Central Vermonter’s have been slightly transfixed of late on the David vs Goliath tale of Montpelier screen printer (and all ’round nice dude) Bo Muller-Moore.  For a the past few years, Bo has been making tee shirts and stickers with the simple message “Eat More Kale“.  If you haven’t found yourself in our neck of the woods these past couple years, let me help illustrate: these things are practically everywhere!  EMK stickers in Central Vermont are pretty much as ubiquitous as Grateful Dead stickers were in the mid and late 1980′s; seriously, you can’t throw a cat without hitting one of Bo’s simple little shirts or stickers.

Always the savy entrepreneur, Bo realized that his very simple design needed to be trademarked, lest anyone with a the slightest of inclinations steal his design and put him out of his cozy little business (and I do mean cozy- it’s a one man operation residing in the garage behind his house).  That’s when Bo’s troubles started.  It seems the talking suits at fast food fools Chic-Fil-A found Bo’s trademark request entirely too confusing for their, er, slightly slow clientele- and they filed to block Bo’s trademark claiming it was too similar to their massively stupid “Eat Mor Chikin” slogan.  As some of my links might have suggested- the story has gone national.

Now Bo is hard at work, selling more shirts and stickers than anyone could have ever dreamed, thanks to the national attention (and our collective OWS-tinged hatred of big corporations pushing around little guys and gals like we’re mere flies in their multi-billion-dollar ointment) and the fact that kale is suddenly “the next beef“.  Even Vermont’s Governor decided to hitch his waggon to Bo’s unstoppable train. 

Well, almost unstoppable.  As you can imagine, Bo has a serious legal fight in front of him, as giant corporations like Chic-Fil-A don’t care (or have to care) too much about public opinion, so long as they can still meet their margins at the end of the quarter (as a side note about that- we have one friend living in Atlanta, corporate home to said fast food bullies, who went ahead and ordered an entire case- 1,000 or so- of Eat More Kale stickers; now Bo’s whimsical little VT logo is on cars and bus stops all over Chic-Fil-A’s house! ha!).  Just as we proudly poured Rock Art’s Vermonster when they found themselves in a fairly similar legal battle with a corporate giant selling a completely different product, we’re quite proud to be supporting Bo:

All day and night, Wednesday, December 14, we’ll be donating 10% of every single sale we make to Bo and his legal fund.  That makes today an extra special day for coming down to Three Penny for one of the world’s most finely crafted beers (and, yes, you guessed it, Chef Bilodeau has snuck some fresh, locally grown kale on to the menu as well!).

You’d think these corporate jackasses would figure it out and keep away from Vermonters and our cherished little guy entrepreneurs.  But apparently they haven’t, and until they do- well, we’ll just keep teaching them the hard way.

O come, all ye faithful!!!

Three Penny Taproom is proud to team-up with Dogfish Head to bring you the First Annual 12 Beers of Xmas:

On the first day of Xmas my beer man gave to me -Olde School Barleywine – paired with Mossend blue cheese, caramelized black fig, and salty pork jowl (Dec. 11)

On the second day of Xmas my beer man gave to me – Red & White – paired with French green lentils and Ruby Streak mustard greens (Dec. 12)

On the third day of Xmas my beer man gave to me – Black & Blue – paired with spiced wheat berries, pickled Blueberry and Chervil (Dec. 13)

On the fourth day of Xmas my beer man gave to me -Hellhound – paired with buttermilk biscuit and orange marmalade (Dec. 14)

On the fifth day of Xmas my beer man gave to me – Burton Baton – paired with ricotta latke and arugula (Dec. 15)

On the sixth day of Xmas my beer man gave to me – My Antonia – paired with chorizo and sauerkraut (Dec. 16)

On the seventh day of Xmas my beer man gave to me – Pangaea – paired with New England oyster, caramelized leek and black pepper (Dec. 17)

On the eighth day of Xmas my beer man gave to me – Chicory Stout – paired with braised pork, red eye gravy, grits, and poached egg (Dec. 18)

On the ninth day of Xmas my beer man gave to me – Namaste – paired with blood orange and carrot (Dec. 19)

On the tenth day of Xmas my beer man gave to me – Bitches Brew – paired with prune dumpling and brown butter (Dec. 20)

On the eleventh day of Xmas my beer man gave to me – Faithfull Ale – paired with lamb and nettle roll and black currant jam (Dec. 21)

On the twelth day of Xmas my beer man gave to me – 75 Minute IPA – paired with clothbound cheddar and horseradish (Dec. 22)

Three Penny’s own Scott Kerner recently contributed to an article in stowetoday.com highlighting some of the season’s best drinking- check it out!

Our dear friend- and super amazing songwriter- Anais Mitchell is bringing her “Transcontinental Revue” to the Haybarn Theater at Goddard College in Plainfield to raise money to benefit those in VT in need of aid following Huricane Irene.  Anais will be joined by her friends John Elliot and Jack Wilson.  The show is happening this Sunday, October 2 at 7:30 (doors open at 6:30) and tickets are just $10.

For those of you who don’t know, this Saturday, September 24 SIPtemberFest is happening down in the Mad River Valley.  The bad news, however, is that I waited this long to tell you about it… and now it’s sold out!  The good news, on the other hand, is that this simply amazing event is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the best beer fests in the Northeast, meaning you’re sure to have a chance to go next year.  The extra good news is that you don’t need a SIPtemberFest ticket to go to the after party at Hostel Tevere just down the hill in Warren, VT.  Consider yourself tipped off- the after party at Hostel Tevere will be a completely mind-numbingly awesome time, with copious amounts of blatantly, ridiculously good beer and no-messin-around eats taboot.  The after party starts around 5:00 in the afternoon.  Seriously, you don’t want to miss it!

(No, serisouly- you should go down there!)