Category: Flavor Town USA

“Take-Out,” an original fiction by Kip Knott for Flavor Town USA

Sometimes Clay can’t believe he still lives in the house he grew up in. His dad still lives there, too. Clay and his dad have been hearing a strange sound in the house for well over a month now. They hear it in the morning as they guzzle cups of Taster’s Choice and nosh on…
Flavor Town USA Fiction: “Sin Eaters LLC” by Will Musgrove

It was my first day. Inside the company vehicle, my trainer, Bob, read me the client’s file: sampling grocery store grapes, getting a little too tipsy on Sunday wine, several ticky-tacky sins, nothing a newbie like me couldn’t handle. Bob assured me the job was easy. All you had to do was eat the sin…
Flavor Town USA Poetry: “We Feed the Living” by Courtney LeBlanc

The week my father died I dugthrough the freezer and pantryin my parents’ house, pulled outthe ingredients to make my sister’sfavorite dessert. As I stirred and bakedI thought of my father, his body smallbut his hands swollen with edema.As the peanut butter cookies cooledon the counter, the sweet smell filledthe house, I stared out the…
New Flavor Town USA Fiction by Tyler Dillow: “Cherry Rum Flavor”

Deep red cherries in a bowl—I pit them, half them, soak them in rum. These are for later. Small treats take time. Even if only a little. When I make this, I think of countries stuck. Held in time. Always remembered for what they were and this is fine. Pour the cherry-infused rum over a…
Flavor Town USA Poetry: “Michelin Star Stool” by Adam Berlin

Le Cirque’s maitre d’leads us past candelabrasdripping wax on polishedcornucopias, mostly Dionysian grapes. He pulls chairs, takes menus tuckedunder his tuxedoed sleeve, hands themto Steiner’s (on his wrista Patek Phillippe) party of eight. The M&A sharkwith the stuffed bellyquestions me,his ex-secretary’s boyfriend on subjectshe knows well,severally:Marriage.Children.Time.Get rid of him, histhree-martinipronouncementto her. He’s old(he’s dead now)…
Avery Gregurich: Two Poems for Flavor Town USA

The Recipe Said When Picking Rhubarb, Red or Green Would Doafter Ted Kooser head to walt’s house north of the casino, checking your rearviewoften for any hangerson eager for the whereabouts of the last goodrhubarb of the season. greet walt with bottom shelf rum in exchange for the rhubarb. accept when he pours some in…
Three Collaborative Poems by Lauren Hilger & Dionissios Kollias for Flavor Town USA

Party Favors I pretend it’s the fast and vicious future with a slow sax and 1991 looming overblack sheer tights, friendly kisses on both cheeks. I close my eyes to their emeralds and rubies and panic, capture and share,hand it over to others. I give it away too soon,before it becomes me. Part of my…
Flavor Town USA Poetry: “Beer Can Chicken Primer: Revised” by Avery Gregurich

never ask the scout leader about the troop’s beer can chicken recipe because you are not and were never a scout of any kind. he makes it better off duty anyway, down the hill in his driveway where the divorce camper is parked. all recipe-makers now implore you to get that charcoal hot, crucify that…
Flavor Town USA: Excerpts from ROSE MASK, service conversations by Jared Joseph

Rose Mask is a series of transcriptions of conversations between myself and the customers I served at a cocktail lounge and restaurant in Santa Cruz, CA, during 3 months of masked service due to the pandemic. The work is further framed as an impossible-to-stage work of theater, one that unfortunately plays itself out constantly in…