The Dancing Camel
One of James Thurber's best-known stories is "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". In the story, Walter Mitty is a mild-mannered gentleman whose otherwise mundane life is enlivened by his fantasies of adventure and conquest.
Fast-forward several decades, when mild-mannered Teaneck New Jersey CPA David Cohen made aliyah and decided to leave his calculator and ledgers to gather dust while he pursued his dream...to open a micro-brewery in Israel.
The Brewer
David and his family settled in Tzfat when they arrived in Israel, and although they decided to move to the center of the country soon afterward, Tzfat remained the inspiration for David's business idea, whose name draws on an old Tzfat story.
"Yisrael Najara was a troubadour in the 15th century" David tells, with the gusto of any storyteller who loves his story. "He used to travel all around the area, composing songs and playing his flute - kind of a Bob Dylan of his day. Once, during his travels between Damascus and Tzfat, he was attacked by a band of robbers. Rabbi Najara took out his flute and began to play softly, and much to the astonishment of the robbers, their camels began to sway and dance to the music. While they were staring, transfixed, at their camels, Rabbi Najara was able to escape".
The Brewery
The Dancing Camel Brewery was opened in Tel Aviv in 2006, and boasts a variety of beers that has made local beer lovers sit up and take notice. The brewery produces a variety of Ales, Stouts, and Wits, browns and pales, with a variety of flavors (vanilla, pomegranate, and date honey, to name just a few) that insure that these beers will not be overlooked. In their first 2 years of brewing, the Dancing Camel won several prizes in local beer contests, and been featured on Israel's news.
The brewery itself is A Place for Tel Avivians to meet, with open bar on Wednesday evenings and Friday afternoons. While visitors can be assured of plenty of company and, of course, great beer at these Brewery Nights, the themes of the nights vary widely, from Halloween parties to Vote-Absentee-Ballot night (before the American elections....every voter received a free brew) to karaoke nights to evenings with some of Israel's best bands. All, of course, with some terrific beer to keep visitors company.
The Beers
Dancing Camel beer is available in all Tuv Ta'am supermarket branches throughout Israel and, of course, can be obtained in Tzfat, where it all started.
