Zac Brown Band Fills Stomachs, Stadiums

August 17, 2011 By David McTiernan Leave a Comment

It was only a matter of time before it was time for my first Eat & Greet as a member of the ZBB team – it’s a rite of passage.

Cookie, the band’s enormous, glistening trailer/mobile kitchen was parked last Saturday outside the Meadowlands, back doors flayed open, with the aromas of Chef Rusty’s beef tenderloin, fresh baked bread, and chocolate peanut butter biscuit pudding wafting outwards.

Cookie

What struck me most, though, was not the smorgasbord of southern grub, but the casual interaction between the band and the select group of lucky fans. Had I not known what they looked like, I could never have picked the band out of the crowd chowing down at one of the long tables.

Zac, Clay, Chris, Coy, John, and Jimmy completely blended in with their fans, carrying on conversations over savory mouthfuls as if they were just a group of mostly-bearded guys who like country music.

ZBB thinks about touring differently. It’s not just important to them that they put on a killer show (though, indeed, they do), but that every fan feels like they’re getting the ultimate experience… because they are. From taking the time to shake every single fan’s hand to the belt-busting array of home cooking, to the hardest-hitting set this side of arena rock, ZBB created a space where nothing was as important as their fans.

And it was delicious.

The Menu:

Heirloom tomato salad with smoked corn, edamame, pickled cucumbers and moonshine vinaigrette
Fresh bread with agave fig butter
Braised Brussels sprouts with country ham and red-eye gravy
Wild mushroom and snap pea spoon polenta with smoked gouda
Grilled cauliflower, broccoli and okra with a saffron chardonnay butter
Beef tenderloin with Zac’s Georgia clay rub
Pork tenderloin with “Zac’s Love Sauce”
Chocolate peanut butter biscuit pudding
Zac’s famous cole slaw

ZBB rocking the Meadowlands

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Chef Rusty, Cookie, Cooking, food, home-cooking, Kenny Chesney, Meadowlands, Menu, recipe, zac Brown band, ZBB

Zac Brown’s Spicing Up My Lunch

April 15, 2011 By Elizabeth Lutz Leave a Comment

Today for lunch is a packed salad…again, but unlike any other day today’s salad features left over pork tenderloin.  And it’s not just any pork tenderloin — it’s the second best I’ve ever had thanks to Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Grub Brown Sauce (more on the first below).  I’m an avid cook and what this sauce does to meat is something spectacular.  The subtle nuances of coconut milk, ginger and bourbon turn any meat into a melt-in-your-mouth delight.

Which reminded me of a post I started to write several months back after a visit and eat-and-greet with Zac Brown Band and Executive Chef Rusty Hamlin in Camden, NJ.

Here’s a general menu of what was served at my ZBB eat-and-greet.
- Pork Tenderloin – Zac’s Brown Sauce (often called love sauce)
- Beef Tenderloin – Georgia Clay Rub
- Pocket Knife Cole Slaw (featured in the cookbook)
- 3 Local Vegetable Dishes (As determined by Chef Rusty day of show)
- Fresh Salad
- Bread & Desserts from local bakers

Again, the pork is cooked in Zac’s sauce which is phenomenal and the meat itself is shipped in exclusively from White Marble Farms – and its exactly that, marbled to produce the most tender experience possible.  But back to the sauce, I really like the analogy Zac uses… he created his sauce like General Tso did for his soldiers — where it’s so delicious you could eat shoe leather — and believe me, I think I could eat shoe leather if it was smothered in this sauce.

The Georgia Clay Rub is equally impressive. The tenderloin was cooked to a perfect medium rare and the rub is all spice, no salt. Zac specifically designed it this way so that it wouldn’t draw moisture from the meat and it pays off. I’ve been personally searching for something like this because I find that all rubs out there are complete sodium bombs.

Vegetables when I visited were grilled brussel sprouts, a blend of fire grilled squash and cherry tomatoes peppers, and a delicious diced yam.

The salad was a spinach and goat cheese mix that was topped with White Balsamic Vinaigrette. Attached is a shot of the sample plate — it was PERFECTION.

But now the band has even taken one more step to super serve the fans — offering Front Porch Stage Boxes at select shows where you get an all-you-can-eat table with unobstructed views of the stage.  You gotta see it to believe it.

Chef Rusty Introduces Front Porch Stage Boxes

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Brown Sauce, Chef Rusty, eat-and-greet, elizabeth lutz, Southern Ground, Zac Brown