Cup of Joe, brew, brain juice, java, morning jolt, high octane. A cup of coffee by any other name would smell as strong. It fuels the Earth and gives us the energy to make it through our days. According to the Washington Post, the world drinks around 2 billion cups of coffee every day. Call it an addiction or a passion; there is no denying the coffee culture has filtered its way to the River City.
For most homebuyers, the kitchen is the heart of the home. A nexus of activity including family time together and cooking, the kitchen is where food is prepared and shared with loved ones and friends. Anthropologists know food sharing is one of the most culturally universal human activities, so it is no wonder that when we have the opportunity to raise our kitchen game to new heights, we do. Add a bad habit of watching HGTV, and this new game can get costly. Toss in a Food Network addiction, and you find the core kitchen truth: the stove is the workhorse of the kitchen.
Paige Talbert of Newburgh, Indiana, was very young when her mother Jenna, a physical therapist, and father Marco, an engineer at Vectren, suspected something was amiss. Just an infant, Paige was inconsolable at times. At six months, doctors fitted little Paige with her first set of glasses to help her visual impairments. At nine months, she began refusing food, was diagnosed with three food allergies, and began feeding therapy to help her eat.
Jaimie Sheth’s inspiration for mission work began 10 years ago in India on a trip to visit the school where her grandmother taught. Two years later, she went to Vietnam where she met people who were building playgrounds, which inspired her to go to Cambodia to build a school. Fast-forward to today and Sheth has her own foundation, the JD Sheth Foundation, dedicated to needs-based projects around the world, as well as a new book titled “My Life Is Not My Own.”
“A devilishly handsome raconteur who enjoys telling tales about food and its preparation,” Alton Brown quickly spouts when asked if he can describe himself in one sentence. The fact is, the guy is modest. In direct opposition to kitchen “unitaskers” he so loathes, Brown does it all. He’s known as a culinary authority, an award-winning author, a TV host, a musician, a cinematographer, and a proud science nerd. “AB” is an omnipresent Renaissance man — or rather a man for all seasonings.
Tony Treadway keeps an old theory on clay in his mind as he works — hand-thrown pottery pieces should be affordable to everyone. “I’ve always taken that to heart,” says the New Harmony, Indiana, resident. Treadway started throwing clay in 1979, after a football injury in high school damaged his hand. After 18 weeks in a cast, his doctor told him he had two choices — learn to throw pots or play the piano.
Still turning heads on the runway after 30 years, the annual Vanderburgh Medical Alliance Style Show will bring its glitz and glam to the new DoubleTree by Hilton in Downtown Evansville on April 7.
Put on your glass slippers, crystal tiaras, and billowing gowns—it is time for the Magical Fairy Tale Ball once again. Cold Stone Creamery hosts the fifth annual fundraiser April 15 at the Evansville Country Club in support of Ark Crisis Child Care Center.
The smell of good, home-cooked food wafts through the air the moment the door opens at Thyme in the Kitchen. Nestled along West Franklin Street, the shop owned by Marcia Jochem offers a mix of out-of-the-ordinary kitchen gadgets, top-brand cookware for every kitchen, homey décor and gift items, and cooking classes open to the public. Jochem and her sister Ruth Richmond, general manager of the store, strive to stock Thyme in the Kitchen with items customers cannot find at other stores.
Fictional candy maker Willy Wonka famously said the only way to make chocolate just right is churning it by waterfall. Evansville’s own chocolatier Stephen Libs Finer Chocolates may not boast a waterfall and oompa loompas, but the family-owned company certainly has a claim on quality chocolates.
Small-batch craft distilleries and drinks with strong flavors are all the rage these days. Traditional American whiskies, especially rye, are enjoying a new golden age and Dusty Barn Distillery, located just a few miles west of Evansville, is at the forefront of these popular trends. Dusty Barn creates small-batch craft whiskies and spirits from grains they grow themselves in Mount Vernon, Indiana. They specialize in rye and corn whiskies, and produce the occasional specialty bottle such as a single barrel rye or liqueur.
Nellie’s Restaurant, 8566 Ruffian Lane, Newburgh, IN, is now open Sunday through Saturday offering a breakfast and lunch menu with choices such as omelets, pancakes, waffles, sandwiches, burgers, and salads. Sakura, 4833 Highway 261, Newburgh, IN, is now open for lunch and dinner Sunday through Saturday. Their menu features Japanese cuisine like sushi, Japanese fried rice, tempura, and hibachi dinners. Nibbles
Let’s talk about the weather. Since weather will forever be the faithful fallback conversation topic in any banter between Southern Indiana residents — an accurate stereotype — let’s talk about it first.
Summer is fast approaching and, as we dip our toes in the green grass and soak in the sun’s rays, we may notice an absence from our backyards and gardens this year. Over the past 22 years, the population of monarch butterflies has declined 68 percent according to the Center for Biological Diversity. For decades, monarchs have been as Midwest as corn, using the heartland’s crop fields as a birthing ground for their larvae. Due to the use of pesticides and herbicides, however, the monarch’s host plant, milkweed, is disappearing.
Lauren Norvell releases a red-shouldered hawk into the air and just as it flies a beeline overhead, she reels it in with the leash. The hawk came to Talon Trust, on the West Side of Evansville, five weeks prior with a broken humerus bone in its wing. Now, after the care of Norvell and Talon Trust, it is flying well and preparing to be released in the wild.
On Aug. 11, 1937, the Evansville Journal announced the Salt Pool had suddenly closed. Located on Buchanan Road at the base of Mount Auburn, near Pigeon Creek, the Salt Pool had been a fixture in Evansville for 45 years. Around 1886, an oil well drilled along Pigeon Creek found salt water instead of oil. In 1892, Dr. William Rahm opened a health park, known as the Salt Well Baths and Bathing Pool, on the site. The flow of water from the artesian well was used to feed a wood-sided pool along the creek.
Indiana may not have oceanic waters, but it soon will be put to sea. The USS Indiana SSN 789 is being built at Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia. The christening of the attack submarine is planned for April 29 with a traditional breaking of a bottle against the bow. A naming ceremony took place June 22, 2012, in front of the War Memorial in Indianapolis. It is the fourth Naval ship to bear the Hoosier moniker, and the first in more than 70 years to be named after the nation’s 19th state.
When it is time to run to the grocery store, the post office, or on any other errand, hardly anyone in Evansville actually runs. We like to talk the talk, but we rarely walk the walk. In 2012, the Healthy Communities Partnership (HCP) was formed to guide people in the community to a more health-conscious life and gathered local businesses and organizations like the Purdue Extension Office and Evansville Community Health Organization (ECHO) to work alongside them.
A rabbi, a reverend, and a Muslim walk into a Jewish temple. For Rabbi Gary Mazo of Temple Adath B’nai Israel, Reverend Kevin Fleming of First Presbyterian Church, and Dr. Mohammad Hussain of the Islamic Society of Evansville, this was a set-up 15 years in the making and whose punch line is the interfaith series of events One God, One Community. The series brings together the three congregations from TABI, First Presbyterian, and the Islamic Society to educate them on how the three Abrahamic faiths work together in the community and the world.
I had visited Fredericksburg, Texas, before and vowed to return. The town of 10,829 just north of San Antonio and Austin has more than 400 B&Bs, guest houses, and inns; two dozen wineries; 80 restaurants; an airport for private aircraft, with an onsite hotel (I enjoyed staying there!); and shopping galore along the town’s beautiful wide streets lined with historic commercial buildings. Visiting Fredericksburg again was an easy sell. When I learned the itinerary included trips to Lyndon B.
Inside the Evansville African American Museum sits a unique display honoring the life and work of an Evansville native who had a successful career in Hollywood.
Tableside creations can transform a dining experience. From the flourish of hibachis and flambéed desserts to traditional Caesar salads and cocktails, tableside service brings a little entertainment to premium dishes. Los Bravos offers a popular southwest tableside service with its fresh guacamole. The restaurant has prepared this dish at table sides for three years, a service no other Mexican restaurant in Evansville offers.
Evansville, Indiana, is a city that likes to dine out. We also like to reminisce about our favorite long-closed eateries. Get your taste buds ready to dine down memory lane.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard all the talk about Downtown Evansville’s newest restaurant scene — BRU Burger Bar in the former Greyhound bus station. This house of burger connoisseurs stack up more than a dozen signature and classic burgers as well an array of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, and desserts. Out of all the offerings, however, it’s the Honey Chipotle BBQ Burger that rises above the pack — literally.
To show how stories in the March/April issue of Evansville Living fit into the broader world, this edition of Link Up brings the Internet to you.
