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One of my favorite bartenders in Atlanta, Evan Hawkins, was crowned the National Champion of the 2011 United States Bartenders Guild Drinks & Ink Competition presented by Tuaca. This not-so-usual take on a bartender competition combined the intersecting cultures of bartenders and tattoos with bartenders being judged on their Tuaca bold shot recipe and the overall craftsmanship of their tattoo.

Hawkins captured his first national bartender competition by beating out eight other finalists from the around the country to win a Tuaca photo spread in this month’s Inked Magazine.

“I’ve competed in several bartender competitions and Drinks & Ink was one of the most different and fun ones I’ve ever experienced,” said Hawkins. “I’m proud to have been recognized for both my Pura Vida body art and Tuaca bold shot and am stoked up to be featured in Inked.”

Hawkins won his first national bartender competition with his Pura Vida bold shot recipe and a tattoo featuring a sugar skull with the words “Pura Vida” under it. Pura Vida means pure life in Spanish and the skull is a candy given out on the “day of dead” ceremony in Mexico. For Hawkins, it means to celebrate your life and live the best you can before the end comes.

Tattoo by Danielle Distefano of Only You Tattoo. Evan’s baseball cap by We Are the Process.

Sweetwater Brewing announced a new brew this week: Waterkeeper Hefeweizen Ale. The beer is an unfiltered wheat ale that will be available through June, and is part of Sweetwater’s campaign to help watersheds across the Southeast.

Reportedly, the beer has the flavors of banana, clove, and lemon. The bottle features a hand-drawn image of the river and the story of how Sweetwater got involved with Waterkeeper Alliances across the Southeast.

Waterkeeper Hefeweizen Ale will be previewed at the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s annual River Revival Thursday night (5/19/11). It will begin showing up on draft in bars and restaurant, and in bottles elsewhere by the end of May. I’m looking forward to trying at one of my favorite restaurants. Hopefully they participate in the program!

Last Friday I caught my first show at the Graveyard’s new concert venue, The Basement. They’ve been talking about expanding into this venue for a long time and now I see why it took them so long. Everything about this new place was executed flawlessly. The furnishings are on point, and the soundsystem is amazing. The band of the evening, U.S. Royalty, blew my ears back! I’ve been listening to them for a few years now, but hadn’t seen them live until this point. The band rocks so damn hard, and lead singer John Thornley, has a voice that gives you chills. Do yourself a favor and go see USR live.

We recently teamed up with the fine folks at Graveyard Tavern who were looking to do something unique with their new downstairs concert venue called The Basement. They asked us to put our unique spin on a small walk-in room in the back of the venue.

If you’re having a great time at The Basement, but you need a few minutes of privacy to take care of whatever you please, then check out “The Process Room” in the back of the building.

The photo above doesn’t do the room justice. You have to see our graphic installation in person. Make sure you remember to tweet pics from inside this room to us at @WeAreTheProcess to be randomly selected to win prizes!

I love the idea of cooking with Coca-Cola (& Dr. Pepper) so much that I started talking about making a BBQ sauce out of Coca-Cola on the long drive back from SXSW. By the time we got home, Georgios had already found several recipes on the internet. I decided to try one that sounded rather easy. As you can see here, all of the ingredients are easily found in a grocery store.

I was relatively happy with the recipe from the internet, but it’s going to need some tweaking. My main gripe with the recipe I worked from was that too many of the ingredients were basically sauces themselves. There’s gotta be another way! I’m going to continue to perfect this recipe until I have a handle on it. Someday I’ll share it with you! But not until it’s ready.

The past 2 weeks on the road have been very exhausting, yet super fun and rewarding. I had so much fun meeting new people and seeing their positive reactions to our efforts. Here are some photos and videos from our trip to New Orleans, Austin, & Charleston as well as some friends’ pics sent in via Twitter. Enjoy!
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We’ve been spending some time in a basement in East Atlanta Village on a special project. Stay tuned…

One of the benefits of having our studio near historic East Point, is this soul food spot called Q’s Restaurant. The food is so good it’ll have you taking afternoon naps instead of hitting deadlines! Oops!

Dr. Pepper soft drink, Tipsy Texan Sandwich ($4.95), & potato salad.

I met some high school buddies for lunch while in Austin last week & I knew the notion of letting one of them pick the spot was going to be an adventure. One of the recent trends in the Austin food scene is food trucks, food trailers, and even food trailer parks. My friend, Rob, insisted that we check out the trailer, Franklin Barbecue, located right off an I-35 access road. I had previously heard that Franklin Barbecue was infamous for it’s long lines because of the quality of the food & the abundant Southern hospitality shown to every customer at the trailer’s service window. I wasn’t surprised with our hour-and-fifteen-minute wait surrounded by a teasing, smoky richness in the air.

When we finally reached the window to order, we were greeted with a tension-diffusing “Hey, you must be hungry after that wait, right?!?” Instantly, any animosity felt by our long wait was gone. I ordered a Tipsy Texan sandwich containing a large helping of chopped beef, sausage, onions, pickles, and cole slaw which was prepared in front of me by owner Aaron Franklin. When he found out I was visiting from Georgia, he gave me 2 head-sized slabs of brisket for free, just to try… and boy, was that brisket amazing! It’s a good sign any time brisket falls apart as soon as you poke it with a fork!

My next trip to TX won’t be complete without another visit to Franklin Barbecue, but I don’t know where I’ll find them, as they are planning a transition to a brick-and-mortar storefront very soon. Stay up to date on those developments by following @FranklinBbq on Twitter.

If you find yourself in New Orleans and you’re craving food outside of the bland, tourist trap genre, I suggest going to one of the seven Bud’s Broiler locations. No, they aren’t on Bourbon Street next to the permanent Spring Break clubs, but it’s well worth the venture away from consuming mindlessly prepared food. I’m sorry, but another round fried alligator bites turdlets is going to cause me to slap someone. Bud’s Broiler has been around since 1952 and it’s reputation among locals speaks for itself. Make sure you ask for the smoked sauce as it compliments your burger, fries, and onion rings unlike ketchup ever will.