7960577887?profile=originalCopperpoint Brewing Company is one of many local brewers that will benefit from the change in state regulations allowing for the sales of  ‘growlers.’ Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Thom Smith

So much for the 2015 regular session of the Florida Legislature. Like a bunch of alums watching an FSU-Florida football game, about the only thing our “elected leaders” could agree on was … beer.
You expected world peace? Not these folks. And it isn’t just Republicans versus Democrats. The term party unity has been deleted from the lexicon. The House of Representatives even had the unprecedented audacity to adjourn early, thereby dashing any hopes for responsible government.
Except when it came to beer. Ostensibly, the issue was the “growler,” basically a glass jug for toting beer. In the old days — 19th and early 20th centuries — every town had its brewpub and after a long day on the wharf or down in the mine, the old man who looked like Wallace Beery would send the kid who looked like Jackie Cooper to the corner bar to have the growler filled.
With Prohibition, which wiped out brewpubs, and followed by industrial brewing and 7-Elevens, growlers gave way to six-packs.
Now the trend is reversing. Senate Bill 186, which has been aging for several years, removed an arcane restriction that required Florida growlers to have capacities of less than 32 ounces or more than 128 — nothing in between.
Yes, it defied logic, but it was a constriction the major brewers loved. Now as brewpubs begin to sprout, those big growlers are becoming as essential as a prayer book to a Belgian monk.
To the 100-plus pubs now offering their brews around the state, other benefits may be far more significant.
“The bill also removed other restrictions!” said Matt Cox, owner and brew master at just-opened Copperpoint Brewing Company in Boynton Beach. “Not only can we now sell 64-ounce growlers, but we also no longer have to worry about what we can and can’t serve, such as beers from other breweries.”
On a recent night, a food truck with an Argentinian flavor was set up in front of Copperpoint, while customers inside sampled seven offerings with such enticing names as B. Rabbit, Truly Saison and A-10 Hophog. “The Truly Saison is named in honor of my grandmother,” Cox said, “and I named the A-10 in honor of a friend’s grandfather, who just died, who flew A-10 Warthogs.”
B. Rabbit is a coffee-infused stout, the java supplied by Rabbit Coffee Roasters in Riviera Beach. “It’s different,” Cox says with a smile, “but I can’t get over how well it’s selling.”
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The timing of the bill’s passage couldn’t have been better for Mike Halker. As president of the Florida Brewers Guild, he played a major role in the legislative struggle, but as the force behind Due South Brewery, just a couple of blocks south of Copperpoint, he was in a party mood for other reasons. Due South, one of the area’s first microbreweries, just celebrated its third anniversary and was one of three area craft breweries to be featured in the latest season of Esquire Network’s Brew Dogs series, along with Saltwater Brewery in Delray Beach and Funky Buddha in Boca Raton and Oakland Park.
Cheers.
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A somewhat larger brewpub plans to open in Boca Raton by the end of the month. Tap 42, a Fort Lauderdale mainstay, is bringing its daily specials — Monday $5 Prohibition Burger, Wednesday Ladies’ Night, Saturday and Sunday Bottomless Brunches — and 50 craft beers to the Shops at Boca Center on Military Trail. It’s taking over the space formerly occupied by English Tap and Beer Garden.
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Elsewhere in the restaurant world, Buccan, Clay Conley’s Palm Beach hot spot, and El Camino Soul Food & Tequila in Delray Beach have landed on the Top 100 Hot Spot Restaurants in America list for 2015 from Open Table reservation service. Conley was noted for his sublime flavor combinations, while El Camino, part of Brandon Belluscio, Brian Albe and Anthony Pizzo’s Delray troika that includes Cut 432 and Park Tavern, earned high marks for its “street food” options and jumping bar.
Conley, meanwhile, has fallen into the pit — the barbecue pit — as a member of Lindsay Autry’s gang that will compete for the national title at the Cochon 555 pork-off June 20 in Aspen.
The dream team, which also includes Aaron Black from PB Catch, Isaac Cerny from Pistache in West Palm Beach and Tim Lipman from Coolinary Cafe in the Gardens, won a regional grilling in Miami Beach in April. Autry’s crew hails from all over, but she’ll keep the proper perspective: she’s from the Raleigh, N.C., suburb of Cary, in the heart of pit country.
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El Camino’s Victor Meneses won’t have much opportunity to cool off, thanks to Patrick Broadhead and Erik Baker, who run the kitchen at Max’s Harvest. He’s among 16 area chefs who will go toque to toque every Wednesday for 15 weeks beginning June 17.
Chef vs. Chef is open to the public for a $10 donation that includes one beer, wine or cocktail, while food and beverages will be available at happy hour prices. Proceeds benefit the Naoma Donnelley Haggin Boys & Girls Club in Delray Beach.
The lineup: Meneses, Bill Ring, 32 East; Victor Franco, Oceans 234; Kelly Randall, The Office; James Strine, Cafe Boulud; Jarod Higgins, Cut 432; Chris Miracolo, S3; Aaron Goldberg, Bogarts; Ben Burger, Burt & Max’s; Blake Malesta, 50 Ocean; Che Frey, Henry’s; Danielle Herring, Rebel House; John Thomas, Tryst; Eric Grutka, Ian’s Tropical Grill; Bruce Feingold, Dada; and Adam Brown, The Cooper. For more info, call Max’s Harvest at 381-9970.
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Despite its name change, Eau Palm Beach remains a ritzy place, and management intends to keep it that way with new Executive Chef Josh Thomsen and Chef de Cuisine Manlee Siu, whom Thomsen considers the “best ingredient” in his kitchen. Both come from Agricola in Princeton, N.J. And wouldn’t you know it, they arrive just as Thomsen’s new cookbook, Agricola Cooking, hits the shelves.
In kitchens for 23 years, the CIA grad is a member of the James Beard Foundation and StarChefs named him a “Rising Star” in the San Francisco Bay area in 2010.
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Across A1A, Plaza del Mar will soon be home to a hot dog and sausage spot with Windy City roots. Fat Papa’s will set up shop at the west end of the center and should be open for business in late summer or early autumn.
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Bigger news for Plaza del Mar is the arrival of the Palm Beaches Theatre and more significantly the Palm Beach International Film Festival, which has taken over the old Plaza Theatre/Florida Stage space. Its first program will be a cancer awareness weekend, June 4 to 7, offering four films, all at 7 p.m.
A Woman Like Me (June 4) won a special jury award for best documentary at the SXSW festival in Texas. Sean Penn narrates The Human Experiment (June 5) about unseen carcinogens and the activists fighting them. Helen Hunt stars in Decoding Annie Parker (June 6), which opened the 2013 Palm Beach festival. The mini-fest closes June 7 with the international premiere of My Big Fat Cancer Wedding, an Israeli film. For tickets, $15 per show ($5 donated to The Pap Corps, Champions for Cancer Research), call 362-0003.
7960578068?profile=originalThe cancer weekend is the first offering from Jeff Davis, new chairman of the Film Festival board, who has come in like gangbusters. Skeptics, however, wonder if the story will have a “dead end kids” denouement. A Boca Raton resident, Davis works primarily as a producer, his credits including Rock of Ages, starring Tom Cruise in 2012, and the more recent Scavenger Killers, Pray for Us Sinners and Price for Freedom in post-production.
His first overt act was to fire festival Executive Director Randi Emerman, who claims she learned of the dismissal from a friend and was later formally notified by an attorney representing Davis. She also says she is due about $150,000 in back pay.
Other board members, including longtime festival supporter and its secretary and treasurer George Elmore, say Davis has some explaining to do.
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Speaking of Manalapan, the other source of entertainment in the area is conspicuously more subdued. Robert Van Winkle, better known as Vanilla Ice, will not go to jail for burglarizing a house next to his latest project home on Hypoluxo Island or for flying in restricted airspace.
For several months, on the east bank of the Intracoastal Waterway just north of the Lantana bridge, the “Iceman” renovated a house for his popular cable show The Vanilla Ice Project.
The house next door was under foreclosure, and at some point several items disappeared including furniture, a pool heater and bicycles. Lantana police investigated and recovered some of the missing pieces at the Ice house.
Van Winkle was booked on burglary charges, posted $6,000 bond and claimed it was a misunderstanding. Several weeks later, he reached a plea agreement that called for a $100 fine and 100 hours of community service and no adjudication of guilt.
A month later, he made news again. To “top off” the house and wrap the show’s fifth season, Van Winkle arrived via floatplane.
Oops. Several 911 callers feared a plane had crashed in the Intracoastal. Responding Lantana police and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue found only a grinning Iceman, who was shuttled to the shore via Jet Ski.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission decided the touchdown in a prohibited area was “accidental.” Instead of a $90 citation for landing in a “boater safety zone,” the pilot was given a severe tongue-lashing.
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His billion-dollar boat shows are the rage but instead of dropping anchor in Miami, Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, Efrem “Skip” Zimbalist III chose Delray Beach, closing in mid-April on a modest home south of Linton on an Intracoastal lagoon.
Son of the late TV star Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (77 Sunset Strip, The F.B.I.), Skip elected to follow a corporate path, earning a Harvard MBA, working his way up the ladder to chief financial officer at publishing giant Times Mirror. From there it was chairman of Active Interest Media, one of the world’s largest enthusiast media companies that includes the boat-show-producing Show Management.
The Delray house might seem modest for a guy whose businesses bring in about $200 million a year. For $1.9 million he got 5,000 square feet, five bedrooms, five baths and garage space for three on a quarter-acre lot with dock space barely adequate for a small Boston Whaler. It does, however, offer a convenient hangout, close to Show Management’s headquarters in Lauderdale, but not too close.
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Up in Lake Worth, something crazy is always on display at CGMS Gallery, now located in the Flamingo Clay Studio at 15 S. J St. But the exhibit running from June 19 to July 2 could be the wildest yet.
“We have had more early response to this show than any one we have done before,” CGMS’ Joyce Brown said of the upcoming “Shoe Fetish/Foot Fetish” exhibit. Could be anything from a Zarathustrian zori to Aristophanean cothurni.
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Finally, at the annual meeting of Boca-based GEO Group at the Boca Resort and Club on the last day of April, shareholders learned that the company continues to make big bucks and the Florida state employees pension fund has even bought its stock.
But that did little to boost the spirits of an estimated 100 protesters trying to call attention to the for-profit prison company’s treatment of inmates.
One facility in Karnes County, Texas, about 50 miles southeast of San Antonio, provides, according to GEO’s website, “a safe, clean, and family friendly environment for families under the care of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Actually, they are immigrants seeking political asylum and just before Easter, 40 mothers at Karnes refused to eat GEO food, complained about their living conditions and the poor quality of food provided their children. Some complained that guards threatened retaliation against the group’s leaders.
At the meeting, Alex Friedman asked about the hunger strike. He is a GEO shareholder and also serves as associate director of the Lake Worth-based Human Rights Defense Center.
The response, from an unnamed GEO official: It was not a hunger strike, it was a “boycott of dining facilities.”
Of course, they can’t just walk down the street to the nearest McDonald’s at the detention center (a euphemism for a prison).
Had plans come to pass two years ago, motorists on Interstate 95 could have seen GEO in big letters on both sides of the expressway — the GEO building to the west and Florida Atlantic University’s football stadium or the east.
The GEO stadium-naming proposal was withdrawn, but the hubbub cost FAU President Mary Jane Saunders her job. GEO boss George Zoley, an FAU grad, served on the school’s board of trustees for seven years.

Correction
In the May Around Town column we mentioned Loomis Chaffee School in New York. It is not hyphenated and is in Windsor, Conn.


Reach Thom Smith at thomsmith@ymail.com.

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