Photos by Franz Mahr
Mess Hall is no stranger to covering a lot of different bases. From their killer Ramen World event (which we’ve happily covered so many times), to their upcoming makers event with FreshFarm, the food incubator is very happily jumping from one D.C. food scene to the other.
But nothing sparks interest like weed. I know from experience that all you need to do to get people to talk about something, click on something, or even buy something, is throw pot into the mix… and that’s exactly what Mess Hall has done. Their celebration of all things edible, Blazed & Glazed took place last Sunday, and D.C.’s foodie stoners showed up en masse to attend edibles classes taught by the pros, spend their paycheck at Mess Hall’s marketplace, or spend all day getting sloshed at the beer garden.
After getting your ID checked and wristband, all guests were invited to crack open an ice cold beer (I chose New Belgium’s Citradelic because the brand loyalty is strong) and a savory doughnut sandwich courtesy of Astro. A cheesy pimento chicken salad topped with pickles from D.C.’s very own Gordy’s Pickle Jar, all slathered between two rosemary doughnuts. I hate glazed doughnuts because I have bad opinions about most things, but this was damn delicious. The glaze was so light and the doughnuts were so fluffy, it was more like a slightly sweeter brioche. 10/10 would eat again.
After snarfing down the sandwich, I settled in for class. Matthew Doherty, co-creator of East Coast Grow / person who knows about weed in general took us step by step through the process of making cannabutter and tinctures. Turns out, all you really need is a cheap ass crock-pot, a food processor, and of course, some dank kush. The most important fact I took away from his class, is that you don’t want your cannabutter concoction to get hotter than 270 degrees. Take that 420.
Next, the burger pornographer himself, Matthew Ramsey took us through the process of making weed burgers. Yes, munchies that make you even more high while you eat them. The human race has officially gone too far. The key to this is to mix up some sweet weed lard and then throw it right into your hand ground burger patties. Then all you have to do is cook them up on the grill and you have yourself the perfect edible.
After class, students were free to wander around the space, checking out the tiny market place which had a variety of vendors including companies selling home grow equipment, all the edibles you could eat, and weed cookbooks from Upshur Street Books. There was also a beer garden (and by beer garden I mean chairs in an alley way) featuring food trucks by Sloppy Mama’s BBQ, Westray’s Finest Ice Cream, The Fry Brothers and more. It was everything the 17 year old stoner version of you hoped adulthood would be.
420 blaze it.
