It’s official, Funky Buddha is getting a kitchen!

It’s a kitchen in a recycled shipping container, but it’s a kitchen!



Funky’s Craft Food Counter is set to open on November 11th, and will be located in the back of the tap room. If you have been to the brewery and remember where the bocce ball court was, that’s now the home to a 20-foot long polished concrete countertop and 10-foot tall picture windows that look directly into said shipping container kitchen.

Next door is Funky Buddha’s event space, a rustic room decorated with barrels that were actually used in production at the brewery.



Jeff Vincent, a European-trained South Carolina chef that recently turned culinary heads at Ft. Lauderdale’s Atlantic Hotel, was brought on as head chef. Davie resident Philip Colp, formerly of the Signature Grand event space, will head the event and catering side.

As for the food? The menu was created inspired by, paired with, and in some instances made with Funky Buddha’s line of beers. This includes dishes such as spent-grain pretzels with whole grain Doc Brown Ale mustard, and a beer cheese soup made with Fuhgeddaboudit Red Ale, served in a Floridian spent-grain sourdough bread bowl from Whole Foods. There’s also a bratwurst braised in Hop Gun IPA before grilling.

Luckily, I managed to snag an invitation to last night’s media preview. When they open, a lot of you are going to be very happy. There’s some pretty flavorful stuff on the menu.

The first two dishes of note were the Mighty Tatanka (Tatanka is Lakota for bison) and Dr. Feelgood, dishes that are polar opposites of each other. Mighty Tatonka, pictured above, is made with a mixture of bison and pork belly, with tomatoes, smoked buffalo mozzarella, sweet onion, and served on challah. It’s bold, juicy, and wonderful mellow flavor that is both complex and inviting. Dr. Feelgood is a quinoa-heavy veggie burger with chick peas, spent grains, a lemon herb aioli served on a light spinach focaccia bread. The tang of the lemon aioli really makes it zing quite nicely.

Not pictured was the Main Street Port Sandwich, deliciously peppy and mouthwatering pork shoulder that was braised in Hop Gun with a mustardy BBQ sauce, which I believe is pretty traditional for the Carolinas. Couldn’t take a picture. Ate it too fast.

More on spent grains with the above pretzel. It’s soft, has just the right amount of salt, and comes with a coarse Doc Brown mustard plus a second of your choosing. Ignore all else and go with the Nutter Bacon, a holy union of basically Nutella and bacon. Yes, it is good. Pictured above is also the Harmony salad, a simple, light, and refreshing salad of kale, quinoa, romaine, pickled onion, and honey apricot dressing.

My other dish of note was the Beer Cheese soup I mentioned earlier. I was lucky that they had small versions during the event, because I can see it being very east to fill up (and want to fill up) on this delicious soup.

The entire space has a gorgeous, rustic feel, with lots of wood and reclaimed barrels. They actually pushed that reclaimed wood feel to the rest of the adjoining tap room, which is fantastic.

The new meeting space is cozy, very inviting, and has a few gorgeous picture windows that look directly onto Funky’s bottling line. In the middle is a bar with a small, but dedicated row of taps. Tonight hey had a few special beers for the event, such as their Imperial Barrel Aged Pina Colada Wheat and Morning Wood (Barrel aged Maple Bacon Coffee Porter).

The other side of the event space is plastered with old music posters. But look at them closely, and you’ll see they’ve all been ever so subtly changed around…

The kitchen, as of right now, will have a paging system for people to pick their food up. According to Funky Buddha co-owner and brewmaster Ryan Sentz, the feel is as if a food truck parked in the back and is staying put. Having a private event space will only sweeten the space and expand the offerings from Funky Buddha.

As long as they keep serving up that pork sandwich, they can do whatever they want.

Drink (and eat) Florida Craft,

Dave

@floridabeerblog

floridabeerblog@gmail.com