El Reno Burger Day attracts thousands
The above video doesn’t do the event proper justice. Mostly because you can’t enjoy how good the hamburgers smelled.
El Reno, it’s people and groups, do an outstanding job with this event. I was amazed how many people were there, especially the families. Parents with strollers prowled the downtown area everywhere for several hours Saturday as the rains held off.
Big thanks to El Reno Mayor Matt White for his time for an interview. He seems like a genuinely nice guy who enjoys working for his city.
Also a big thanks for Geoff Eaton for his promotion of this event (hard to miss his enthusiasm on Twitter) and the various hook-ups associated with making coverage of events like this easier, like judging a Battle of the Bands. Makes a difference.
Forward Foods opens in OKC
Forward Foods opened its Oklahoma City location on north Western Ave a few weeks ago. The grand opening was last Friday. Dave Cathey and I spoke with owners Steve Reynolds and Suzy Thompson. Great couple. So was little Sangster.
I shot this video with a Canon 7D using a 50 mm 1:1.4 lens, although I may have switched lens for the outside shot. Not happy with the pans and tilts with the tripod. Pretty sure it wasn’t working properly (read: user error).
Great audio as always using the Zoom H4N. It showed its last bar on the battery power display, but appears to last for quite some time on low battery power.
Haven’t tried the cheese, but there is a crazy amount of cheese inventory to choose from at Forward Foods. Lots of spices and sauces too. Reminds me of the deli’s and cafe’s in Napa and New York City – small, big inventory, pretty good prices and great tasting food.
The Tasting Room
I shot this interview with Angi Bruss and chef/owner/partner Kurt Fleischfresser on Saturday night. Fleischfresser was debuting his concept, The Tasting Room, which is behind Will’s in the Will Rogers Theatre on NW 43 and Western.
It was the second straight weekend I had shot something with Chef K, both weekends decidedly involving world-class food. For a tech geek like myself, seeing the kitchen with cameras and flat screen in operation was pretty cool. While Chef K chefs behind the grill and stove, he can step on a button and toggle through various camera shots that appear on the flat screen for the entire room and the entry hall.
I’m a big fan of Will’s, especially during warm weather on the patio. The food is exceptional. Chef’s food, I’ve heard it called. The egg salad sandwich is insanely good.
Pardon the audio on the above video, something about Angi’s mic bugged out during the interview so I went with the on-board mic on the trusty Sony HVR A1U. The Canon 7D refused to read cards this weekend.
RePUBlic Gastro Pub
Here’s how it works: sometimes a video request will come in via email from the newsroom to the OPUBCO Studios and I feel the need, the “right,” the hunger to personally handle the request.
That was the case this week.
I caught up with The Oklahoman’s food editor Dave Cathey and Matt Clayton for a preview and tour of RePUBlic Gastro Pub, Good Egg Dining’s latest opening. The place is spectacular inside. I’m a big fan of patios and it has one of those too, complete with flat screens, secluded from Classen.
Walls of beer.
Flat screens of over 100 inches. Several of them.
Trendy decor.
And outstanding mustard dipping sauce.
RePUBlic opens Monday. I’d recommend it from what I tasted. The burgers, wings and chicken were exceptional, and that was only a bite or so of each. Some weeks are more rough than others with this gig.
Watch the video above for a sneak peek. My tripod completely crapped out on me during this shoot, meaning the head came completely unscrewed and fell off. Fortunately the camera – Canon 7D – was already in the bag. But I came away with limited pans and moving shots, they just weren’t smooth enough to use. The Oklahoman’s David McDaniel, a big time pro, was on hand to shoot stills for NewsOK and The Oklahoman. I used some of his stills in the video because they were much better images of the food.
EggFinity at the 26th Annual OKCMOA Omelette Party
Big thanks to OKCMOA Communications Manager Leslie Spears for her help with our coverage of this year’s event. Big time crowd, probably over 1,000 people. Excellent food, as expected.
A couple of notes: bad lighting on the interview. That’s my fault. We shot on the stage where the art raffle was held because it had the most light. Tried to put Dave Cathey and Leslie in front of a light that was aimed at a painting, but that would have blinded them and blown out the image. As it turned out, the FCP 3-way color correction was needed and still looked goofy. Oh well.
Chocolate Decadence 2010
From last night’s event in downtown OKC, Dave Cathey takes us on a tour of the tables. Chocolate everywhere. In drinks. On plates. And CocoFlow, which we’ll have another video on later next week, won the judges’ tastebuds.
