Loud Radio and Breakfast IPA

Turkey Day Eve down on Canal Street started at 5:30 a.m. It wasn't just rats running around. The big mouths from rock radio station WZLX piled into Boston Beer Works to dish out turkey and a lot of lip.

The Karlson and McKenzie Morning Show set a surprisingly pleasant tone with four hours of:

• A cavalcade of increasingly imaginative turkey dishes
• Live rock on stage from Revolver
  
• Coffee and Coke
• In-your-face hosts
• Comic Tony V.
  
• Boston Celtics Dancers
• JP Licks ice cream served up by its owner, Vince Petryk
  

Of course, eventually at 8 a.m. (must be a Boston regulation) the taps opened for self-financed hairs of the dog.

In terms of life's strange events, this is not even in the top 200, but it seemed decadent enough. My chum John and I each tossed back BBW's great IPA -- the tall, 22-ounce, of course, not our usual breakfast beverage.

Virtually none of the almost entirely male, middle-aged crowd had the energy of the guys with the mikes. Kevin Karlson and Pete McKenzie chattered or bellowed non-stop for the whole time. Often they and Heather Ford went from booth to table to curb spreading their cheer and Thanksgiving anticipation. One might be on the headset taking a listener call. The others would be interviewing bird eaters or passersby. Throughout, Revolver played intensely, and loudly. How did those radio guys keep up the chatter when we could barely talk across the tables?

Ostensibly, this was a turkey tasting. I think it ended up with 11 or 12 varieties. Southwestern was in salsa, a lot of varieties of fried came with such stuffings as spinach and jack cheddar or wild rice, BBQ had a cornbread dressing, there was a rosemary bird, and the sweet and sour version had a cheese stuffing.

A bunch of men sitting around with their coffees, then their beers were not shy in tasting either. As the attendants grew from about 20 to maybe 100, home-plate sized platters went from heaping to scraps.

By the bye, WZLX promoted this and BBW sent it to use frugal tipplers who belong to its VIP Club. Pre-Thanksgiving Meat and Greet, eh?

Among the few women there was one bartender and four of the Celtics Dancers. Neither Karlson nor McKenzie is a svelte thing (then neither John nor I am). However the dancers were. Up close, they are surprisingly girl-like -- no hips or bosoms to speak of and very skinny. Boy, could they smile and hold it. At one point, they gathered for a snapshot, surrounding a seated guy in a Celtics' T-shirt; he was closing in on 300 pounds, about the same as the foursome. The smiles almost looked real.

Maybe the hit of the morning was the interaction with Vince from JP Licks. He was dishing out mini-cups of Wild Turkey vanilla ice cream. It is a likely complement to a pecan pie.

We discussed his three JP stores -- the tiny one next to the old Rose Way Books, the little one that is now the Purple Cactus and the big one across the street. He was very pleased that I knew them all, that I enjoyed his coffees, and particularly that we don't let a family birthday go by without a JP Licks ice-cream cake.

Nice guy. Nice ice cream. Nice IPA. Nice morning.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, beer Works, Thanksgiving, WZLX