This week, think local, drink local

Some thoughts on American Craft Beer Week …

New Jersey is, as Benjamin Franklin is said to have noted, a barrel tapped at both ends. 

That's widely taken as a metaphor for the gravitational pulls of New York and Philadelphia, which result in distinct identities of North Jersey and South Jersey.

Flavors of the state, if you will.

Regarding beer, there's a third element to consider these days: the great beers that come into the state from other parts of the country and from overseas. 

It's hard to resist them, especially when elevating your beer horizons compels you to drink them (you, indeed, should drink them). 

Some of them are the much-sought-but-hard-to-get brews; others are the next wave in style. So, they're very much part of the craft beer landscape, part of what has you doing the thousand-beer stare at the store or endlessly poring over your favorite bar's beer list.

But that said, over the course of this week don't let the cornucopia of selection from elsewhere overshadow the home-state beers created by the Jersey brewers who are part of that pursuit of something better, something tastier.

This week, don't forget to think Jersey and drink Jersey.

Cheers.

It's New Jersey Craft Beer Week, too

Here's the proof, fresh from Gov. Chris Christie's desk.

You have to go back 11 years for a proclamation like this, when Gov. Whitman proclaimed July 2000 as American Beer Month in New Jersey.

So yeah, this is pretty cool.

Here's to all the people who make the great beer here, the New Jersey craft brewing industry.

Cheers.

Good time to be in our own backyard

It's American Craft Beer Week, and that's a good moment to take stock of what's emerged on the Garden State beer landscape over the past year.

For starters, 2011 finds in business two new breweries, Great Blue Brewing (Franklin Township, Somerset County) and Port 44 Brew Pub (Newark) that weren't here a year ago this time. A new contract-made brand, East Coast Beer Company (Point Pleasant), also landed on the store shelves with a pilsner (Beach Haus) and is ramping up plans for another label.

Two production breweries are in development in Monmouth County – Kane Brewing (Ocean Township) and Carton Brewing (Atlantic Highlands), while nanobrewing has gained a foothold in the state. One such brewery is already licensed (Great Blue), while another (Cape May Brewing) is on pace to get the green light soon from state regulators, and further still, a handful of nanos are on the drawing boards (Flounder Brewing, Pinelands Brewing and Jersey Shore Brewing Experience, to name three.)

The hits keep coming.

The state's oldest production craft brewer, Climax in Roselle Park, bought a bottling line to put its ales and lagers in six-packs for the first time in its 15-year history. To the south, the state's largest craft brewer, Flying Fish, has designs on a new building in Somerdale (about five miles from its current home base of Cherry Hill) that will triple the brewery's size.

But Flying Fish isn't alone with the serious need to expand. In fact, right now, nearly all Garden State brewers can't make beer fast enough for demand, and for many, limited capacity is the reason.

Meanwhile, in Trenton, lawmakers are being asked to update the rules for microbrewing to catch New Jersey's industry up with neighboring states, if not the rest of the country.

"The current legislation has been in place for about 20 years and was negotiated at a time when states were just starting to craft legislation to launch our industry," says Mark Edelson, one of the owners of the Iron Hill brewpub in Maple Shade.

Looking east, the phrase down the shore now translates as being able to find good beer selections on tap on the sandy side of the state, something that, excluding oases like Firewaters in Atlantic City or brewpubs Tun Tavern, Basil T's and Artisans, has lagged behind North Jersey and the Delaware side of the state.

"I'm usually a little shocked about this area because of its proximity to New York City and people's exposure to cuisine, culture and travel," says Mark Danzeisen, owner of the well-stocked Twin Light Taphouse in Highlands, which just celebrated its first anniversary May 1 and will turn over its taps to Long Island's Bluepoint Brewing this Wednesday for a American Craft Beer Week soiree.

"Beer has always been something – I won't say shunned – but it's never been fully explored or delved into like the rest of the state. People are opening their eyes now."

Danzeisen, 30, comes from a place where the beer pedigree is solid. He opened Twin Light, on Monmouth County's bayshore, because the beers he was used to drinking were, for the most part, still back home. Although back home – Philly – wasn't a world away, it did seem so through the prism of a flavor-starved pint glass.

"I grew up down in Philadelphia and worked in beer bars down there. In college, my local bar was Monk's, Bridgid's, North Third, Standard Tap," he says.

All of New Jersey is picking up its game, he finds.

Thank a vibrant craft brewing industry, changing palates and a food movement that embraces beer. Roll into that the gravitational pull of beer-craving Pennsylvania and New York state. Or anywhere else that takes a wider view of food and drink.

"You go to Europe, you go to other places, and food and alcohol is first before other business is taken care of ... Or the home is based around the kitchen. We've lost that because of our time investment into work and other things," he says. "We're seeing this culture swing back toward food and appreciation of food, a return to grandmom's recipes and mom's old recipes. Beer is being pulled into that; there's that seeking out of flavors."

But, as much as it seems like our own backyard is suddenly a fun place to play, this week is also a reason to remember and support the home team – the Jersey brewers who have been plying these waters for 16 years, the folks who chose to go into business back in the 1990s because they wanted to bring to New Jersey what they were enjoying from their own beer travels or homebrewing experiences.

And it's a moment for the new entrepreneurs, who see a brighter beer future in the Garden State and a chance to bring to market the brews they envision.

Because, yes, it is a good time to hang out in our own backyard.

Moonstruck

MillerCoors is looking to gin-up its craft beer holdings by creating a division dedicated to that enterprise. Read all about it here.

Why is this happening?

Because even in the dismal economy we're all enduring right now, there's a taste for variety, and we'd argue that bland beers have offered no comfort. Yet the craft beer labels do. And as the Brewers Association has pointed out, craft beer sales are up 12 percent for the first six months of the year, while overall beer industry sales volumes are down almost 3 percent from the same period last year.

Mega-brewer MillerCoors has picked up on not just that but the fact that its own labels in that market segment – Blue Moon and Leinenkugel – have performed well.

The Blue Moon portfolio is a veritable brand slate of lunar phases. Besides the Belgian white that is Blue Moon, there's Honey Moon, Harvest Moon and Full Moon, all satellites of planet MillerCoors, which has seen its core labels Coors Light and Miller Lite go flat as far as sales are concerned.

Is this a small step for MillerCoors, or a giant leap into a craft beer street fight? We'll just have to wait and see.

It's worth mentioning, though, that some of those brands under MillerCoors control are transition beers and have let Bud, Miller and Coors drinkers take flight from their old mainstays and go a little deeper toward fuller-bodied beers and different styles. The more adventurous drinkers keep climbing toward the revved up IPAs and other exotic craft beers, especially, we've noticed these days, the younger beer drinkers, the folks with no real or memorable attachment to the labels their parents and grandparents stocked the fridge with.

Stay tuned.

Craft Beer Week and J.J. Bitting

New Jersey's lone voice on a congressional panel committed to craft beer paid a call on J.J. Bitting brewpub on Monday, presenting owner Mike Cerami with an autographed copy of the American Craft Beer Week resolution passed by the House of Representatives last week.

Rep. Leonard Lance also sampled a flight of Bitting beers – including a raspberry wheat, Scottish ale, bock and India pale ale – declaring the IPA to be his favorite of the lot created by brewmaster James Moss. The Republican from Hunterdon County also took a tour of the Bitting brewhouse.

"It's incredibly important that we have these types of businesses across America to promote Main Streets. Main Streets have to engage in ingenuity in order to prosper. The high quality product that is manufactured here is an example of that ingenuity," Lance said after touring the brewery.

Lance's 7th District stretches from one side of New Jersey to the other (it covers 54 towns), and is home to four brewpubs (Bittings; Pizzeria Uno just south of Bitting along Route 1; Trap Rock in Berkeley Heights; and Ship Inn in Milford) and a production brewery (Climax Brewing in Roselle Park).

To be sure, Rep. Lance's visit to Bitting was about constituent service. Woodbridge is one of the larger towns in his district and the place where he catches the train to Washington. Plus, Lance's House seat is up for re-election this November.

But, what all Garden State craft beer enthusiasts should know about Lance is that he is the only member of New Jersey's congressional delegation to hold a seat on the House Small Brewers Caucus, which was formed in 2007 with a commitment to supporting small breweries, and focusing on business and regulatory issues, among other objectives. Lance is among several lawmakers to sponsor legislation to lower the federal per-barrel tax small-batch brewers pay on the beer they make.

Over its three years of existence, no other member of the Garden State's congressional delegation with a brewery in his or her district had stepped up to join the caucus and lend support to the state's 15-year-old craft beer industry until Lance did last year. (Lance is a first-term congressman, elected in 2008).

Meanwhile, neighboring Pennsylvania and New York each have four congressional reps on the caucus, some who got in on the ground floor.

New Jersey should have more representation on the panel. Hey, Reps. Frank Pallone and John Adler, we're looking at you. Your districts are home to a combined four craft breweries – three pub brewers and the state's biggest craft brewer, Flying Fish in Cherry Hill. And, of course, the breweries themselves should be pressing their representatives to join the caucus.

Beer is one of the few products that is taxed on its very creation, and craft beer is very much about commerce, local economies, cultural heritages and preservation. The early-20th century brick building that houses the Bitting brewpub had a former life as a grain and coal company.

Craft beer is also a growing industry, even in New Jersey where for a decade there was no new blood, until last summer and this spring (Iron Hill brewpub opened in Maple Shade in July 2009, while New Jersey Beer Company just began production brewing in North Bergen).

And that's why it matters having a voice in DC.

Now if only legislators in Trenton would get the picture.

Craft Beer Week at Iron Hill

The penultimate day of American Craft Beer Week (May 17-23) at Iron Hill Maple Shade was all about numbers.

The brewpub's Monky business (as in monks, not apes) mug club day on Saturday featured a flight of Belgian brews – single, dubbel, tripel, American tripel, and a round of quads, including bourbon barrel-aged and brett-styled versions.

On top of that, head brewer Chris LaPierre treated the crowd to some 4-year-old Flemish Brown and an early sample of Iron Hill Maple Shade No. 100.

Chris describes the brewpub's 100th batch – a milestone reached in just 10 months – this way: "It's 100 pounds of eight different malts, eight signifying that we’re the eight Iron Hill location. There's also 100 pounds of corn, being in South Jersey, it's kind of corn country. It has 100 IBUs' worth of hops – we used Centennial hops, also for the number 100. There's 100 ounces of finishing hops at the end of the boil and dry hops, and we boiled it at 100 degrees Celsius."

The last part is a joke, obviously, since 100 degrees C is the metric system boiling point for water.

Batch 100 will clock in about 6.5% ABV. Chris says it sort of defies a style category. "If I had to, I'd probably call it an IPA. It's golden to maybe a little bit of light amber ... really, really hoppy, about the alcohol of an IPA. But it's also got rye in there, wheat, corn, a lot of stuff you wouldn't normally find in an IPA."

Look for it early next month.

Craft Beer Week & Senator Joe Vitale

The silence has been deafening.

OK, that's a little melodramatic. But more than a month ago – March 29th, in fact – this blog teamed with PubScout blogger Kurt Epps in some outreach to a Trenton lawmaker in the hopes of winning a state proclamation or resolution designating May 17-23 as American Craft Beer Week in New Jersey.

Such a designation would have echoed the congressional endorsement of Craft Beer Week and trained an additional spotlight on the craft brewing industry in New Jersey.

No such luck.

Not only did we strike out, but state Sen. Joseph Vitale didn't even acknowledge the email asking to discuss the idea with him. Nor did he acknowledge a reminder last month that the date of the May observance was approaching.

Some background: We prevailed upon Sen. Vitale because he has more craft beer producers – J.J. Bitting, Harvest Moon and Pizzeria Uno brewpubs – in his district of Middlesex County than any other lawmaker in Trenton. He also serves on the Senate's economic growth committee.

Alas, not a peep from Senator Joe in response to our emails. (For the record when his office was contacted via telephone, email was cited as the preferred method of reaching out to him.)

There are a host of things wrong with this, and some of them have nothing to do with craft beer.

Topping the list is that PubScout Kurt hails from the Middlesex County town of Perth Amboy, and as such, Senator Joe's name has appeared on the ballot in Kurt's voting booth every four years since the late 1990s.

That's a long way of saying Kurt is a constituent and that his representative in the upper chamber of the New Jersey Legislature – Senator Vitale – ignored a constituent who called the district office, then complied with the office's wishes of how to be contacted.

Hmm. Maybe that email business is just a device the senator's office uses to blow off people whom he's elected to represent. Whatever.

Now let's take the economic growth angle, and bear in mind we still haven't predicated things on beer yet.

Anyway you look at it, Harvest Moon in New Brunswick, JJ Bitting in Woodbridge and Pizzeria Uno in Metuchen are businesses and are part of their local economies. Since they collect sales taxes, they're part of the state economy, too. Those businesses – all constituents like Kurt – were ignored as well, albeit in a roundabout way. (For the record, it was pointed out in the email to Senator Vitale that his district includes those brewpubs, but the three were not specifically named. And those brewpubs were not contacted and asked to sign on to the outreach effort.)

Now we get to the beer part.

As we know (and perhaps Senator Vitale does not), New Jersey has a craft beer industry, and in fact, it's growing: three additions to the family over the past 10 months. That puts our headcount at 20 craft breweries in the form of brewpubs and production brewers. And they pay a per-gallon state tax just to brew beer, and that tax is just the headwaters of the levies on beer.

But wait, there's more.

Nationally, craft beer is a $7 billion a year industry, according to the Brewers Association, the industry's trade group. And that figure was $6 billion last year, reflecting, you guessed it, some economic growth à la the kind you would think a lawmaker would be concerned with as a member of a legislative panel called an economic growth committee.

Let's take that economic growth thing a step further, since at least one New Jersey craft brewer was approached last year about exporting to Europe. Imagine a senate committee that helps New Jersey businesses develop overseas markets. Seems rather hard to pull off if that panel has deaf ears.

But maybe we're overplaying the significance of American Craft Beer Week. Nope, not a chance. Especially when you consider that $7 billion; it's a pretty significant rallying point, and the observance is a way to highlight and get behind the industry's economic and cultural contributions.

And it's not too much to ask elected officials to support an industry and its potential (not to mention being responsive to constituents). The House of Representatives has done so by endorsing craft beer week and creating a caucus on small breweries back in 2007.

Rep. Leonard Lance of Hunterdon County is a member of the House Small Brewers Caucus, joining the caucus after learning his congressional district included five New Jersey craft brewers. Lance, a former state senator who was elected to Congress in 2008, even paid a visit to his craft brewer constituents a few months back.

At the end of the day, this is about commerce. Craft beer is bona fide and growing industry across the country, generating tax revenues and jobs. New Jersey has a small piece of that industry. But it could be bigger.

And it seems like Trenton – where these days red ink inundates the ledgers – lawmakers would embrace revenue-generating industries.

Anyway, it's American Craft Beer Week. Support craft brewers. Maybe someday Trenton will.

New beer in NJ for Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week begins Monday, but there's an event Saturday that's a fitting gateway in the Garden State to what the stewards of the May 17-23 observance call the Mother of All Beer Weeks.

The Copper Mine Pub in North Arlington will help launch New Jersey Beer Company's entry into the market place, pouring the inaugural trio of beers from the brand-spanking-new brewery in North Bergen in Hudson County.

"We didn't plan it this way, but I can't think of a better time. What better way to celebrate American Craft Beer Week than by opening a brewery?" says Matt Steinberg, the founder and president of NJ Beer Company.

Matt has spent the better part of this spring working like a dog, overcoming some obstacles and minor delays here and there, to get up and running. So Saturday will indeed be a momentous occasion. (NJ Beer will do a roll-out the following weekend at the Iron Monkey in Jersey City.)

Brewery folks will be on hand as Copper Mine pours NJ Beer's freshly made flagships: Hudson Pale Ale, Garden State Stout and 1787 Abbey Single, paired with some appetizers, mini-entrees and a dessert closer, provided courtesy of a friend of the brewery.

NJ Beer began actual brewing on April 24th, and as of today, it has brewed 100 barrels of beer. Matt's happy with how the beer has turned out. "I really couldn't be more excited get them out there. They're exactly the way the way they should be," he says.

NJ Beer also has a fall seasonal in the pipeline, but Matt is keeping details of the beer under wraps for now. It's in "the lab being perfected," he says.

Right now, NJ Beer's brews are draft only. But the brewery's bottling line is expected to arrive from Canada around the end of the month.

This year, Craft Beer Week sees the ranks of Jersey brewers grow by three: NJ Beer, Port 44 Brew Pub in Newark and Iron Hill down in Maple Shade, which has been doing phenomenally well since opening not quite a year ago.

Port 44 is still serving brews under guest taps, while it awaits final brewing licensing from the state. It's been frustrating trying to cut through the red tape, but Port 44's owner, John Feeley, says a meeting with their legal folks today gave reason to be optimistic.

Bureaucratic waters can be choppy, but if things tilt Port 44's way, the pub could be pouring its house-made ales around mid-June. Cross your fingers for them. Just as NJ Beer has brought brewing back to Hudson County, Port 44 represents a connection to the past for Newark, which was once a major player in the brewing industry before things dwindled to just the existence of Budweiser.

(In fact, once Port 44 gets its license and begins to make beer, the brewpub will be the only American-owned brewery in Newark. As we know, Budweiser is in the hands of Brazilian-Belgian conglomerate InBev.)

About American Craft Beer Week
The observance was organized by the Colorado-based Brewers Association to celebrate small and independent craft brewers and highlight what Americans enjoy about craft beer.

A House of Representatives resolution, H.R. 1297, was introduced in April to recognize and support the goals and ideals of American Craft Beer Week, not to mention support the role that small and independent craft brewers play through community citizenry; the economic contributions (i.e. the 100,000 jobs in the industry); and a resurgence in the brewing industry unseen since before Prohibition.

Craft beer week

American Craft Beer Week began on Monday ... the appreciation of better beer.

If you recall, we prevailed – unsuccessfully, unfortunately – upon Gov. Corzine's office for a proclamation for a New Jersey Craft Beer Week to coincide with the seven-day observance authorized by Congress.

Make no mistake, it was a longshot for one voice. So it comes as no surprise that you can take a spin over to the governor's Web site and not see a link to a press release (FYI: Former Gov. Whitman declared July beer month in New Jersey back in 2000, so Corzine wouldn't exactly have been breaking ground here, just effortlessly being a friend to a state industry, if he had signed a proclamation). The Garden State Craft Brewers Guild should have stepped up with a lobby campaign (to be fair, we're guessing the guild didn't try, and we won't mind being corrected if it did) to get a state observance.

You may think we're making something out of nothing, but Craft Beer Week represents a chance for solidarity and marketing. Neither sound all that compelling, but they are important and represent, we argue, the underpinnings of keeping a message about Jersey-brewed beer before the public.

And that, too, is important, especially since the guild, by and large, holds just a couple (sometimes) of festivals a year under its banner. That's hardly much reinforcement in the public's mind that New Jersey has some great beer made within its borders.

Meanwhile, promoters in Atlantic City hold the state's biggest (but hardly the best) beer festival, and the High Street Grill in Mount Holly is on course for a second 2009 festival, set for this month. Neither are Jersey-beer centric (although Jersey beers have been on those fests' lineups). Quite the contrary, since those fests pull in beers (via distributors) from across the country and around the world, they're sort of eating the guild's lunch, stealing its thunder (pick a metaphor).

That may sound like protectionist talk, but think about it. Someone's brand is getting built up with some exposure. Shouldn't it be the home team's?

Our suggestion: Print advertising rates are probably very negotiable right now (revenues are that soft) at the bigger newspapers. So the guild should begin a regular ad campaign promoting Jersey-brewed beer, à la the campaign used by the state Agriculture Department (the well-known Jersey Fresh produce slogan) ... Think Jersey, drink Jersey, perhaps?

NJ Craft Beer Week, a movement (we hope)

We gave a heads-up to the Brewers Association about writing Gov. Corzine's office seeking a proclamation of New Jersey Craft Beer Week to coincide with American Craft Beer Week (May 11-17).

The kind Colorado folks at BA were genuinely interested and asked us to kept them posted and let them know if it happens.

To that, we say: Cool. And we say make it a movement. If you read this blog, cut and paste the letter we wrote (or write your own) into whatever word processor program you use, print it out and mail it to:

The Honorable Jon S. Corzine Governor,
State of New Jersey,
Office of the Governor,
PO Box 001 Trenton, NJ 08625-0001

While you're at it, print out the federal proclamation and fire that off with the letter to bolster the argument.

Meanwhile, craft beer week wasn't lost on Colbert last year. (Alas, there's a commercial before the clip.)

Craft Beer Week ... an action moment

Next month plays host to American Craft Beer Week. It's May 11-17, to be exact. Think of it as Philly Beer Week for the whole country, or something like that, only it's a much older awareness effort than PBW.

And we recall, through the mists of time, that former Governor Whitman proclaimed July as a beer month in New Jersey, around the time she was heading into the stretch run of her second term. Alas, it would seem that stirring these embers and keeping the flame alive for the sake of craft beer has fallen by the wayside in our state.

It's a pity, since the Brewers Association in Colorado spoon-feeds the information and a lot of the accompanying rah-rah collateral material to organizations (or bars, it would appear) that want to jump on the beer wagon. It makes you wonder what the Garden State Craft Brewer's Guild is doing. Or not doing. There's not an iota of mention on the calendar over at njbeer.org. (And not to beat up on the guild, but geez, there's crap dating back to January on the news page of the Web site, the postcard link doesn't work and the promised Frequently Asked Questions page has been in the larva stage for months now.)

Anyway, without getting into the whole saw about burgeoning growth in the craft beer segment of the brewing industry, like the BA does, we fired off a letter to Governor Corzine's office, asking that May 11-17 also be designated New Jersey Craft Beer Week, to coincide with American Craft Beer Week. We sent it conventional mail and through the governor's Web site.

Here's the letter:

Governor Corzine,
May 11-17 is American Craft Beer Week, a designation bestowed by Congress (House Resolution 753) upon the efforts of the nation’s small-batch brewers/entrepreneurs, who make excellent beers that capture the heritage and modern culture of one of the oldest beverages on Earth.

The congressional resolution also serves to raise awareness of the community of microbrewers and restaurant/pub brewers. And amid our current national recession, it would be fitting that American Craft Beer Week also serve as a reminder of the contribution that those brewers make to their local and state economies, with jobs, tax revenues and licensing fees.

New Jersey itself has a long brewing heritage, and some claims to beer fame. For instance, canned beer was developed at the Gottfried Krueger Brewery in Newark and went on the market just two years after the end of Prohibition. Moreover, President Roosevelt chose New Jersey as the site of a speech to rally plans for pulling the nation out of the Depression, referencing the resumption of legal beer as a component of the economic recovery efforts.

Today, the 18 craft brewers that call New Jersey home carry on with that entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, making world-class beers that have earned national accolades and enjoy wide appeal here in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. It would be appropriate – and is requested by this correspondence – that May 11-17 be declared New Jersey Craft Beer Week to coincide with American Craft Beer Week and honor the accomplishments of New Jersey’s small-batch brewers and their contributions to consumers' enjoyment, the brewing industry, their local economies and the state’s economy.

We also added another section, for good measure, just a sampling of details about Jersey brewers, things that many of us know, but points that someone outside the loop may find interesting and useful. Besides, it would be decent fodder for a press release from the governor's office, should there actually be a proclamation ...

Some facts about New Jersey craft brewers:

• The Tun Tavern in Atlantic City pays homage to the now-gone Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, where the United States Marine Corps was formed in 1775. Every November 10th, the Tun holds a birthday celebration for the Corps, drawing active duty and retired Marines from across the country.
• JJ Bitting Brewing is housed in an early 20th century brick building (circa 1915) that once was home to the JJ Bitting Coal and Grain Company. The brewery/restaurant effectively preserves a piece of American railroad history by making that building its home.
• High Point Brewing, which brands its beers with the name Ramstein, pays tribute to both New Jersey’s highest elevation, and the American-German spirit of cooperation that is Ramstein Air Base in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz.
• Flying Fish Brewing is New Jersey’s second-largest brewery, coming behind mega-brewer Anheuser-Busch (now Anheuser Busch-InBev), and this year is producing a series of beers saluting the culture of humor and community that bonds New Jerseyans with their world-renowned New Jersey Turnpike.
• Along the Delaware River, River Horse Brewing makes its home in the old Original Trenton Cracker factory building in Lambertville.
• Boston-based Pizzeria Uno has but one brewpub across its chain of restaurants in the US. It’s located along Route 1 in Edison.

Should anyone want to follow suit and push the idea to Corzine's office, just cut and paste the letter and mail it to (but hurry, time's running short):

The Honorable Jon S. Corzine Governor, State of New Jersey Office of the Governor, PO Box 001 Trenton, NJ 08625-0001

Or cut and paste it into the correspondence part of the governor's Web site, but that's a bit of a pain in the ass, with drop-down menus etc. (we used the small business category, by the way).

Odds of getting a response? Who knows? But Corzine's treasurer did stick his foot in his mouth last month in regard to beer drinkers (tempest in a beer stein, in the end, actually), and maybe the governor could use something to settle the foam.

Cheers.

PS: And yes, we know, Uno Chicago Grill, but the corporate HQ, we discovered, is Boston, hundreds of miles from where Uno originated. What a wicked pissuh!