Culinary Creativity
By Dakota Parks
Culture loving foodies, rejoice: Foo Foo is back on the menu. Now in its second year, this culinary showcase celebrates the art you can eat and drink—with a selection of Pensacola’s top restaurants, bars and cafés crafting exclusive, limited-edition specials that capture the city’s unique flavors.
From bold seafood creations and decadent desserts to signature cocktails, craft brews and artisanal sodas, each menu item is a celebration of Pensacola’s creativity. These special offerings will be available at participating venues throughout Foo Foo Fest, but only while supplies last.
Foo Foo on the Menu features new craft brews like Odd Colony Brewing Company’s wet-hopped lager collaboration with Alga Beer Co., designed to capture the fleeting flavors of the season. As Odd Colony co-founder Brett Schweigert explained, “We lean heavily into seasonality, so for this beer, we are utilizing wet hops as they are the freshest and fullest expression of the hop and only available during a short window in time.” The partnership with Alga reflects not only a love for unique ingredients but also a shared philosophy of collaboration and craftsmanship, which Schweigert describes as “the perfect confluence of time, place and creativity.”
Crafting a new beer from scratch is both an art and a science. Schweigert explained that his process often starts with the discovery of a unique ingredient that inspires a new recipe or a historical reference that serves as a foundation for creative exploration. “In terms of perfection, we’re sort of always chasing that elusive goal, tinkering with nearly every recipe with the goal of fine tuning the minutiae. There will be peace in the valley someday,” he joked.
Complementing their innovative brew, Odd Colony’s neighborhood biergarten, The Burrow, will serve up a delicious crab and Taleggio tart paired with a refreshing local apple and fennel salad, celebrating the region’s coastal flavors.
While beer aficionados can enjoy brews born of local collaboration, Jennifer Eaton, co-owner of Big Jerk Soda Co., takes a fresh approach on the non-alcoholic front. Her team crafted a limited-edition Blue Raspberry Lemonade soda inspired by the festival’s Blue Trees art installation, which emphasizes the crucial, often threatened role that trees play in our fragile ecosystems.
“The culinary arts are typically left out of an art scene, and it’s been so wonderful to see Foo Foo begin to include food and beverage in the festival fabric,” Eaton said. “Even within the culinary world, the beverage side of things is often overlooked, especially non-alcoholic drinks. A lot of creativity and imagination has gone into Big Jerk Soda, so it’s incredibly special for us to participate in Foo Foo as artists, if you will.”
Embracing their inner “mad scientist,” the Big Jerk Soda team enjoys experimenting with natural extracts and bold new flavors when crafting their signature sodas. “After almost seven years of crafting soda, we generally know how our juices or extracts will taste and what ratios we will need for a new soda concept,” Eaton explained. “We start light on ingredients and up quantities until we think it tastes the best. It’s a fun day when our production manager Mike Newman breaks out all the vials and droppers and we can concoct five different versions of a concept in half an hour before scaling the recipe up for a full batch of soda.”
Foo Foo on the Menu runs throughout the festival, giving attendees the chance to savor Pensacola’s culinary diversity one dish at a time. To see the full list of participants and their offerings, visit foofoofest.com/foo-foo-on-the-menu.
Foo Foo on the Menu
What: Food and beverage items designed to complement Foo Foo Fest and showcase the local culinary scene
When: Oct. 31-Nov. 11
Details: foofoofest.com/foo-foo-on-the-menu
