Sun 03.02.08

National Beer of Texas

On Thursday I found myself at a Williams-Sonoma kitchen supply store, still looking for the strangely-elusive canning jars. I have to admit the store boasts a lot of covetable gadgets, utensils and cookware, though on the whole, everything seems excessively fancy, as if the store were a gift shop at the end of a winery tour. (And no, no canning jars to be found here either.)

I did leave with a catalog (pictured above), perusing through which yielded a nifty surprise on page 63.

The fact that the glossy catalog for this store contains a jar of chili starter (for $14.50!) featuring, of all things, Lone Star beer, I just find hilarious. Now I love Lone Star, but in a Williams-Sonoma catalog? It's a bit like going to a decidedly fancy restaurant and finding out the chef's special tonight is frito pie (which, yes, is good, but in the same way as Lone Star).

For those of you who don't know, Lone Star is a beer made in San Antonio, TX; it is not, perhaps, a "good" beer, in this age of microbreweries and imports and all, but it is by far the best in the (legitimate) category of cheap, kinda- watery beer (though, my god, would I stay clear of Lone Star Light). It certainly was the beer of choice among everyone I knew in college, myself included, and I have not yet found a suitable replacement now that I'm in Virginia. So if anyone is coming up to Virginia by way of Texas and would like to make me really happy, you know what to bring.