Yardbird is celebrating American Craft Beer Week. Join us on Monday for $7 drafts of Cigar City’s never before released White Oak Blueberry IPA. On Wednesday, Jay Robinson of Oskar Blues Brewery will be hosting a dinner with beer pairing for each course. End the week with our Creole-inspired Abita Southern Social, featuring $3 brews and bites at the bar.

Run Baby, Run! Dust off your best Derby hat, it’s time for the Kentucky Derby 2013! We’ll be featuring a live broadcast of the race as well as drink and bite specials. Come in for Big Ass Mint Juleps, prizes, and more!

Join us during the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Executive Chef Ryan Smith of Empire State South (Atlanta, GA) and Yardbird’s own Jeff McInnis will be cooking up farm-fresh Southern fare during a very special Midnight Chef’s Table.
For reservations call 305.538.5220

50 Eggs Inc., the branding firm behind Yardbird, has outgrown it’s nest and will be relocating to an unoccupied motel building in the MiMo district. The future location of the headquarters will feature a Test Kitchen concept to benefit culinary non-profits. Stay tuned…

The Second Annual South Florida Beer Week is here, meaning it’s time to drink like a local. During the week of January 19-26, craft beer drinkers will unite (hoo-rah!) to support their local breweries and Yardbird will be doing its part by featuring 32oz growlers (for $15!) of Schnebly Brewery’s Big Rod Ale; brewed at the Southernmost Winery in the U.S., the local ale is made with coconut and starfruit. The ever-popular Guess the Grape wine tasting is back, giving ya the chance to taste some wines with a prize for the winner. As always, we’ve got lots going on and would love for you to join us! For reservations or more info, give us a shout at 305-538-5220.

It’s that time, again! Oktoberfest is rollin’ in and we’re getting a little help from our friends at Craft Brewjas. From Guess the Brew (with pours from Wynwood’s own Gravity Brewbar) to an Oktoberfest Brewja Dinner (hello, Magnolia Pecan Ale) to a good ol’ Friday Southern Social (did we mention 50% off beer taps?), we got lots going on and would love for you to join us! Give us a shout for reservations or to get more info at 305-538-5220.

Sean Brock, Jeff McInnis, Noah & Rae Bernamoff
Oct 1, 2012 • BY MATT RODBARD

Today we are live from the Food Republic Test Kitchen & Interview Lounge at Little Owl The Venue in New York’s West Village. A lot of our friends from the culinary world are stopping by for interviews and fun in the kitchen.

Jeff McInnis is Executive Chef at Yardbird Southern Table in Miami Beach and a former contestant on Top Chef. Husband and wife Noah and Rae Bernamoff opened the popular Brooklyn eatery Mile End Delicatessen in 2010 and recently published The Mile End Cookbook. Sean Brock is chef-owner of Husk and McCrady’s in Charleston, South Carolina.

Sean Brock
What food trend are you sick of hearing about?
Foraging. I am so sick of hearing about it. We do it and it’s part of our cuisine, but it has been part of our cuisine since the Native Americans were cooking in the Low Country. You cook what is around you. People are taking it a little too far and are in places that don’t have delicious things to forage and are spending their time picking all these things that are tasteless. The way I see it, you should be in the kitchen cooking and developing your cuisine. Yeah, it’s fun, but if spend your whole day picking mustard flowers that don’t taste like anything, then I don’t really see the point.

Is the media to blame?
Oh, no. People get so excited about trends and they don’t realize that just because something is trendy – it’s only trendy for a moment. Foraging is part of our cuisine and we’re lucky that we have the beach. Just the other day, I was foraging for beach plants and that’s something that we take advantage of – they are incredibly delicious – we forage beach arugula, which is part of our terroir.

So to be clear, you do it too?
Absolutely. I just think that people are focusing too much on it. It should be part of your cuisine if it’s part of your region and terroir. It’s free and it’s cool to team-build and get guys out and play around in the woods. But I see all these people who are spending too much time gathering things that don’t have any flavor, just doing it to be doing it because it’s trendy. Why put something on a plate that’s not delicious? Don’t put it on a plate just because it’s trendy.

Noah and Rae Bernamoff
What is the last time that you got home at 7 a.m.?
Noah: That’s funny…just last weekend!
Rae: We were together.

What happened?
Noah: I went to a friend’s wedding in Chicago and we had Le Fooding on Sunday, so we had to take the flight back in the morning at 6:30. I basically stayed out from Saturday morning right through the Le Fooding after party.
Rae: We got home at 3 a.m. on Sunday night and had basically been up for 48 hours.
Noah: I put in a 43-hour day that day.

What went down at your friend’s wedding?
Noah: Just a lot of alcohol [laughs]. It was lovely, a very touching service.

What was the food at the wedding?
Noah: They went for an ethnic food combination wedding. There was a booth where you could get pupusas and tamales, another booth that was Italian beef with peppers, another one with sushi.

Jeff McInnis
Name your favorite fall ingredient and how you can use it in a smart way.
I like pumpkin. I know that’s kind of a cop-out because it’s an easy one. I like stuffing the little baby ones – cooking the insides and then filling them back up.

What’s a good stuffing?
Foie gras is good. A pumpkin foie gras mousse or something could be good.

What is your fall like season-wise in Miami?
There’s not much. The seasons don’t really change down there too much so you kind of have to rely on everybody else’s seasons and follow that path. The fall is actually pretty cool down there because that’s when all the produce starts popping up. We get tomatoes like crazy through fall – we get all of our heirlooms through fall and winter. Our seasons are a little bit backwards. All our lettuces start popping up, as well – lots of mustard greens, collard greens.

Since it pretty much pumps through our veins already, this is kinda like Christmas, our birthday, the fourth of July and the Langford Tractor Pull all rolled into one. A whole month dedicated to those beautiful amber waves of angel’s tears. C’mon in and get schooled in the nuances of America’s finest contribution to the world. Besides Kate Upton, anyway. We’ve got a Bourbon Throwdown Dinner on Sept. 20th. which features a four-course Bourbon-centric spread and side-by-side comparisons of Kentucky Bourbon and non-Kentucky Bourbon with each course. We’ve got themed Bourbon flights curated by our in-house Bourbon Professor Allegra Angelo. We’ve got an incredible list of Bourbon cocktails - for the purist and the novice alike. And we’ve got FREE Bourbon drinks for the ladies every Friday from 4-7 PM. Oh, and a seat saved for you Ms. Upton.

For more info or reservation for the Bourbon Throwdown, call: 305.538.5220

Yardbird proudly presents The Midnight Chef’s Table Series. Every Friday at midnight, starting May 18th, join Chef Jeff McInnis, some friends and some soon-to-be-friends around a communal table featuring a continually changing menu of inventive and inspired takes on traditional Southern fare. Each week will bring a special “Guest Chef” and a new “Chef’s Choice” meal served family style to a limited number of guests. Set in the midst of all the action in front of Yardbird’s open kitchen, the dinner will also include a culinary matched cocktail prepared tableside. Chef McInnis will be on hand to visit with guests, “talk food” and extoll the virtues of sourcing from local farms, foragers and fisherman. Be sure to check our website and social media regularly for a schedule of future special guest chefs, sommeliers and bartenders.

Guest Chefs:
Timon Balloo (Sugarcane) - May 25
Daniel Serfer (Blue Collar Miami) - June 8
Dean James Max (3030 Ocean) - June 15
Paula DaSilva (1500 degrees) - June 22
Michael Bloise (SushiSamba) - June 29
Howie Kleinberg (Bulldog BBQ/Bulldog Burger) - July 6
John Suley (Celebrity Cruises) - July 13
Michael Reidt (Area 31) - July 20
Jeff O’neill (Barton G) - July 27
Andrew Balick (DiLido Ritz-Carlton) - August 3
Riesling Dinner: 3 pours with Riesling paired dishes, $55/person - August 10
Sean Brassel (Meat Market) - August 17
Jason Smith (Steak 954) - August 24
Kenny Gilbert (Swine Southern Table & Bar) - August 31
Giorgio Rapicavoli (Eating House) - September 7
Richard Gras (J&G Grill, St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort) - September 14
Aaron Taylor (STK Miami) - September 21
Cesar Zapata (The Federal Miami) - September 28
Phillip Bryant (Yardbird Southern Table & Bar) - October 12
James Petrakis (The Ravenous Pig) - November 9
Jose Mendin (Pubbelly) & Michael Pirolo (Macchialina) - November 30
Ryan Smith (Empire State South) - February 22

The pre-fixed cost is $55 per person, excluding tax and gratuity.
Please book in advance and express any dietary restrictions/allergies at time of reservation.
FOR RESERVATIONS CALL: 305-538-5220

The James Beard Foundation has announced the semifinalists in the 2012 Restaurant and Chef Awards — the finalists will be announced on March 19 in Las Vegas. South Florida Semifinalists for Best New Restaurant: Yardbird Southern Table & Bar; Outstanding Pastry Chef: Hedy Goldsmith of Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink; Outstanding Service: Café Boulud at the Brazilian Court Hotel in Palm Beach; Rising Star Chef of the Year: Jarrod Verbiak, DB Bistro Moderne at the JW Marriott Marquis Miami; and Best Chef South: Paula DaSilva, 1500º at Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach, Jeff McInnis, Yardbird Southern Table & Bar, and Sergio Navarro, Pubbelly.

Click here for complete list.

We received so many delicious grits-related entries, but it was game over when Allison Friendly sent in her submission, this very excellent YouTube video, along with the lyrics below. Friendly scored 2 tickets to the South Beach Wine and Food Festival Southern Revival Dinner at Yardbird Southern Table & Bar on February 25 featuring an 1800s themed menu by Jeff McInnis, Sean Brock, Kenny Gilbert and Gail Goetsch. Now let’s everybody sing:

Grits with cheese, grits with milk,
with butter right on top…
grits in fritters, grits with bacon,
grits with chili sauce.
grits with eggs, grits with shrimp,
grits for every meal…
I’d eat grits with ANYTHING,
my love for grits is real.
Just moved down from New Orleans
where grits and I were dating.
I haven’t had a southern meal
all year, please stop my craving!

Executive Chef • Husk, McCrady’s - Charleston, S.C.

A Southern Revival • February 25th at Yardbird Southern Table & Bar
For Reservations Call: 305.538.5220

Many chefs have their first exposure to cooking at a young age. For Sean Brock, who was born and raised in rural Virginia, it was the experience of his family growing their own food that left a deep impression. “This was a coal-field town with no restaurants or stoplights,” he explains. “You grew and cooked your own food, so I really saw food in its true form. You cook all day, and when you’re not cooking, you’re preserving.” These were the building blocks that Brock would not forget as he began building his career as a chef.

Leaving Virginia to attend school, Brock landed at Johnson & Wales University in Charleston, SC. He began his professional career as chef tournant under Chef Robert Carter at the Mobil Four-Star/AAA Four-Diamond Peninsula Grill in Charleston. After two years at Peninsula Grill, Brock was executive sous chef under Chef Walter Bundy of Lemaire Restaurant at the AAA Five-Diamond Award/ Mobil Five-Star Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, VA. His success in Richmond led to his promotion within the Elite Hospitality Group in 2003 to executive chef at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, TN. Brock spent just under three years fine tuning his craft in Nashville before accepting a position as executive chef at McCrady’s Restaurant. Shortly after his return to Charleston, Brock began the development of a 2.5-acre farm on Wadmalaw Island. “While I was growing there, I began dabbling in resurrecting and growing crops that were at risk of extinction, such as those indigenous to this area pre-Civil War,” he says. These experiments have led Brock to become a passionate advocate for seed preservation and he continues to grow a number of heirloom crops, including James Island Red Corn (aka “Jimmy Red”), from which he makes grits, Flint Corn, Benne Seed, Rice Peas, Sea Island Red Peas and several varieties of Farro.

Today, Brock maintains a 1.5-acre parcel of land on Thornhill Farm in McClellanville, SC, where he continues to plant heirloom seeds and cultivate new crops. Thornhill is also the home of a 100-acre farm utilized by Our Local Foods and Adaptive Gardens of the Lowcountry, which are run by Maria Baldwin and supply fresh, local, organic produce to the public and some restaurants via its community-supported agriculture program. “The majority of the produce we cook at McCrady’s comes from this farm,” Brock notes.

Working with local purveyors and vendors has had a great impact on Brock’s cooking. “Gone are the days of a chef sitting in the kitchen creating recipes and then picking up the phone to order food from wherever it needs to come from,” he says. “At McCrady’s, for example, we might get three suckling pigs, three whole lambs, half a cow, and upwards of 450 pounds of fish, as well as mountains of vegetables. We only take it when it’s ready, so it shows up and we have to start piecing the recipes together; it’s like a game of Jenga.” Drawing from his early education, the chef also pickles, cans, and makes preserves from the produce that cannot be used immediately, saving it for a later date and for new creations. Brock pulls from his memory of ingredients and their flavor profiles to create McCrady’s menu depending on what is delivered to the kitchen. It’s a modern approach to cooking that comes from a pure appreciation of the food itself. The results are constantly changing offerings for McCrady’s diners that always surprise. “At McCrady’s, we emphasize the importance of the food from the Lowcountry region and constantly refine our cooking processes to best honor our relationships with the farmers, artisans and fisherman that provide us with their amazing products,” he says.

Brock’s abilities have resulted in a number of awards and accolades, both locally and nationally. He has twice cooked for the James Beard Foundation, and was the winner of the “Next Great Chef” episode of the “Food Network Challenge.” He will also soon appear on “Iron Chef America.” He was nominated in 2008 and 2009 for the James Beard “Rising Star Chef” award, and in 2009 and 2010 nominated for the James Beard “Best Chef Southeast” award, winning the award in 2010. In addition to his kitchen duties, Brock maintains a blog for McCrady’s at http://www.seanbrock.wordpress.com and regularly posts on Twitter about the food coming in to his kitchen. When he does carve out free time, he’s often at his home just outside of Charleston, which he shares with his three dogs and his wife, Tonya, to whom he proposed while cooking at the James Beard House. Over the past year, Chef Brock completed a full-sleeve tattoo on his arm depicting, of course, his favorite vegetables, including Jimmy Red Corn.

Culinary enthusiasts will have a chance to travel back in time during this year’s Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival as James Beard Award-Winning Executive Chef Sean Brock of Husk and McCrady’s in Charleston unites with the culinary team at Yardbird Southern Table and Bar. “Top Chef” alums Jeff McInnis and Kenny Gilbert, and Pastry Chef Gail Goetsch will team up with Chef Brock to cook the ultimate Southern menu inspired by the region’s history. “A Southern Revival” will be an 1800’s themed dinner, featuring time-honored recipes from the era which has influenced the innovative cuisine at both Yardbird and Husk.

Ticket prices start at $375 per person and will benefit the Southern Foodways Alliance. Premium seating at a limited number of Chef’s tables will also be available for $475 per person and will include a bourbon flight presented by Julian Van Winkle, III.

Location: Yardbird Southern Table & Bar, 16th and Lenox on Miami Beach.
Date:    February 25th, 2012
Time:    8 PM

For more information, or to purchase tickets, call (305) 538.5220. And click here to enter Eater’s contest to win a couple of tix!

C’mon down to Yardbird this weekend and celebrate John’s grandma’s birthday with a little Bourbon and some of her fine fried chicken! You know how she do.

Check out the 50 Best Southern Bars according to Garden & Gun. Something to shoot for!

Momofuku chef David Chang conducted a tasting for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon during which he samples all kinds of bourbons, from Old Grandad to Buffalo Trace. While trying to explain just how bourbon is made, he is also clearly intoxicated and declares: “It’s not that difficult, but I’ve already had several bourbons, so I can’t tell you exactly what the hell I’m talking about.”

Still, the man has a few pearls of wisdom to drop when it comes to your bourbon. Buffalo Trace pairs well with pumpkin pie. Jim Beam is surprisingly “not that bad” although Jim Beam and Coke is a different story: “That’s like ordering a wine spritzer. You don’t want to be that guy.” Also, probably the most important takeaway is that, “If you’re gonna be drinking this late-night and you’re already drunk, it doesn’t really matter what you’re drinking.”

email: humanresources@50eggsinc.com or work@runchickenrun.com

Guitarist Hubert Sumlin energized Howlin’ Wolf’s hits - Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

When Howlin’ Wolf romped through “Wang Dang Doodle” or thundered in “Three Hundred Pounds of Joy,” the snarling guitar that accompanied him belonged to one of the greatest bluesmen to pick up the instrument: Hubert Sumlin.

The cry of Sumlin’s guitar — riffing hard one moment, sighing poetically the next — helped define Wolf’s sound, even if Sumlin never attained a fraction of the fame of his celebrated boss.

In the wake of Sumlin’s death Sunday at age 80, of heart failure in Wayne, N.J., Chicago blues musicians tried to put his outsize contributions in focus.

“He’s the one that shaped that Howlin’ Wolf sound,” said septuagenarian Chicago blues guitarist Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater. “On tunes like ‘Shake for Me’ and ‘Smokestack Lightning’ — that was the Howlin’ Wolf sound, and Hubert’s guitar made it.”

That sound still resonates in our popular culture, Sumlin’s guitar humming in the background of a Viagra TV ad featuring “Smokestack Lightning.”

For blues listeners, it’s difficult to separate the roar of Wolf’s vocals from the lacerating guitar lines that accompanied them, Sumlin’s counterpoint a testament to his ingenuity as blues improviser.

“He was different — he produced a different sound that other guys couldn’t get,” said veteran Chicago blues saxophonist Eddie Shaw, who played alongside Sumlin in Wolf’s band for 13 years.

“(Eric) Clapton wanted it. All the guys from overseas wanted it. … Everybody wanted to get that Hubert Sumlin sound.”

Little wonder Clapton and Keith Richards volunteered to play sidemen for Sumlin on his Grammy-nominated album “About Them Shoes” (2005). In so doing, the guitar gods paid homage to a less-celebrated deity who had pointed the way for them.

Born in the Mississippi Delta — in Greenwood, Miss. — and raised in Hughes, Ark., the self-taught guitarist collaborated with future harmonica star James Cotton before either was known to the world. By the early 1950s, Wolf brought Sumlin to Chicago and mentored him before the listening public, transforming a somewhat shy, soft-spoken young man into a ferocious presence — once Sumlin strapped on his guitar.

The two men made staggering music together, but they sometimes battled with equal intensity off the bandstand.

Showing up after a gig had ended in Little Rock, Ark., in the 1950s, Sumlin nonchalantly piled into the car heading to the next date. It didn’t take long before Wolf interrupted the journey, dragged Sumlin out of the vehicle and shoved him down a hill, costing the musician two front teeth.

“He was a big man, and he scared me half to death!” Sumlin said in a Tribune interview earlier this year.

A few days later, Sumlin turned up unannounced at Silvio’s, a landmark Chicago blues club where the Wolf often howled, and cocked his fist.

“I hit him!” Sumlin recalled in the Tribune interview. “I knocked his teeth out too. And afterward, he laughed. … I hated I did it. I apologized. But you know what the guy did? We went back to work.”

This kind of intramural violence was not uncommon in an earlier, more rough-and-tumble blues era, and that feral energy made its way onto recordings, assuring both Wolf and Sumlin a measure of musical immortality.

After the 1976 death of Wolf (who was born Chester Arthur Burnett), Sumlin eventually came into his own as bandleader and emerging vocalist, issuing critically acclaimed recordings that were more muted than those of his old boss.

In recent years, Sumlin — who had left Chicago and lost his wife, Wille B. “Bea” Reed Sumlin, in 1999 — was still a periodic attraction on Chicago stages. He appeared alongside Robert Cray and Jimmie Vaughan in 2007 at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, at Toyota Park in Bridgeview; performed at a “Blues at the Crossroads” concert in February at Symphony Center; and headlined frequently at the Chicago Blues Festival but canceled his participation in a Robert Johnson centennial tribute at this summer’s fest (as did the since-deceased nonagenarian David “Honeyboy” Edwards), due to illness.

Sumlin’s last public performance was at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Ark., in October, said his agent, Hugh Southard.

Though nominated for several Grammys, Sumlin never won, yet he achieved the highest esteem of his peers.

“He can be imitated,” said former colleague Shaw, “but never duplicated.”

Sumlin had no surviving children, said Southard. Funeral arrangements are pending; Sumlin will be buried next to his wife in Washington Memory Gardens Cemetery, in Homewood, Ill.