Here’s this week’s list of things to check out:
- Blue Rascall Distillery: It’s a bit of a cheat for me to feature last night’s post about Blue Rascal in Serial Sunday, but it’s a charming and tasteful place. I got to thinking today that, like the breweries and wineries popping up all across the Garden State, and more appreciably in our remote spot here in South Jersey, that so many great options exist. We sat and sipped on locally made rye. Not just whisky, but rye. For all of the limitations of living in and around Cumberland County, we do have a number of treasures to appreciate. Rhonda and I were grousing a bit, though, that none of the categories we enjoy are currently here in Vineland. We did, for a time, enjoy an Amish market here in Vineland. But we have no distillery (nearby Millville does, though). We have no brewery (Millville does, though). And no winery in the land of the vines, birthplace of Welch’s. Caveat emptor: two cocktails isn’t the same as splitting a bottle of wine.
- Hotel Starlino Maraschino Cherries; These cherries were featured at Blue Rascal, and the bartender declared them better than Luxardo. Rhonda and I both agree heartily. I ordered a big can today while walking the dogs.
- Brave Browser: I’m not new to Brave, having used it in lieu of Chrome on the Mac due to Chrome’s resource hogging. It’s Chromium-based, so it was a good choice on the Mac as my “other” browser; I could keep myself logged into Vineland’s Google account, and turn to Brave for Google Suite work (Safari on the Mac is my preferred browser, though). So Brave was an easy choice for use on my Windows devices, once I realized how resource-hogging Microsoft’s Edge browser is. I even swapped Brave for Safari on my phone. It’s easy to set up syncing and there are granular sync controls. Brave’s search is pretty good (I think they use Bing), but you can switch to a number of other services, including Duck Duck Go. It also offers an AI assistant, Leo.1
1 I had a moment of nostalgia, remembering my first beers at the Ship Inn in Milford, NJ. I turned 21 while being up in Milford with my family after my grandmother died. I believe it was the night before the funeral, and my Dad and I nipped out to celebrate my ill-timed birthday with a few pints. I don’t remember exactly what I had that night, but it was a transformative experience. Here were incredibly fresh, authentic British classic styles at a pub… in New Jersey. In sleep Milford. It was a revelation and emollient to such a sad time. It’s called Descendants Brewing now.
2 I’m pretty excited to learn more about Arc and give it a go on both Mac and PC. I’m in the Windows beta, too.