Meaty Monday Madness & TipsyTexan

Meaty Monday Madness surely was a Meaty Monday Madness. Several weeks back I met a guy named Zack who is an owner and chef of a restaurant here in Austin. As I do with most people, we got to talking and soon thereafter the conversation lead to food and cooking. Sometimes I wish there was a secret camera watching me so I could go back and watch how ridiculously excited I get by simply talking to people about food, among other things. Zack had some great stories about his days being a chef and I had a few of my own from stages I had done in New York and Italy (I felt like one of the gang...it was sweeeet). When I was about to leave he pulled out a card from his wallet and invited me to a dinner he has the first Monday of every month called Meaty Monday Madness. Essentially it is a huge meeting of chefs, and their friends, at Zack's house that involves different types of home-smoked meats and tons of chef prepared side dishes. He didn't need to ask me twice...I was going!
On the menu last night was a smoked rib-roast, ham, and turkey. There was fresh black eyed peas, corn pudding, mac & cheese, bread and cheeses, homemade cookies, butternut squash soup etc. Also at the party was a guy I know named David who owns a business here in Austin called TipsyTexan. He bartended the event with a classic holiday drink from the 1800's called a Tom & Jerry as well as other drinks one of which included hand squeezed grapefruit juice from a friend's farm in Louisiana. Zack and David definitely know what they're doing. I had an incredible time and got to meet a bunch of great new people, chefs included (I asked them many food questions haha). Wow was the food and drink tasty too...Yum