Justin Scurti is a bar owner (Saint Vitus, Brooklyn), tour manager (Spritiualized, Texas Is The Reason), guitarist (I Hate Our Freedom), and rock photographer.
What was the food highlight of your year?
Touring all year made this tough but I’d have to say Mission Chinese Food in San Fransisco. Scott Winegard and I ordered every vegan dish on the menu and it was only lunch time. It’s also a tie with having the tasting menu paired with wine at Chateaubriand in Paris when Scott, John Hiltz, and I took a road trip from Groezrock Festival in Belgium to Paris just to eat and drink.
They had a dessert made with an egg yolk poached in simple syrup on top of malt cookies. But then there’s also every time i get home from tour and my girlfriend Elena makes me the best brunches and dinners. She’s a chef so i pretty much eat amazing every day of the year!
What was the music highlight of your year?
I think seeing one of Rocket From The Crypt’s first shows back from the dead in Europe. They played a secret show at a community center in a little town about an hour away from Brussels. Then getting to see them the very next day at Groezrock along with Turbonegro and Texas Is The Reason. There was also the very last Texas Is The Reason show at the Electric Ballroom in London. After a year of touring it was pretty spectacular to see them do it all one last time in front of 1200 people who were just as grateful as i was to see it for the last time ever.
Was there a moment when food and music came together in a memorable way?
Food and Music are always together for me. The last year of touring with Texas Is The Reason we were very fortunate to be in some great places with some of the best restaurants. When we were in Chicago back in January, Graham Elliot invited us all out to Graham Elliot Bistro for a dinner at the chef’s table. Instead of us ordering off the menu, he said he was gonna just send out food till we said we were full. We never said we were full. I think we had close to 20 courses!!! Every cocktail on the list and lots of wine all finished with a full bottle of Fernet brought right to the table. Graham is a huge 90’s indie/emo music fan and loves giving back to the bands he’s listened to over the years.