Belly up to Shed Modern Grange’s Fermentation Bar in Healdsburg
I declare the official drink of summer 2013 to be the shrub, an old-is-new thirst-quencher with the most unlikely of ingredients: Vinegar.
Far better tasting than it sounds, this Colonial-era cocktail combines fresh fruit puree (think rhubarb, strawberries or raspberries) with sugar and a light vinegar for a tart-but-sweet refresher that’s kickier than lemonade and far more refined than soda.
Already, fans are raving about Jordan Lancer’s Fermentation Bar at the newly-opened Shed Modern Grange in Healdsburg to get a taste of his homemade fruit shrubs in summer-licious flavors like blueberry red wine vinegar and pear apple cider vinegar ($4). Lancer’s also got kombucha on tap, lemon and ginger kefir water (from Sebatopol’s Kefiry) and hard ciders from Murray’s in Petaluma and Tilted Shed in Sebastopol.
Not to mention dozens of beers and wines on tap and in the bottle (I’m especially fond of the Bodkin Muscat Cannelli from Lake County). With plenty of outside seating and light plates and sandwiches from the indoor cafe (chicken liver toast with capers was a fave) folks are already flocking to this hyper-local food and drink hotspot.
25 North St., Healdsburg, 707-431-7433.
[sh-slideshow-post id=”27477″]
The soups are stellar
this place is awesome for food nerds like me. i had the blood orange shrub, a sample of a hard cider from petaluma, and more. jennifer who founded the fermentation festival was there, and we talked sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, olives, kefir, and much, much, much more. so freaking awesome! i totally got my fermenting foodie geek on! bring it Shed!
One of the things I really admire about Shed is that the staff are super food nerds too. I love the gals who were working in the bean area. When I started asking questions, their enthusiasm and knowledge was just infectious.