“I don’t even have a TV, mind you,” Roth said with a laugh.)
These custom construction projects, which require specialized equipment, materials, and engineering, don’t come cheap. Those on Nelson’s show, some of which include bathrooms and kitchens, can cost several hundred thousand dollars. Even the simplest ones Roth builds — just a platform and a roof — cost from $15,000 to $20,000; add walls, windows, and doors, he said, and you’re easily looking at $30,000-plus. “It’s definitely come a long way since when we were kids cobbling together scrounged materials,” Roth said.
Nelson Treehouse and Supply of Fall City, Wash., built this treehouse with the varied rooflines and the Arts-and-Crafts-style elements on the Cape.
Wright’s portfolio suggests that the difference between expensive projects and crazy expensive ones is the people they’re being built for. Projects for kids usually run from $7,000 to $30,000, depending on how big they are and how many ziplines, climbing walls, and other amenities are tacked on. But for projects for the merely young at heart, the sky’s the limit. Wright built a treehouse to suspend a Jacuzzi and one connected to a swimming pool by a $200,000 waterpark-worthy waterslide. “We’ve built a few for poker rooms,” he said. “We’ve built platforms for yoga classes, offices for people who work from home, guest rooms — some of them attached to the groundhouses by bridges.”
Even customers who start out planning for their kids often wind up planning for themselves, Nelson said. “The typical client might get to the point of thinking: Well, this is going to cost us 50 to 60 grand,and kids grow quickly.Why don’t I make it for me, too?”
Years ago, a friend from the Cape came down with “treehouse fever.”
“He caught the bug and talked to his mom, and she caught the bug,” Nelson said. “She literally sent me a check in the mail that said, ‘Peter, I’m serious.’ ” The woman and her husband, now in their 70s, sometimes offer catered dinners in their high-up hideaway at charity auctions (luckily for guests and servers alike, everyone gets to use the stairs).
Nelson, who first started drawing up treehouse designs while a student at Deerfield Academy, still counts that Cape project among his favorites. “I labored over the design of that little one,” he said, including traveling around the area to study Shingle-style architecture. He tries to take inspiration from local homes wherever he goes. His New England projects tend to be simple, in part because of the smaller trees, he said. Out West among the redwoods, there’s “more of a Jim Cutler style: big timbers, post-and-beam. We’re trying to put the houses in scale with the trees we have.”
Regardless of where the house is built, however, clients look at it as an escape. And that’s exactly the way B’fer Roth likes it. He can install electricity and plumbing and all that if customers insist, but that’s not his preference, truth be told. “The whole point of a treehouse is getting away from all the stuff we’re inundated with in the luxuries of our homes,” he said. “My ideal treehouse doesn’t have all the trappings of the modern urban house.”
Roth and his wife have been thinking about their ideal living arrangement a lot these days. Now that their two daughters are grown, they’re talking about selling their groundhouse and simplifying. They have a new grandson who’s going to get a treehouse, of course, so maybe they will live there in Vermont in the warmer months.
“We’re going to downsize not into a condo in the city, but into a condo in the trees,” Roth said. “Then we’ll just bail in the winter.”
And doesn’t that make perfect sense? Snowbird empty-nesters living in the trees.
this originally was an extra chainsawsuit posted to my patreon! patreons will get something extra this weekend, plus we are very close to receiving a month of vines from me!
I was wondering why Aaron Franklin wasn't in the photos with Obama. I haven't been to Franklin that many times but every time Aaron has been cutting meat for people.
Aaron Franklin. [Photo: Robert J. Lerma/EATX]
President Obamavisited Franklin Barbecue yesterday, and owner Aaron Franklin had no warning until the secret service showed up. The president concluded his whirlwind tour of Austin restaurants at the city's most famous and cultishly loved barbecue destination, and Franklin was out running errands. He and his wife and business partner Stacy Franklin got stuck in traffic and nearly missed it.
Franklin talks with Eater about Obama's visit , including the fact that the president cut the famous Franklin Barbecue line. Franklin says, "If anyone can do it, it's him." Read on for the full interview, covering the intense security measures, the media circus, and what happens with pitmaster meets president.
How much advance warning did you have that the president was coming to Franklin?
Almost none. I actually left to pick up insulation for our new fireboxes and I got a call saying, The president is going to be here, it's swarming with secret service.
I almost didn't make it. I-35 was completely stopped. Stacy was also on her way back and got stuck in traffic. We parked on the 35 access road and came in on foot. I walked in the front door as he was leaving.
I'm only here like 100 hours a week. Would have been just my luck to miss him.
So they didn't call you or anything?
The secret service just showed up. They did security checks on all the cars on the street, there were big yellow X's taped on all of them. They searched people's bags and purses in line. It was so chaotic for about an hour.
I'll say this: it was pretty slick how the secret service got in and did their thing. They were never snooty or rude, they were all just super nice. I would have thought they would walk in like they owned the place. When they left they thanked us for having them.
It was ridiculous how many news stations were there, too. I got done with lunch and there were 54 text messages on my phone. I didn't know that many people had my number.
Obama came by at 1:30, which is close to when you sell out. What would you have done if you ran out of meat?
Say sorry? Thank goodness we got this new smokehouse finished. We usually have meat at 1:30 still, but it was close.
What was it like to meet the president?
He seems very nice. He knew who we were. He knew we'd started out as a trailer, and asked how long we'd been open and how we financed the restaurant. We told him the whole story, from Stacy keeping her job so I could focus on the trailer to how we got into our own space. He held [Franklin's daughter] Vivian for a few minutes and she didn't cry, so that was awesome.
He seems like a normal dude who just happens to have a slightly more important job than most of us. He was really considerate of people in line.
Obama cut the line at Franklin, which famously has no exceptions. Are you okay with that?
No one's ever just skipped line and gone right up to the counter and ordered food, but if it's okay for someone to do it, it's him. Everyone was super duper excited and he bought people's lunches. It didn't seem to piss anybody off. And I can't even imagine what kind of security nightmare it would be for a president to stand in line on the side of the street for several hours.
I did tell him he was only person ever to skip the line, and he should be very thankful.
He took a big to-go order. Did he try any barbecue while he was there?
He got a little nibble up at counter. He seemed excited about it.
Do you have any sense why he came to Franklin this time?
Maybe because it wasn't official business, maybe he just had more time -- beats me. Normally he goes to Stubb's. I'm certainly stoked that he came through. People keep asking if the president's been here – now he has.
That said, we're not ones to show it off or brag about it. We do what we do and we're happy and that's good enough. We don't put up pictures of famous people who've been here.
That's not the Austin way.
Right. Those people just want to have lunch like everybody else. He did have a hundred people with him, but everybody's somebody and everybody deserves to just be able to have lunch.
· All Franklin Barbecue Coverage [EATX]
· All Barack Obama Coverage [EATX]
Bill Hillmann, a 32-year-old Chicago native who recently co-wrote the book, "Fiesta: How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona," was gored Wednesday by a bull in Pamplona. He survived.
In a statement in Dallas following a roundtable discussion on the immigration crisis on the Southwest border, the President called on Congress to authorize some $3.8 billion in funds to address the situation there in the short term.
In its third war with Hamas in less than six years, Israel faces a foe that has lost most of its key allies and the attention of the international community.
Although it's hardly a surprise to many court watchers, it looks like a legal challenge to Utah's same-sex marriage law will go to the Supreme Court for consideration, after the state announced its intention to appeal to the high court.
Prince George of England turns the big 0-1 later this month, and Vanity Fair has seen fit to name him "the World's Most Eligible Infant." We have our own ranking system.
After releasing a chilling Mockingjay promo disguised as an address from Panem's President Snow, Lionsgate has offered a second, more complicated glimpse into the upcoming installment in the Hunger Games franchise.
Former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after being found guilty on 20 counts of corruption and bribery charges earlier this year.
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has petitioned to extend his asylum in Russia. His current one-year reprieve expires on July 31.
Samsung has been in the process of creating a virtual reality device in collaboration with Oculus Rift for sometime. The headset is being called "GearVR." This morning, Sammobile received the exclusive details on how it will look and how it will work.
President Obama spent Tuesday night in Denver, Colorado, the beating heart of America's legalized weed revolution, and it was about as weird as you'd expect.
Today in celebrity gossip: A former drug dealer just released an old video of Angelina Jolie, Project Runway's Christian Siriano called Melissa McCarthy "difficult," and Pamela Anderson is back on the market of people who are single.
The text in this bookmark doesn't seem to be the full text somehow. Click through to see the full thing along with photos/videos.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The President gets multiple offers for free pot
There's brew and billiards with the Colorado governor
He gets to fist bump with a gorilla
And there's a guy wearing a horse head mask
(CNN) -- Presidential meet and greets rarely veer off script.
There's lots of hand shaking, back slapping and picking up babies. You know, predictable stuff.
So what happened when Barack Obama went to Denver on Tuesday was truly bizarre.
There were beers a-plenty, a photo op with a gorilla statue and an offer to light up.
It all started on the trip from the airport to downtown.
The presidential motorcade passed a bearded man holding a sign: "Free weed 4 Obama." A sign outside a marijuana offered the same thing. Colorado recently passed a law legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.
Spotted along Obama motorcade route in Denver: Bearded dude holding "Free weed 4 Obama" sign
By the time he sat down at a pizza joint with people who had written him letters, Obama loosened his blue tie and rolled up his sleeves.
They sat him down at the head of a table crowded with plates and pizza trays - a teacher, a couple who own a small business, a college student, and a furniture store worker.
"Where do you all want me?" said the President.
"Right at the head of the table."
"Oh my goodness, that's so formal."
Later, he walked down the streets of downtown Denver, giving fist bumps, shaking hands and slapping high fives. He refused a selfie and resisted holding a cute baby. B
But he did find himself shaking hands with a man in a horse mask.
"One onlooker wore a large horse head," the pool report on the visit said, "but it's unclear what message he hoped to convey."
He stopped to talk with a father and son. The boy said he was a skateboarder.
"I see you got a little scab here," the President told him.
"You got scuffed up a little bit. That's alright. If you're 10 and you don't have a scab you're not having fun."
Obama then went to a bar that Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper used to own.
A woman stopped the President. "My brother died in Afghanistan four years ago," she told him.
Obama gave Kalynne May Arrick, from Tyler, Texas, whose brother Marine Sgt. Kenneth May was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, a challenge coin usually reserved for veterans, who collect them.
He hugged her.
"I'm so sorry," he said.
As the night went on, there was pool playing and beer drinking with Hickenlooper.
"Did you see how many balls he still has on the table?"
Hickenlooper had five, while the President sunk the 8-ball.
A patron offered to buy the President a beer.
"It's too late man. I just got one," Obama said.
And apparently, there was another offer -- to partake in some weed.
"Do you want to hit this?" said a man, which he then posted on Instagram. The caption? Asked him if he wanted a hit of pot...he laughed!"
But the party didn't end there.
The President also fist bumped a gorilla statue.
Wednesday was just the first night of a three-day presidential road trip. The focus is the economy and what the White House is doing to help American workers.
The next stop for the President is Texas.
What can the Lone Star State possibly do to top one night in Denver? Immigration reform probably isn't going to do it.
SANTA MONICA, Calif., – The Brewers Association (BA), the not-for-profit trade association that represents the majority of U.S. breweries, will be among the first to register .beer web addresses under the new Internet top-level domain .beer when it becomes available to the general public on September 25, 2014.
1) A new Serbian restaurant opened in North Austin. Balkan Cafe & Grill serves regional specialities like cevapi (a minced meat kebab) and pljeskavica (the patty form), as well as more familiar fare like dessert crepes. 
.jpg)
