What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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38 WHAT'S UP! JANUARY 3-9, 2021 Taste the Mountain — For someone who's lived in Fayetteville for 10 years, I spent an inordinate amount of time on Mount Sequoyah this year compared to the last decade. Over the summer, I found that the mountain was hosting outdoor concerts on the grassy lawn at Cottage Circle where musicians could perform from the gazebo and guests could have plenty of space to social distance. Ahead of attending one of these concerts on a perfect summer day, I also found that the nonprofit was offering "Sequoyah Suppers," and I promptly ordered one to enjoy as a picnic during the performance. These suppers were offered weekly through most of the year and have been an affordable way to enjoy the superb cooking from Mount Sequoyah's excellent culinary team from home, while also supporting a community institution. There were a few more events and dinners I attended up on the mountain, but my favorite of all of these happened in mid-October, at the peak of the trees' transition to their autumn colors. Taste of the Mountain was a culinary tour of the Mount Sequoyah campus — once a Methodist retreat center, and now an independent, nonprofit event center and arts supporter. A handy map of the grounds showed each of the locations where a small plate and alcoholic drink pairing would be served. The bites were delectable and each stop also served to feature the mountain's history, event capabilities, or simply, the Ozark beauty. Though there were opportunities to explore a building here or there, most of the event remained outdoors, giving me total peace of mind in leaving my home for a night out (an extreme rarity by this point in the fall). The welcome shiitake mushroom and beet mousse canapé was complimented with a ginger-beet Collins cocktail — several flavor combos I never would have foreseen enjoying, but the playful amuse-bouche was light and delicious. We next enjoyed a crispy pork belly slider, paired perfectly with an American Pale Ale from Ozark Beer Co., at the picturesque Vesper Point outdoor chapel. The next stop, in view of the famed Cross Overlook, offered my favorite dish of the evening (or was it the slider?!) with an elegant scallop, seared in rendered duck fat, set atop a delicate croquette. Each of the six courses was divine, and the last stop at Cottage Circle treated us to a concert by local guitar virtuoso Jacob Hertzog as we indulged in a dessert of peanut butter chocolate cheesecake and a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. "Hamilton" — It wasn't a Northwest Arkansas-bred treasure, but I'll briefly also mention one more thing that brought me immense joy this year. This summer, the Disney+ streaming service released the stage recording of hip-hop Broadway musical "Hamilton," with the original all-star cast, one year earlier than its scheduled release. When the show took over the world in 2015, I was among the legions of fans who had the soundtrack on repeat, trying to land all of Lin-Manuel Miranda's speed-of-light lyrics and committing to memory every word of the show. For five years, I've been dreaming of the day I'd get to see it in person. Unbelievably, we were supposed to have the touring production come to the Walton Arts Center in early 2022, but now with the industry experiencing complete closure for more than a year, who knows when that engagement will come to pass. So to get to see the actual footage of the performances I've been listening to for so long, after months without any theater in my life at all, "thrilling" might just be an understatement. Watching "Hamilton" through the screen wasn't a replacement for the indescribable experience of sharing a live show with a room full of people, but seeing the world's response to the musical's streaming debut was a heartening reminder of just how much theater, and the arts, can connect us. I recently said to a friend that between the holidays, grief over not being with family, and general year-end stress, I keep forgetting, just briefly, how much I miss experiencing the arts in person. Seeing "Hamilton" was an experience for me, and it is one that couldn't have come at a better time. Hopefully, by this time next year, I'll be saying the same of the locally produced and presented shows we're all able to gather for once again. Here's to a (please, God!) happier and lighter 2021! PRESIDENT Brent A. Powers EDITOR Becca Martin-Brown 479-872-5054 bmartin@nwadg.com Twitter: NWAbecca ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jocelyn Murphy 479-872-5176 jmurphy@nwadg.com Twitter: NWAJocelyn REPORTER Lara Hightower 479-365-2913 lhightower@nwadg.com DESIGNER Deb Harvell ! UP WHAT'S ON THE COVER Artist Sasha Rayevskiy, better known as Tigersasha, con- tinues to paint Oct. 30 on a mural created by artist Hilda Palafox in downtown Springdale. The mural on Emma Avenue was one of a dozen across the state commissioned by OZ Art for a project called ARkanvas. OZ Art was founded in 2017 by Steuart Walton and Tom and Olivia Walton and is described as bringing together "a network of art, artists, events and ex- periences throughout Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas." (NWA DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE/DAVID GOTTSCHALK) What's Up! is a publication of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. FEATURE FYI Honorable Mentions: • OZCast virtual variety show — Produced and hosted by Creative Arkansas Community Hub & Exchange • 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' show- ing — Arkansas Music Pavilion • Battle of the Sommeliers Dinner — Mount Sequoyah Best Continued From Page 12 This crispy candy pork belly slider — with beer-braised pork belly, pickled shallot, fried jalapeno crumble, nestled on a buttered slider bun — was one of my favorite dishes during Mount Sequoyah's Taste of the Mountain culinary tour in October. It was perfectly paired with an APA from Ozark Brewing Co. (Courtesy Photo/Mount Sequoyah)