Ninth Street Bakery

After visiting Hill Farmstead in 2018, I thought I had reached the proverbial mountaintop. I had kept in touch with owner Shaun Hill since, and petitioned for a monthlong internship this past July, which I was lucky enough to land. As you could probably imagine, it was a holy grail, once in a lifetime moment for me, and was meant to be a respite as well from the burnout I had experienced through the pandemic. Hill Farmstead has been voted best brewery in the world eight times. Ostensibly, I was there to learn the craft and possibly start a brewery when I returned, or simply get more deep into homebrewing. What I came away with was much more.

Once I arrived in Greensboro (VT), I’m in there on the brew cellar floor where the magic happens and the first four or five days I’m just furtively asking questions like I might be able to take something away immediately, and by the fifth day or so I realize, oh my gd, how little I know. In my diary, it literally reads, "I've learned just enough to learn how little I know." You could study beermaking for years and still feel like an amateur, a poser, upon landing at Hill Farmstead.

In breadmaking, I would say there are twenty-five critical control (process) points, whereby if you screw something up at any of those points, your resulting loaf will be suboptimal. For beer, I would say it's closer to one hundred. Shaun and his team are brewing, then fermenting, dry-hopping, transferring, conditioning in a fermenter, foudre, puncheon, or wine barrel, and then bottling, and bottle conditioning until finding the optimal time to open, market, and present the beer to the thirsty public. It's so fucking tough, and makes breadmaking look easy by comparison. Yes, you can make really mediocre beer really easily, just as one can make mediocre bread. But if you drink your way through the HF catalogue, you'll see this unrivaled attention to detail, to craft, that makes it just one of the best in the world. The quality of the beer is directly proportional to the sophistication and predilections of Shaun's palate, as well as his meticulous attention to detail. "There is no Shaun," he said once, his nut-brown eyes glinting, "I am the brewery." I told him he had a book, or several books in him, as the beer not only is great, but is often accompanied by his personal philosophy as it is rendered through ancient and modern philosophers, as well as his ancestors that worked the very land that he brews on and sources some of his ingredients and water.

The beauty of the land there swept me over. While learning to attach tri-clamps to giant fermenters in a land of no cell service, dirt roads, and copious ponds to swim, I fell in love with the Northeast Kingdom as it's known, the beer, and even the people, often curmudgeonly and terse as they are. Returning to Durham after a month away, I wondered who I would be if I lived there permanently.

Sunday, December 5, 2021

All Hail the Pep Cup (Review)

Some say the circle is the divine shape, but lovers of pizza know that the square is the true test of the pizzaiolo’s skill. I love pizza. Who doesn’t love pizza? But do we have opinions about it? Sure? Are they subjective? Yes. Who is this guy anyway? Also, fuck pizza, right? But shit, I will never stop eating it.

Those thick, square slices (also known as Sicilian) can be topped with any number of options, but they’re best when teeming with pep cups—tiny, sliced, cured meats that, when exposed to high temperatures, flex concave, like seedlings yearning for the light. Unlike the thin bland pepperoni slices that typically top a pizza, they’re salty and spicy, full of garlic and umami, not to mention thicker and chewier than ordinary pepperoni. Little orbs of unctuous goodness. Little flying saucers of gold.

The Triangle happens to have two of the best pep cup slices in North Carolina (imo). Coronato and DiFara Pizza each swagger like two heavyweights in the ring for Sicilian pie dominance.

Coronato is crust-to-crust, wall-to-wall pep cups, all completely inverted as they should be, with a little bit of crispy char for flavor and texture balance. For DiFara, some pep cups are braised (mmm...braised cured meats) into the cheese and sauce, yielding a different meaty mouthfeel altogether, some charred inconsistently. A hot slice of Difara is swimming in a soupy delicious sauce, whereas Coronato covers their pie in generous grated Parm.

The way each restaurant sets up and handles their pie dough influences the final product. The piemakers at Difara press each piece into the mold prior to baking while the makers at Coronato set up the dough, chill it, and then slightly deflate it using their fingers prior to topping.

The result is that DiFara is more like pizza, and Coronato is more like focaccia. It depends what you like, but one would have to say that DiFara is the more “authentic” (shit, I hate that word) pie.

And you wouldn’t think sauce would be the difference-maker, but the cooked San Marzano sauce at DiFara, surprisingly black-peppery, almost obscures the cheese. The shreds of basil scissored onto the pie that gives a slight hint of herbaceousness, cutting the lactose intensity of the browned mozz.

Both pies go into very well seasoned (olive-oiled) pans, which yield the best fried toast crust you could ever imagine, cooked to perfection in a high temperature oven in a thick pan.

Like a momma choosing their favorite child, it’s hard to pick just one, but for my money, DiFara outlasts Coronato. The dough to sauce texture is superior, and the sauce is better— it doesn’t matter how many cups you load on there (and trust me, Coronato will go down swinging).

Saturday, November 6, 2021

The Science of Sourdough for the Gluten Sensitive

For my gluten-sensitive peeps, try our long-fermented Country Loaf:

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/gluten-sensitive-sourdough

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

In Memoriam: Mary Beth Bishop

Mary Beth Bishop, January 30, 1942 - March 12, 2021

Mary Beth was one of my original customers when I ran Berenbaum's, and continued her devout patronage through the years I've owned NSB. It's hard for me to describe her smile even now, her laugh, her generosity. At the time in 2011 when I met her, she was married to Alan, who though a tall man, was quite stooped and walked with a cane. They made quite the pair. She was a foodie's foodie, enthusiastic and giving, a great lover of our gingersnaps and biscotti and mandelbrot and kombucha and sandwiches. She survived breast cancer and chemo, only to have it come back. She survived her son, Steve, who also passed away from cancer two years before. She went through the breakup with Alan post-cancer with the utmost strength and dignity. She was like a surrogate mom or grandmom to me here in Durham (my family lives in Boston). She had a beauty and spirit and a liveliness all her own. I don't think I can put into words what it felt like to give her a hug, or what it was like to carry her bakery packages to her Subaru (with her dog Lisi in the back) that last time I saw her, to say goodbye without knowing it's goodbye. I heard two or three weeks later she passed very suddenly in the hospital. She had been getting weaker, and had a stubborn cough and laryngitis that went unexplained for months. The cancer had returned, this time in her throat and her lungs. I bake for people like Mary Beth, and I hope to carry a piece of her wherever I go, and in whatever I do.

A short prose poem:

And if you should take a grain of sand from Shackleford Banks home with you in your shoe, you will remember the name of her on her birthday, and on the grave that is scattered through the ashes of time in the hills of her birthplace of Casper, Wyoming.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Our new neighbor 😢

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/400-W-Main-St-2605-Durham-NC-27701/2067850157_zpid/

Thursday, September 30, 2021

Covid Diary December 16 to September 30

12-16

Poverty and shooting mar Durham during Covid: https://indyweek.com/news/durham/shootings-drugs-hayti-district/

12-20

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/20/us/covid-thanksgiving-effect.html

Moving forward: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/opinion/sunday/trump-presidency-accountability.html

The death of independent restaurants: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/opinion/sunday/restaurants-closin g-covid.html

12-23

Homeschooling exacerbates stratification, putting families on different playing fields: https://indyweek.com/news/orange/neighborhood-support-circles-refugee-community-partnership/

12-28

“If you can come up with a vaccine in a year, why are we sitting in a community where there is no grocery store with fresh fruits and vegetables.”

https://twitter.com/nhannahjones/status/1343716480421138438

12-30

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/opinion/promote-black-vaccination.html

My year-end wrap: https://indyweek.com/news/durham/opinion-berenbaum-year-we-learned-hate/

12-31

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/opinion/coronavirus-vaccines-expiring.html

The reality of nursing homes: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/opinion/sunday/covid-nursing-homes.html

My dad, a medical center physician, in his corny dad way, has renamed Operation Warp Speed Operation Dead Speed, attesting to its dysfunction and slowness.

1-2

The social fabric of America is unraveling: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/us/crime-poverty-pandemic-cleveland.html

1-6

Trump rioters invade the Capitol: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJt7l5AFrZ6vUjJGbsDhwfwTcYbOD6rxEfI6zw0

We've come undone.

1-18

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/18/opinion/biden-covid-19-plan.html

1-19

Where I ask over email our DDI and downtown business leaders not to reopen too fast and the reaction I got:

Sorry to use this thread for something off topic, but has there been any interest in pushing on City Council to do another shutdown? I'm getting many more anecdotal case reports from supermarket workers, baristas, grocery owners, etc. Our staff is coming to work every day anxious now. I know a shutdown similar to April is not business-friendly, but I think we need to put public health first here. We posted the attached to IG, FB, and Twitter and got positive responses/views.

In case you didn't see it, the legendary Titina Vuotto of CarpriFlavors passed mid-Dec of Covid: https://www.facebook.com/145338505483579/posts/4178182505532472/?extid=0&d=n

Best,

Ari

Hi Ari—

This is a very difficult decision and one where the arguments on both sides are compelling. My personal opinion is that while a complete shutdown of businesses may cause numbers to trend down, it will also put a number of individuals in an even more precarious position—restaurant and retail and other small business employees not having steady or reliable incomes (and in some cases medical insurance). I believe that the restaurants in downtown are doing everything they absolutely must (and in many cases going beyond the bare minimum) to ensure that they remain open and their employees (and customers) remain safe and healthy. The added resources and assistance from Greenlight Durham provides additional assistance in tracking of cases, listing of testing sites, and other COVID-related resources.

I won’t argue as to why the numbers are increase (eating out vs small family/intimate gatherings indoors). However, by allowing small businesses to stay open, the owners can decide what the appropriate response/answer is for their given situation and in downtown we are seeing each business owner decide what makes the most sense for not just the business operations but, in many cases, what is the most responsible thing to do to protect employees. Due to a lack of any significant and comprehensive federal, state, and/or local small business assistance, it is difficult to advocate for a complete shutdown as this would place an intense financial stress (on top of the stress many businesses are already carrying).

These are my personal thoughts. It is a difficult situation we are in and I think many thought we’d be a little further along in combating this virus. Regardless, as we continue to move forward, no matter how slowly, it remains difficult to plan when there’s so much uncertainty. I rely on the one-on-one conversations I have with multiple business owners in downtown to try and advocate what makes the most sense and provides the most benefit to the overall downtown business community. The wants and needs of a restaurant owner vs a salon owner vs a retail shop vs a live venue space are so varied and each must be considered. I continue to believe that the business owners in downtown will operate in a safe and responsible manner.

Nicole Thompson

President & CEO

Downtown Durham, Inc.

Hi Nicole,

Thanks for sending. I appreciate your thoughts. Just to be clear, I would still encourage restaurants to do takeout and outdoor dining. I think that is the best path until most of the vaccines are distributed. I think the fact that the mayor and city council have not enforced any type of stay-at-home order with the exception of going out for food/supplies/etc. (as we did in April) is foolhardy and leading to needless disease and death. Evidently we've become numb to the numbers of the sick and dying and have accepted it as a byproduct of our need to keep things open through this surge in cases. The fact that most of the disease burden falls on lower income folks just reinforces my distaste for how this has been handled.

Best,

Ari

I was just looking at the stats tonite. 13 Durhamites dead in the last week due to Covid (probably an undercount):

County	Total Cases	Total Deaths	Date	Rate Per 10,000	% of all cases by date	New Cases	New Deaths	7 Day New Cases Avg	Cases per 10,000 last 7 days	Cases per 10,000 last 14 days
Durham	17,826	158	Jan, 19	554.5	2.61	200	1	178	39	79
Durham	17,626	157	Jan, 17	548.3	2.58	264	7	180	39	76
Durham	17,362	150	Jan, 15	540.1	2.55	201	3	186	41	79
Durham	17,161	147	Jan, 14	533.8	2.52	175	1	198	43	78
Durham	16,986	146	Jan, 13	528.4	2.49	136	1	195	43	79
Durham	16,850	145	Jan, 12	524.1	2.47	130	0	195	42	77

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/opinion/joe-biden-2020-campaign-democrats.html

1-20

We know that the new variant of Covid is out there and may be 50% more transmissible and we are still not locking down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variant_of_Concern_202012/01

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/health/coronavirus-variants-immunity.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/health/coronavirus-variant-california.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/well/live/covid-b117-variant-advice.html

1-21

The UK struggles: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/world/europe/uk-hospitals-covid-variant.html

1-22

This American Life on the Capitol Riots: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-american-life/id201671138?i=1000506432552

1-25

15 Durhamites died last week of Covid. How many more need to die before the city takes steps to keep people from gathering and mixing?

This is exactly the case where a gradualist, incrementalist practice of progressive politics runs headlong into the life or death situation which is Covid.

1-29

https://indyweek.com/news/orange/unc-chapel-hill-where-yall-goin-instagram/

1-30

UC Davis: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/us/college-coronavirus-california.html

1-31

"No One Is Safe Until Everyone Is Safe": https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/world/africa/coronavirus-south-africa-variant.html

2-3

"NC has told us we can go fuck ourselves."

2-7

Vaccination woes: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/opinion/covid-vaccines-mutations.html

2-8

Unequal hospitals, unequal outcomes: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/us/covid-los-angeles.html

2-17

After it's over: The mood now seems to be one of preparation for what comes after our society's lockdown. Will business-as-usual reign?

Hell freezes over: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/us/texas-winter-storm.html

2-21

The only problem is in double mask hell, is no one can hear you speak.

2-22

Some reflections on the five hundred thousand (and counting):

https://ncprimer.substack.com/p/five-hundred-thousand

2-24

Cooper eases statewide restrictions: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article249467495.html

The problem with this is that people are like wood, and so long as there is dry wood, there will be fire so long as the virus still exists. I have no doubt this will lead to greater infections statewide.

This was a tough one: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/opinion/covid-icu-nurses-arizona.html

3-2

A year into the pandemic, full-on burnout has taken hold.

3-17

Durham kiddos return to school amid controversy: https://indyweek.com/news/durham/durham-public-school-board-threats/

3-19

Voting rights are under attack across the country. Can we push back? https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/opinion/raphael-warnock-voting-rights-resonstruction.html

3-25

It's the Coronaversary. (One year since things really shut down around here.) The year that nothing happened and everything happened, when no one changed and everyone changed.

4-7

All of the bakery employees have now received at least their first shot. Most have received both. Thank you to Greenlight Durham for facilitating many of the shots.

4-14

As predicted, there are vast vaccine inequities and access to information around vaccines: https://indyweek.com/news/durham/durham-racial-gap-covid-19-vaccine/

4-17

Downtown Durham is busy with people, people out at bars (Glass Jug), and scooters ripping and running all down Main Street. It appears the fine weather together with vaccines for most (?) have given people new confidence to get out. We've certainly seen an uptick in sales at the Bakery, and especially at Farmer's Market. The news cycle appears less terrifying now that Biden is president. It (and Trump) no longer hangs over the community like an evil scepter. People are worried about variants, and there are still lots of infections in the U.S., but somehow this seems more manageable. We continue to distribute funds via the Durham Neighbors program, and free lunches every day to the needy.

4-22

In poorer parts of the world, the virus rages on. The possibility for a vaccine-resistant variant rises with every day we fail on this. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/world/india-coronavirus-record.html

4-24

The world needs more vaccines, and the 1st world has them: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/opinion/covid-vaccines-poor-countries.html

5-4

The prospects and volume of Durham businesses have really picked up the last month. With vaccines and lower infection rates, people are getting out more. Business owners seem to be in a better and more optimistic mood as well. As my grandmother would say, "Money's like honey."

5-10 Masks may may be with us forever: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/10/world/covid-19-coronavirus#virus-herd-endemic

5-13

The Covid pain spreads to the 3rd world: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/world/asia/covid19-india-nepal-bangladesh-sri-lanka.html

5-14

We could vaccinate the world: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/opinion/biden-covid-vaccines-world-india.html

5-17

The shifting CDC mask guidance has caused real problems for us. Now some customers (and vendors!) feel they can walk into the bakery sans mask and will fight us verbally for their right to be served inside without a mask. It’s deplorable and confusing for everyone involved.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/17/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html

5-20

chatbots save the world: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/20/opinion/covid-19-vaccine-chatbot.html

5-25

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/25/us/george-floyd-protests-unrest-events-timeline.html

5-30

The masks have come off. Covid must be over. Bars, restaurants are filled with cooks, servers, and patrons without masks. Is it too early? I guess we’ll see if there is a fourth (?) wave. Only half the population in NC is vaccinated and yet the Covid rates are plummeting. So I guess things are working? It still feels too early for us to call it, so we are still requiring masks on all employees and also all customers inside the Bakery.

6-1

The Bakery turns 40 years old!

6-7

Joints for Jabs: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/us/washington-marijuana-covid-vaccine.html

6-12

Wow. Ain’t nobody wearing masks anymore. I went to Phillips Farm in Cary and literally 5 out of 400 ppl were wearing masks.

6-14

I was the only person inside the bar wearing a mask and everyone looked at me like in was the weirdo. And I thought, maybe I was.

7-9

After much deliberation, we were one of the last Durham businesses to require masks indoors, and today, we went mask-free for the vaccinated.

7-22

just as soon as we were in the clear and went maskless at the bakery, the delta variant reared its ugly head. #thefourthwave?

7-26

Delta returns with a vengeance. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article252929158.html

8-9

The mask mandate returns in Durham due to a spike in cases from Delta. Just one month later, masks return to the Bakery.

Covid returns for Gov Abbott: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/us/texas-mask-mandate-abbott.html

8-17

Abbott tests positive: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/us/greg-abbott-texas-covid-positive.html

8-19

I lost my best friend and I lost my rabbi due to Covid. The weird thing is, they are still alive.

8-26

Breakthrough infections can get anyone: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/26/health/covid-breakthrough-infection.html

Food service providers are finding it hard to stay staffed up. I can't get deliveries from US Foods because so many workers at the their warehouse are at home with Covid (delta): https://www.instagram.com/p/CTFRnoYnYnR/; https://www.instagram.com/p/CTDPZVALCkd

9-1

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/opinion/covid-pandemic-global-economy-politics.html

9-30

It appears that we have crested the hump of the delta infection wave and reports indicate that mu (the next strain) is in fact not vaccine-resistant. Does this mean we're in the clear or will mask mandates (and regular vigilance) lessen only for delta to return again for another (lesser?) wave of infection? Vaccine boosters are in rollout mode. Feels like an inflection point.

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Congee

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Vernon Mitchell

It is here that we recognize and pay tribute to the memory of baker Vernon Mitchell who passed away this past Monday from a pancreatic cancer that took him all too soon. Vernon was a gentle giant, over 6'4'', long and lanky with a warm smile, great sense of humor, and an easygoing way about him. He was with the bakery only four months, but we will miss him dearly. He is survived by a loving family and friends.

https://www.jonesfhinc.com/obituary/MrVernon-Mitchell

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Shopsin's

Hard to believe he's been gone three years. Kenny Shopsin RIP

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/obituaries/kenny-shopsin-dead.html

Sunday, August 15, 2021

The next level now in getting past the superficiality of culture is knowledge, literature

"Literature must be the antidote to unrepentant capitalism."

Mapo

Henry Miller

Bread: prime symbol. Try and find a good loaf. You can travel fifty thousand miles in America without tasting a good piece of bread. Americans don’t care about good bread. They are dying of inanition but they go on eating bread without substance, bread without flavor, bread without vitamins, bread without life. Why? Because the very core of life is contaminated.

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Vitality

I've been on an internship at Hill Farmstead Brewery in Vermont and thought I would collect some thoughts on what makes good beer great, hopefully with some connections to bread and gastronomy more generally:

Unpasteurized beer is alive. By manipulating yeast cell counts, fermentable sugars, and temperature, brewers try to capture lightning in a bottle.

How should one talk about vitality? One might talk about beer quality from any number of angles. Just as a poorly roasted coffee bean will yield a coffee that is flat in the cup, the same would be true for beer (bad process usually equals bad flavor).

Great beer achieves balance and depth from a number of different factors:

Yeast strain

Attenuation

Sweetness

Bitterness

Hop aroma /aromatics

Carbonation

Crispness

Softness/Minerality/Mouthfeel

Temperature

The balance and specificity of execution necessary to deliver great beer oddly reminds me of this article on the commercial production of ketchup by Malcolm Gladwell:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/09/06/the-ketchup-conundrum

Literature and bread might be all we have in this postmodern world

tomato cheese bread trifecta

There’s something about pizza that is so essential, quintessential even, such that I think I will never go a month without eating it. What else can we say that we will not touch all the rest of the days of your life except pizza?

Friday, June 4, 2021

Beat the Old Lady Out

Another woman told of growing up in Finland and of a particular cold winter day when a cow was slaughtered for meat. The mother in the kitchen stirred a vat of sliced onions in butter, and the girls one at a time rushed into the field with deep metal pans to catch blood gushing from the cow’s slit throat. The blood was poured over the onions, and then that mixture was transferred into their largest mixing bowl, along with flour and salt and homegrown yeast. Now the girls took turns kneading, palpating the ingredients with their chapped hands as if restarting a stopped heart, their shoulders bent with the effort, their mother reminding them that this blood bread would be all they’d have to sustain them in the cold days ahead, while the meat cured. “Beat the old lady out,” the mother called to her daughters. Beat out the cranky lumps until the dough in your hands is elastic, forgiving. Leave nothing behind, not a speck of flour nor smear of blood in the shiny bottom of the bowl.

https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/544/beat-the-old-lady-out

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Bagel Heaven: Utopia Bagels

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Pandora of the Moment: SiR

SiR Radio

Monday, January 10, 2022

Utopia Bagels: The Old School Way

Sunday, December 19, 2021

Best of 2021

Saturday, December 11, 2021

A Return to Hill Farmstead