Latest news with #Lucky's
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Which drinks brought home the gold in Mash Madness
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The numbers are in from Mash Madness, which had 30 drinks competing across 3 categories. People sipped and savored over 7,500 drinks during this year's Mash Madness. DTSF's Restaurant Week will have a taste of SD 'We saw a lot more people participating. Both our member base and the businesses, but also, you know, more participants and more people trying to drink. So it was really fun to see,' DTSF marketing manager Jeb Cooper said. Instead of just beer this year, the contest added 2 new categories: craft cocktail, a non-alcoholic and coffee section. 'Adding on the cocktail and the NA, we saw great numbers,' Cooper said. 'We will likely see it just grow bigger and bigger as most events do as they get older.' The winner of the craft cocktail section was Lucky's, with their Key Lime Pie-jito. They were trailing in the competition until the final day. 'We're not necessarily on the top of anybody's list when it comes to making cocktails, especially craft cocktails,' Lucky's Bar Supervisor Avery Baker said. 'I'm glad that I could kind of open that door for us and show people that we're, we're capable of a lot more than doing a Captain and Coke or vodka Redbull.' Perch took home the trophy in the non-alcoholic and coffee category with their Pandan Cloud. It is just one of the titles Perch has taken home in 2025. 'We've had a great year. Third in Burger battle. We got, first in March Madness, and we just opened in June. So we're, like, just riding the waves right now,' Perch's Front House Manager Rachel Begeman said. In the long standing beer bracket, Remedy Brewing Co. won for the first time with their Huckleberry Heaven brew. No prison yet, but $50M has already been spent 'Whatever the case, it definitely drove some traffic for us downtown. Obviously, we saw quite a number of just sales of that beer specifically. So it seemed like quite a few people were here just to try it for Mash Madness,' Remedy's Head Brewer Tyler Wasberg said. Over $62,000 was spent on this year's drinks, with an economic impact of nearly $290,000. You can order the drinks at Perch and Lucky's while supplies last, but Remedy has sold out of its brew. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chicago Tribune
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: When billiards and bowling were all the rage
The man sitting on the bar stool next to mine had spent a few minutes complaining to no one in particular about the weather and then he turned to me and, for some mystifying reason, asked, 'You play pickleball?' I do not and told him so. He pulled out his phone, hit it a few times with his fingers and said, 'Just listen to this: Pickleball is a big deal. It's been the fastest-growing sport in the country for the third year in a row.' I nodded and let my mind drift to what I knew of Chicago being home to a company that greatly influenced the social-entertainment-sporting scenes in an earlier time. I know this because more than 30 years ago, I wrote a book called 'Brunswick: The Story of an American Company.' Founded in Cincinnati in 1845, and quickly making Chicago its home, Brunswick is still here, a multinational company making many things. But its first major product was a billiard table. It was crafted by its immigrant founder, John Brunswick, becoming part of a game so popular that by the 1920s there were more than 42,000 pool halls (billiard parlors, to those of you with delicate sensibilities) in the country. Many were massive rooms, such as Detroit's Recreation, with 142 tables, and our W.P. Mussey in the Loop with 88. Popularity slowly declined until that great 1961 movie 'The Hustler' (based on an equally great novel) created a boom and new pool halls built at that time were called 'family billiard centers.' Families may have sampled them for a time but they didn't stay. Another boom came in the late 1980s and early '90s. Remember Muddler's on Clybourn or Lucky's on Institute Place? But that, and this current pickleball mania, pales in comparison to bowling's boom. Yes, bowling, and tell me you have never bowled. Bowling was popular in Colonial America, played outdoors, known as nine-pin bowl or skittles and was immediately condemned by Puritans, who believed it promoted gambling and laziness. It was banned in some of the 13 colonies before some shrewd Connecticut settlers added a pin, called this 'new' game 10-pin bowling and successfully argued with authorities that it fell outside any prohibitory ordinances. With the growth of cities, bowling moved indoors. Restaurant and tavern owners realized they could attract customers by offering the amusement, and built lanes in basements or any sliver of available space. In 1840 a British visitor observed, 'of all species of (participant) sports, bowling was the national one in America.' Moses Bensinger, John Brunswick's son-in-law, eventually ran the Brunswick company, as his family would for decades. It expanded into the recording business, the manufacture of photographs and all manner of other things, as well as bowling innovations. He was bowling's primary booster, culminating in 1895 when, after hours of debate with other businessmen, he orchestrated the formation of the American Bowling Congress and the sport grew in every conceivable way. But even so, into the 1940s it was saddled with a lousy reputation, addressed in the New York Times like this: 'Before World War II, many bowling places had reputations as hangouts for rugged characters who kept the air above the lanes blue with tobacco smoke and rough language; too many pin boys sassing or heckled the ladies.' But Brunswick and the rival company AMF were racing to develop and market a machine that would set the pins and by the 1950s these 'pinsetters' began to appear and reshaped not only the sports but the landscape. And forced a lot of kids and some adults who worked as pin boys into new careers. (The late columnist Mike Royko set pins as a youth.) I wrote, as bowling centers started dotting the suburbs, 'Bowling was fun, healthy, inexpensive and, to most Americans, novel. Even a beginner could feel the rush of a strike, a brush with perfection. On a subtler level, the centers provided social focal points for sprawling suburban developments.' These places were lavish and huge. They had names such as Bowleteria, Bowlero, Bowlerama, Bowlodrome. Such baseball stars as Stan Musial and Mickey Mantle opened centers in St. Louis and Dallas, respectively. These new and elegant centers dotted the suburbs. They were air-conditioned, with as many as 100 lanes. Many had built-in restaurants, cocktail lounges, snack bars and soda fountains. The more lavish offered swimming pools, meeting halls and nurseries. Here's a financial look at the boom: In 1954, Brunswick had $33 million in sales, with profits of $700,000; in 1961, those figures were $422 million and $45 million, respectively. There were more than 100 magazines and newspapers devoted to the sport. Nearly 140 daily newspapers carried regular bowling columns. Most every major metropolitan area had its own local TV bowling programs. The Tribune had a number of writers covering bowling with regularity, including the late Edward 'Jim' Fitzgerald, who retired in 1992 and died in 1999. These writers had a lot of work, the explosive growth enabled the company to go on a buying spree, purchasing such other recreational companies as Mercury, still part of today's company. But by 1963 the boom was over. The market became saturated. Some centers hung on by offering such innovations as 'cosmic bowling,' which added loud music, dim lights and even fog machines to the mix, and offering innovations such as bumper bowling and computerized scoring. I know a few men who stopped bowling and billiards because, as one put it, 'no smoking … no bowling, no pool,' but I have visited some pretty nice bowling alleys and pool halls, filled with people. They are easy to find. I ordered another drink and listened to the guy next to me talk about pickleball with the female bartender. I was curious if he knew how many pickleball players there were in the U.S. But I decided to wait and let him enjoy his boom.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mash Madness shakes things up
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A signature event in downtown Sioux Falls is set to tip off. Mash Madness has long been a competition among downtown Sioux Falls craft breweries to see who could create the best original beer. This March, organizers are shaking things up. 'Still that beer category, however we've added a craft cocktail section and a non-alcoholic/coffee section,' DTSF Marketing Manager Jeb Cooper said. Jeb Cooper is the marketing manager at DTSF and says last year's field of six businesses has expanded to 29. 'We heard from our member base specifically they've been wanting kind of a cocktail style competition and we figured this was a great place to do it, and then of course for those that don't drink or just enjoy a nice coffee we wanted to give that some room to breathe as well,' Cooper said. 'We're excited to craft something and bring it to the people here downtown,' Lucky's Manager Luke Nohns said. There are 31 drink options, including this craft cocktail at Lucky's. It's the Key Lime Pie-jito. 'A great spring time drink, plus it's got that green color that we love for Lucky's,' Nohns said. Luke Nohns in the manager at Lucky's Downtown. 'It's just a general mix up on a regular Mojito, so we've got the mint in there, but it is rum, we got key lime juice, a little bit of simple syrup on there to sweeten it up, and it's got a little bit of heavy cream on there,' Nohns said. A drink that not only adds to the variety of Mash Madness, but also gives you another reason to visit downtown Sioux Falls. 'Obviously, people love our restaurants, our bars, and we hope they shop at our retail stores as well while they're down here having a good time,' Cooper said. Let the madness begin. Mash Madness runs March 1st through the 31st. You can vote via the DTSF app. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
