Thursday, June 23
Forget girls' night out. Instead, celebrate girls' pint night out. That's what the local Palm Beach chapter of Girls Pint Out will be doing on Thursday — and everyone's invited. The national craft beer organization was first organized in Indiana in early 2010 and has quickly spread to include more than 80 chapters in over 30 states. Here in South Florida, it's a growing registered nonprofit for women with a mission to build a strong community of ladies who love craft beer and are willing to be an active, contributing part of the greater craft beer community. Through local chapter events and fundraisers, Girls Pint Out offers a forum for discussion, education, community outreach, and — of course — plenty of beer, proving that this generation's version of girl power very well may be in a pint glass. Events are either social or charitable, and while many are women-only, sometimes men are invited to participate too. There's no membership process; all you need to do is show up and join in for a pint. To celebrate the one-year mark of the local chapter (one of eight in the state of Florida, including a recent addition in Miami), the group is returning to its roots for a special "
They'll be celebrating with plenty of pints starting at 6:30 p.m. at the anniversary bash offering guests a chance to enjoy limited-release specialty brews, raffles, beer cupcakes, a photo booth, and live music. There will be discounts on drinks for all ladies in attendance during the event. The Palm Beach Girls Pint Out one-year anniversary will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday at Twisted Trunk Brewing, 2000 PGA Blvd., North Palm Beach.
It's hard to believe, but that airbrushed specimen staring back at you from the homepage of lachlanpatterson.com — the guy with the rippled forehead, sinewy arms, calculatedly tousled hair, and brooding mien — is not an American Eagle model, though he likely could have been. When Lachlan Patterson appeared on NBC's Last Comic Standing in 2014, judge Keenan Ivory Wayans referred to him as a "mannequin." Instead, this former victim of career wanderlust, whose previous professions include dog walker, flower delivery man, and bartender, parlayed his chiseled features into a profession where Louie Anderson and Sam Kinison are closer to the norm. But please, don't hold his looks against him. Patterson didn't ascend to the Last Comic Standing finale for nothing. He's sarcastic, satirical, observational, and whip-smart on subjects ranging from American culture to gender relations, pet ownership, and, as the title of a track on his debut album Jokes to Make Love to notes, "favorite sexual positions." Even the alleged first joke he ever crafted, at age 14, is darkly sophisticated — it's about inappropriate laughter during an execution.
See more examples of this pretty boy's mordant sense of humor at 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday, 7 and 9:45 p.m. Saturday, and 7 p.m. Sunday at Fort Lauderdale Improv, located at 5700 Seminole Way in Hollywood. Tickets cost $20 with a two-drink minimum. Call 954-981-5653, or visit improvftl.com.
Friday, June 24
In the culinary world, sous chefs are the second-in-command in the kitchen and arguably some of the hardest working chefs in the industry. After the executive chef, all responsibility falls on the sous chef to make sure menu items and service are executed in a flawless fashion. For the Be Nice brand of restaurants, hard-working is the name of the game. The brand came into prominence roughly eight years ago when Elliot Wolf bought Coconuts Waterfront Restaurant, which was an established dining location in Fort Lauderdale at the time. Since then, he's gradually expanded the brand to include four other new and original concepts: G&B Oyster Bar, the Foxy Brown, Red Cow, and the Top Hat Deli. All of them are unique, and all lie east of U.S. 1 between Sunrise and Las Olas Boulevards. The company's sous chefs are putting together the Be Nice Sous Chef Pop-Up Dinner to showcase their skills. Even though the menu is a la carte and still in development, it'll include roughly five or six appetizers, three to four entrees, and one or two desserts.
The dinner will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday at the Top Hat Delicatessen located at 415 NE Third St. in Fort Lauderdale. Reservations aren't required but are highly recommended. Call 954-612-6362, or email [email protected].
Only on very rare occasions can our four-legged friends hang out with their owners in a bar without restrictions. It's rarer still that they get to feel the sand between their doggy toes. They'll have the opportunity to do both, however, thanks to an event called Beaches and Brews. The World Famous Parrot Lounge (no, really, that's its name) is the host of this event and allows guests and their dogs to mingle on the beach. Starting at 5 p.m., participants and their furry friends will gather by the Dogs, Beaches, and
Beaches and Brews will take place from 5 to 10 p.m. on Friday. The World Famous Parrot Lounge is located at 911 Sunrise Lane in Fort Lauderdale, and the dog beach is about 100 yards north of A1A and Sunrise Boulevard, by the lifeguard stand. This event is monthly, so you and your pooch can be reunited with all the new friends you make this week. Visit parrotlounge.com.
Saturday, June 25
The craft-everything revolution has brought a lot of good to the forefront of the culinary world and with it plenty of choices for consumers and competition for roasters. Both are good things — very good things. Last year, the FATVillage Art Walk introduced the Art of Coffee competition, and BREW Urban Café took the inaugural title. Because championships are designed to be defended, BREW will be going up against other local bean peddlers to either hold fast to its crown or relent to a rising star in the percolating scene. Organizers are already cheekily dubbing the event a "bolder, stronger, and more robust" competition, and while this is sure to become a regular occurrence, it is also a nice instance for would-be consumers to try local coffee-shop wares. No disrespect to large, corporate chains, but going local is good. Who'll have the best roast? Who'll pour the perfect demitasse cup with just the right amount of froth? Heck, who'll write you a love note in the holey foam?
Food trucks, local vendors, and the dizzying aromas of otherworldly beans in the air round out this month's FATVillage Art Walk on Saturday at C&I Studios, 541 NW First Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-760-5900, or visit fatvillage.com.
Try to master a new move in the mirror before you head out, spend hours mimicking Beyonce's backup dancers, or ask your niece for her secrets on the best pop-and-lock, but whatever your dance move method is, it will still pale in comparison to the moves of the towering LED-lit stilted robot characters that Light Up the Night provides. As part of MASS (Music and Arts South of Sunrise), a nonprofit that showcases Fort Lauderdale's vibrant culture, these beaming eight-foot-plus-tall dancers will always steal the spotlight. Perhaps it's because they come with their own illumination attached. Take a peek at their star power during the Light Up the Night one-year anniversary Light Up the Block party this Saturday. Besides the bots, there is a roster of other activities including life-size Jenga games, inflatable bounce houses, corn hole, beer pong, a Sound Off experience with free headphones for a silent dance party, Xbox consoles, Y-100's DJ Mummy, free beer with the Keg King, art with participating art galleries and spaces like Inchoate Art Gallery, Jump the Shark, and MAC Fine Art, and various vendors like Jamberry nails, Origami Owl, and the Good Pie Company. Fuel up with food from participating food trucks like Empanada Top Corp, Miami Pizza Truck,
LUTN lasts from 6 p.m. until midnight on Saturday at 911 NE Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Visit lutnofficial.com.
If you've been around enough stodgy art catalogs, the very idea of them can start to seem heavy in more ways than one. They're usually thick, expensive coffee-table souvenirs filled with academic essays and pretty pictures that looked better on gallery walls. That's precisely why Girls' Club's catalog for its "Self-Proliferation" exhibition promises to be such a refreshing page-turner. Designed by Miami graphic designer Augusto Mendoza, the 96-page,
The catalog unveiling and reading runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at Girls' Club, located at 117 NE Second St. in Fort Lauderdale. Admission is free. Call 954-828-9151, or visit girlsclubcollection.org.
Sunday, June 26
The ocean is the world's biggest trash dump. This becomes evident when considering the sheer amount of space water takes up on Earth and how much shipping traffic occurs on a daily basis. A lot of it sinks to the bottom of the sea (which is no consolation), but some of it originates right along the shore following a weekend holiday on the beach. If reading this burns you up and you want to make a difference, the Stoked on Salt (SOS) Ocean Clean-Up and Divers Cove invites you to volunteer a little of your time to make the shoreline a more pleasant place to be. Help is needed above and below, including from people with diving experience. Roughly three hours of your time is needed. Just imagine how much gets done when many participate. After the cleanup, SOS is throwing its second-annual Volunteer Awards Gathering and
The cleanup runs from 8:45 a.m. to noon on Sunday, starting at the Dania Beach Pier located at 66 N. Beach Road. Bring a filled-out copy of the registration form and get a free parking pass, a volunteer T-shirt, and Reef Safe sunblock. The event itself is free, but a ticket to the post-cleanup barbecue can be acquired for a small fee. Call SOS at 754-246-4848, or visit stokedonsalt.com.
