The Spread.

Craft Beer and Food Festivals Are Everywhere!

Welcome to The Spread, our weekly feature that aims to share all the area restaurant, food and beverage industry news that's fit to print. Except, this is the Internet, so space isn't a concern. Also: Good thing, because this is Dallas and this town always has breaking restaurant news going down like whoa.

We sincerely hope that last weekend's extended Labor Day observations didn't deplete your fun levels too much. Because this weekend? It's really shaping up to be a craft beer and food lover's dream.

Let's jump right in and see what we mean: Kicking off the weekend is a taco- and beer-centric festival brought to you by the minds behind the North Texas Taco Festival and Four Corners Brewing Company. As we've mentioned previously, the aptly-titled TacoCon will be held at the West Dallas brewery this Friday from 6 to 10 p.m., and will feature some of DFW's best taco food truck offerings, along with some live music and entertainment.

Moving on to Saturday, Paste and Spune's popular Untapped craft beer and indie music festival series is heading back to Dallas. This year, at the fest's new home at the Gilley's Complex, the event will feature 60 different local and national breweries, which will combine to serve up a total of around 200 different craft beer samples. We are clearly big fans of these types of events, so we'll see you there, I guess? Tickets to the event are available here.

In other beer news: Community Beer Company, which recently started bottling its Belgian-style beers, has been tapped to christen Alamo Drafthouse's first ever “meet the brewer” event tomorrow night. Fittingly enough, that event comes as part of the theater's Animal House quote-along and toga party. Seems like a match made in dorm room heaven.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, September 14, the brewery will host its first “Tailgating for a Cause” event, which features football-watching and beer-drinking party to benefit Promise House, a charity that seeks to shelter at risk youths in the DFW area. The brewery will be screening three different college football games (UCLA vs. Nebraska, Tulsa vs. Oklahoma, and Texas A&M vs Alabama) in addition to hosting its regular scheduled brewery tour and serving up with free hot dogs and other forms of live entertainment. Get tickets here.

Out in Fort Worth, Rahr and Sons recently announced plans to celebrate its 9th anniversary with a party on Saturday, November 9, that will feature live music, collectible glassware and over 30 different beers to sample, several of which are extremely rare and limited brews that will only be available during this very celebration.

Fittingly, Rahr's celebration comes just in time for North Texas Beer Week. The event formerly known as Dallas Beer Week was revamped to include all of the region's breweries this year. According to a press release, this year's celebration will include several craft beer-centered events (read: beer dinners, rare tappings, tasting, special beer releases, lectures, classes, home brewing demonstrations, meet-and-greets, etc.). Check the website or their Facebook page for all the details.

Moving on to food news: Goldmine BBQ out in Denton will be celebrating its official ribbon-cutting today with live music and free beer from 4 to 7 p.m.; Jonathon's Oak Cliff has received the green light from the city of Dallas to expand its kitchen; Chip's Old Fashioned Hamburgers sets its sights on Lakewood with a location popping up on the corner of La Vista and Live Oak; Eatzi's, the popular to-go market, has announced plans to open a location out in Plano this fall; Epic Cones announced plans to move out of Deep Ellum and into a new location out in Arlington; and Little Red Wasp, a down home, more-approachable restaurant from the folks behind Grace, opened up yesterday in Fort Worth.

Speaking of openings: Sprouts Farmers Market just announced plans to officially open its McKinney location doors on September 18. The celebration will kick off with free coffee and muffin samples, as well as a free reusable bag offered with purchase. The organic grocery store will be celebrating through September 21 with several events and giveaways planned.

In other food news, Downtown Dallas will soon be seeing a new tenant feeding visitors at Main Street Garden Park. Sadly, the current occupants, Rusty Taco, will be closing down on September 14. Taking over the spot will be a cafe-style concept from Joe Groves and Chef Russell Mertz of Ellen's Southern Kitchen. According to a press release, the duo plan to turn the space into a “Downtown backyard,” complete with upscale picnic-style cuisine that may one day even expand into service throughout the park itself.

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