Finds

Finds 03.05.2008

BET YOU CAN’T EAT JUST ONE
Even if butter won’t melt in your mouth, these creamy mints will. Gambino Bakery’s butter mints are an elegant old-fashioned treat. First manufactured commercially in 1932 by Katherine Beecher in her Manchester, Pa., candy company, butter mints are a time honored treat, the kind of sweet your grandmother would have hidden away for special visitors. Gambino’s, a historic New Orleans bakery with a branch here in Lafayette, makes them fresh. A generous package costs $4.95. Call 406-9066 for more info. — Mary Tutwiler
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A.O.C. THIS NEW SHIRT**
This year, Acadiana Open Channel celebrates 25 years of bringing Lafayette some of the most original, thought-provoking and endearingly eccentric TV on air. One easy way to lend your support to the station, and its mission to keep local programming alive, is by purchasing an A.O.C. T-shirt. The station sells T-shirts with its classic A.O.C. face logo, and now it’s also offering new shirts promoting its latest initiative, the Acadiana Center for Film and Media, a digital arts venue and media literacy organization. Shirts sell for $20 and can be purchased at the A.O.C. office downtown at the corner of Lee Avenue and Main Street. — Nathan Stubbs

SHOTGUN WINE TASTING
Guns and alcohol. Not a good mix, unless you’re Abbeville’s John Putnam, musing on how he’s going to cook his specklebelly. Or if you are Putnam’s hunting buddy, Bjorn Larson, who owns two vineyards in Napa Valley. Thunder and lightning! Hunting and fishing! Shotguns and wine! A brand new label, Gauge Wines, is the embodiment of that epiphany in a duck blind. “Two things I have the most experience with are hunting and drinking,” Putnam says. “So it just kind of came together.” They teamed up with Larson’s childhood friend, winemaker Trent Moffett of Moffett Vineyards. The two first offerings are 12 Gauge Cabernet Sauvignon, and 20 Gage Chardonnay. On their Web site, www.gaugewines.com, Gauge describes the company’s cab as smooth, bold and delectable, and calls the chardonnay crisp, dewy and creamy. Gauge Wines should hit the Lafayette market this week, at about $12 a bottle. — MT