Stone Brewing Beer Dinner

Monday, August 27, 2007

Belmont Brewing Company, http://www.belmontbrewing.com/, hosts about 6 beer dinners over the course of spring & fall. I had not attended one since last year . Since I do like the beers of Stone Brewing, http://www.stonebrew.com/, so I decided to forget my irritation with the BBC and attend this dinner. It was $50 plus tax & tip. The tip is what grates me. Mandatory 18%. It should be 15% and let me add more if I feel the service warrants it. Like last year the bread came out late. It should be brought to your table when you are seated., not at the second course

On with the dinner.

The setting was perfect. Outdoors next to the sand and water with the sunset coming. When the sun set could see all the lights from Long Beach, San Pedro and Palos Verdes. BBC does have a great piece of real estate.

At 6:30 they started bringing bottles of the first beer around which was "Levitation Ale" a very light ale, only 5%, which paired nicely with the Andouille Sausage with a Honey Tomato Basil Chutney. The chutney was really good and paired well with the sausage. They did come around and ask if you wanted more beer.

They were very generous in the amount of beer they served. One bottle per person and if you wanted more you could have it. The Levitation I did finish my bottle.

The second course was an Italian White Bean Soup. I did have to add salt & pepper to bring out the flavors. But tasty. It was served with the pale ale, which is not one of my favorite beers. I had about a third of the bottle.

The salad was Heirloom Caprese with Balsamic reduction. I did eat one slice of a yellow tomato and the mozzarella cheese. I am not a big fan of raw tomatoes and that is why I picked the yellow which had great flavor. Less acid. They served this with the "Arrogant Bastard" beer, which is one of my favorites. This beer was the only draft beer and it came around in pitchers.

The main course was a Seabass with Risotto Cake in a Bisque Sauce. This was a good dish. Not to sure about it being seabass but it was a white fish with a very good sauce. The risotto cake
was a nice touch and the veggies were julienned. The beer with this was "Ruination". A good pairing.

Dessert was another story. This was the great disappointment of the evening. The beer with dessert was a smoked porter which I really like. It has a chocolate flavor to it and it could have paired well with so may simple things that the chef could have made. (easier to serve that what we got). Dessert was a scoop of Spumoni ice cream with a biscotti. The ice cream was half melted by the time we had it placed in front of us. Did not pair with the beer at all. It was like the chef forgot about dessert and threw something together at the last minute. A Sticky Toffee Pudding, A Gingerbread Cake with a Caramel Sauce, a Dark Chocolate Cake or Brownie Volcano Cake would have been great with this porter.

It was an enjoyable evening and I will probably do the next dinner in October at BBC, which will be Belgium beers.