Side Dish Dozen

*Were you given a Schnip poker chip? (Wow, you must be cool!) Take it to the following members’ spots presently to receive a free drink: Wobbly Olive or Allusion Speakeasy, Rasta Pasta, Edelweiss, Red Gravy, Odyssey Gastropub, and The Carter Payne (on public-facing event nights). More soon. Any confusion? Show the bartender or MOD this page. Cheers!

The Side Dish Dozen is a Schnip-curated selection of stalwart local businesses bundled into a sponsorship group to give this newsletter a stable financial position. Thank you to these generous businesses for stepping up to sponsor Side Dish:

To borrow from one of my new Side Dish Dozen sponsors, Goat Patch Brewing, “It Takes a Tribe.” (That’s the name of their award-winning red ale, if you didn’t know.) Hence my goal of coming alongside a select bundle of companies to essentially do business with so I can fund journalism for the wider community. They are town champions to me, co-investing to improve our cultural scene and ensure that the food and drink industry receives thorough and smart reporting coverage and attention. And they’re businesses that consistently execute at a high level and have earned loyal community support over the years.

In the interest of full transparency and tightrope walking the chef knife’s blade edge related to potential conflict of interest I will say these businesses are now in a special category where they won’t be critically reviewed by me in the traditional secret-shopped sense. Instead, for their investment in Side Dish, I'll be including some logos and ads and a devoted listings lineup in each newsletter to highlight their weekly programming. I’ll also be working with each one of them this year on a monthly event and a single feature blurb, more in a profile/newsy capacity. Most importantly I want their monthly stories to read as entertaining and informative, not as dry sponsored content that feels inauthentic and icky deep down. That’s not how I roll.

Keep an eye out for our monthly Sip with Schnip events with drink and food specials, which are rotating through our members’ locations throughout the year. They often, but not always, fall on third Thursdays of the month. We’ll see you there.