True Stories
I Do Not like Beer, but It Was Featured at My Birthday Party!
My 75th birthday is the closest I will ever come to beer, and it was just an image
My history with beer
Even in college, I did not like beer. My classmates and I went to Expo 67, a world fair in Montreal. The beer pavilion was giving out samples from their 120 different brands. My classmates could not find one that I liked.
I can see how beer became popular back in the dark ages when beer was safer to drink than water, but water is safe today.
My 75th birthday
My four brothers, my daughter, my wife’s daughter, and my wife’s sister traveled to The Villages, FL for a celebration. They weren’t much worried since The Villages has a 91% vaccination rate.
My wife put together the surprise party at the City Fire restaurant on the Sumter Landing town square. When she mentioned it to the manager a couple months before, he immediately called my favorite band, Groove 41, and booked them for that night. I was informed one month prior to my birthday.
What kind of cake did I want?
Well, I didn’t want any. They are usually drenched in sugary icing and the pieces are way too big! After a 3-hour discussion, I finally agreed since everybody else would expect one.
We never argue or raise our voices. We just discuss things to death. Usually, like this time, we end up with something neither of us thought of at the beginning.
Then the search began. We initially dismissed the local grocery store and looked at the local bakeries. Unfortunately, most sold round cakes which are hard to cut into uniform sizes. City Fire has cake on the menu, but I can only eat one-fourth and take the rest home for three more meals.
My beer cake
Then we discovered that the Publix in-store bakery made cupcake cakes in many shapes. Each person gets a cupcake, we didn’t have to cut them, they are all the same size, and the icing is not overwhelmingly sweet.
They had many shapes: baby outfit, flamingo, alligator, beer mug, plus many others. They varied in size — 16, 24 or 32 cupcakes. I settled on the beer mug as the most functional shape, sort of square.
We bought two with 32 cupcakes each.
One was for my party. The other was for the restaurant staff. Occasionally a few may get some leftovers, but not often and not everyone. After their outstanding service over the year, I felt that they deserved a whole cake of their own.
Delivery to the restaurant
My son-in-law and I delivered the cakes a couple of hours early. Our tables were already set up with space reserved at one end for a cake. About five workers came over to look at it.
Someone asked, “Do you want to put the other one in the back until you are ready?”
I replied, “No, this is for the staff and the band. Please do not distribute it until the band members get theirs.”
The looks of shock were priceless.
Cake and Beer
That night, many of our party drank beer — quite a few beers. Not me or my wife.
I finally found that I can tolerate white zinfandel if they pour it over a glass of ice. I drink it with a straw, just like tea. I’ve noticed that several other patrons are now drinking their wine the same way.
I doubt that I will ever tolerate beer, except for the phantom beer made out of cake.
References
Publix “Pull Apart Cupcakes”
