The Most Interesting Man in Urbana: Derrick Braun

So, I'm at work yesterday, and Derrick asks me what I'm doing for dinner. I didn't have any plans, so I jumped at the chance to do an It's My Treat with him. We've been trying to schedule one for months, but it has never worked out. Now it finally has, so here is my night with one of the original small-time kings, Derrick Braun.

Not only have I been looking forward to getting a meal with Derrick, but I have also been wanting to get some food from The Space. I'm usually doing lunches and they are never open during the day. Since this was a dinner, we decided that this was the night to make it happen.

First off, Derrick wants to know if I have ever tried Malört. I was a drinker back in the day, but I have to say that was not one that I had tried before. I prefer sweet and fruity cocktails, but part of it's my treat is trying new things, so I was up for anything. I was told that it was an acquired taste, and after trying it, I am pretty certain that I will never be acquiring it in the future. While it wasn't as bad as they predicted, it wasn't something great either. It started off with just a strong alcohol heat in my chest which I didn't mind but then finished with strong herbal flavor. Again, not as bad as I expected, but definitely not a Strawberry Daiquiri.

I'll tell you about the food before we move onto the stories (and there are a lot of stories.) I had a plain old smash burger with cheese and fries cooked in duck fat. The burger was delicious, thin, and crispy. Great flavor and the bun was one of the best. Don't know how much the duck fat flavored the fries, but they tasted fine to me. The ketchup was a homemade recipe (or restaurant made, I guess). It was very spicy. I was not expecting the spice, so my first fry with a big old dip of ketchup on it was way too spicy for me. After that I calmed down and just dipped a little and that toned it down a lot. Still probably go with Heinz if I have a choice, but it was a nice change of pace. Derrick went with the pulled pork sandwich. It came on an amazing looking bun and the sandwich itself looked so good. I think I will try that the next time I am in there. Derrick that it was good, so I'd say we had a pretty good meal.

Now for the stories. The only think I knew about Derrick going into this was that he was the event coordinator for The Beat this summer. Figured we could talk about that and that would be a good conversation. Well, turns out that that doesn't even make the cut when it comes to the interesting things that he has done with his life. I don't know if this is the correct order of any of this, but here with go with things that he has done in his life.

He spent a season working at his brother-in-law's winery in Washington state. There he learned quite a bit about wine and became a wine snob in a good way. Not one who is just impressed by an expensive bottle, but one who understand what makes a good tasting wine and can recommend pairings with meals or offer recommendations based on some of the other wines that you like. That is a handy person to know.

Working the wine harvest is a seasonal job, so he didn't have plans for doing anything else after the first season had finished. Just seemed like a good adventure that he would try. Turns out that some of the others that he worked with told him that a lot of them travel to the southern hemisphere during the off season to work down there when there is no work up north. Derrick learned that it was pretty easy to get a work visa in New Zealand if you have at least one season of work under your belt, so one adventure led to another adventure down under. He spent a season working down in New Zealand and then spent some of his extra time doing some site seeing.

Now, if I were to end the stories there, that would be a pretty interesting life. But that is barely getting started with Derrick. So, what else did he do? He spent a couple of summers working at a hippy commune. That's something. He was a live event marketer for Ocean Spray where he went around the country promoting the product. Even had the kiddie pool set up with a makeshift cranberry bog and dressed up like the commercial characters so people could get photos with him. That's pretty cool.

He did the first US test drive marketing tour for McLaren, the luxury car maker. Traveled around the country with expensive as hell cars and beautiful models. Ok, now that's impressive. He spent some time as a crew member of a few sailing vessels and worked his way up to first mate (or I am possibly remembering that wrong). He made a trip across the Atlantic Ocean. It was at this point that I was ready to call bullshit on this whole thing. Any one of the things he had done would have been impressive, but just having a list of them seemed a little too farfetched. But he had pictures: www.instagram.com/bywayofthewind What in the absolute heck?

OK so that's it right. Nope, just one last thing he dropped on me. He owns a Bed and Breakfast in Urbana. That's right he bought a bed and breakfast because he thought that Urbana was such a nice cozy little town. I don't understand his man. He is so far beyond me that I just can't compete. This is the reason that we learn that we should never compare ourselves to others. We should just try to make ourselves better. So, I may not have all of those stories, but if you notice in the pictures, I am wearing a tie. Tie Guy is back. That's something right?

So, this is where I normally end these write-ups, but in this case the night was just starting. When Derrick asked me what I was doing that night, he recommended not one dinner at The Space, but also checking out the Candlelight performance at Fire Doll Studios. I have been wanting the see one of the shows there, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I guess wearing the tie was just the start of a new life of adventure. The only thing I knew about the Candlelight Concert Series, was that they were kind of stripped down more quiet acoustic or a cappella performances. That is why I was surprised that the show was for the hiphop artist AMS's downstate release party for his album "Edward." That's his first name, but I learned from his first song that I didn't know him well enough to call him that.

Ok, but let's step back. First, let's talk about Fire Doll. The old Skin's n Tin's has been completely transformed into more than just a candle shop. It is an event space. Saw so many friends, it felt like old times. Mike Ingram was there helping take the tickets and running the sound. Kayla Brown, the owner, was there of course. Brandon and Megan were sitting at a table when we walked in. It was great to catch up with them. Hopefully I get a chance to do one of these conversations with them sometime. (Hint, hint, if you are reading this, ha.)

We'll get back to Brandon in a bit. Harsh was there, and so many others. While AMS was the main event, I want to talk a bit about the opener, J'Lyn Hope. I had never heard her before, so had no idea what to expect. Didn't take long to be blown away by her. I'll start off by saying she has one of the best voices I have heard. This is me saying this as Brandon Washington, the king of the amazing voices, is sitting right behind me. OMG she was good enough to give him a run for the money. I told him after her set that the way I felt hearing her was the way I felt when I heard him for the first time. Amazing. And it wasn't just the voice; she put together a full performance creating loops with her 505 loop station version II. Ha. Loved that she called that out and talked about her process of putting together her loops. And if that wasn't enough, the lyrics were great too. I will definitely keep an eye out for her upcoming shows.

The main event was AMS. the nerd king.. He had DJ Belly backing him up, but his rhymes and flow were what caught my attention. I am not much of a music reviewer, so I won't even try to go into all of that. Just give it a listen on Spotify open.spotify.com/album/4KrwFzDLSAOlVFxOy8htCT or any of the online platforms that you use, even the weird sounding ones.

OK. Got away from Derrick for a bit there and this post (as always) became a little long, but it was a great night and deserved going into depth about it. So, thank you Derrick for your spur of the moment suggestion for dinner and a concert. That was a hell of a night. One I won't forget for a long while.

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