Day: June 13, 2017

  Bavarian Bierhaus at Opry Mills opened in April, but this week the restaurant marks its official opening with four days of festivities that kick off Thursday. The cavernous restaurant was built to resemble a Munich beer hall, with room for more than 500 people inside and seating for 120 outside. The restaurant includes a large bar area and also a small market with food products, beer steins and clothing items. Thursday’s festivities include a ribbon cutting at 3:30 p.m. and a keg tapping at 6 p.m. with an appearance by former Miss America 2016 Betty Cantrell, who competed as Miss Georgia. There also will be a free pig roast buffet. At 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, there will be a beer stein lifting competition and traditional dancing by the Orlando Trachtenverein Schuhplatters. On Sunday for Father’s Day, there will be free beer for dads and live music. Business manager Brian Kehl said he’s been getting good feedback and already has repeat customers, some coming three times a week. One adjustment he’s had to make is fixing the sound system, as there were problems with having conversations when a band was playing. “We’ve redone the stage area,” Kehl said. “We’ll…

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When the Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture (SASDA) held their annual meeting at the Renaissance Hotel in Nashville last week, one topic of discussion was the “Dairy Pride Act” (S. 130), introduced in Congress earlier this year by Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). Faced with declining sales, the dairy industry and their lobbyists are attempting to have the Food and Drug Administration define the word “milk” as it is used in advertising and marketing of food products. Among the regulations contained in the Act are limitations on the use the word “milk” in describing and marketing a product. Under the Act, terms for increasingly popular products such as “almond milk,” “soy milk” or “coconut milk” would be banned. Only “milk” that comes from “the lacteal secretions of a bovine” (in other words, from a cow) could be used in labeling and advertisements. Opponents of the proposed legislative definitions call this “a protectionist scheme,” point out that the dairy industry has been steadily losing market share to relatively new and increasingly popular plant-based “milk” products and argue this is nothing more than an attempt to stifle competition through bureaucratic and legislative maneuvering. Fortune Magazine noted in February that traditional dairy products…

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