Pig and Swig 2016

Brooklyn Brewery is seemingly involved in everything. There’s not a weekend where we don’t see them at some awesome event, concert or happening. Their main home being 8 blocks from FTHQ gives us incredible access to their next moves like the launch of Brooklyn Brewery Mash. Taking themselves on the road, pop-up collab style, the guys and girls over at BB decided to mini-tour some of our countries best eating cities and smash it together with their brews. The micro-event format includes events like a free concert at the Philly landmark Union Transfer or rare beer and Chinese food mashup between Brooklyn Brewery Chef Andrew Gerson and the team from Bing Bing Dim Sum. This gives us an HUGE excuse to head to Philly. August 25th – 28th in Philadelphia.

Hey Americano! You may know these as Disco Fries. Just know the best late night cheese fry and brown gravy throwdown you’ve ever had can’t hold a candle to a proper Canadian poutine. It’s all about the curds. Double that up with old town Montreal, one of the prettiest of North American city waterfronts, and you’re two goals to a hat trick. (It’s hockey country. Yes, even in the summer) That third goal can be scored in two ways. The best strip clubs north of the Dade County line (not recommended) or a post poutine cocktail crawl up Boulevard St. Laurent to the Plateau. Whatever your evening entails, be certain The Great Montréal PoutineFest will blow your taste buds into a Nova Scotian Noreaster and prime your belly for an evening of mixologist guided, gastro-debouchery. June 29th – July 3rd in Montreal.

We can’t wait for the porking tasty (see what we did there?) good time we’re gonna have at Pig Island, NYC’s definitive pork fest, where the hogs come from small local farms, the chefs are top-notch. The eats are crazy, as in, crazy good and plain old crazy. Especially if you’re not in the habit of consuming obscure cuts of pork on the regs. Where else is it possible to eat locally sourced pig head tacos and crispy pig ear lettuce wraps in the same meal? But if that’s not exactly your jam, don’t worry, there will be lots of tamer fare to pig out on, too. Although we wouldn’t exactly call last year’s bacon banana bread with caramelized bacon “tame.” If you’re still not convinced, maybe the all-inclusive ticket with unlimited pork and free-flowing beer, wine, and cider will push your to snap up a ticket. So go ahead — go completely hog wild. Saturday, September 10th from 11:30am to 4pm in Brooklyn.

For the fourth year in a row their will be more capscium concentrated in North Brooklyn than any where else on earth. With names like Naga Morich, Madame Jeanette, Dorset Naga, Bhut Jolokia and Moruga Scorpion, you might think it’s a South American ex-con reunion. The NYC Hot Sauce Expo burns their home into Greenpoint for two days this weekend with representation from India to Africa to Trinidad with sauces highlighting the hottest of the hot. With events like the Torch Bearers Gacumole Eating Contest and Defcon Sauces Chicken Wing Eating Competition, there is something for everyone. Even if you’re not a hot sauce enthusiast you can come down and watch people compete to burn their face and insides to win a pepper topped trophy. April 23rd and 24th from 10am-6pm in Brooklyn.