Beer + Food = Good

Mrs D and i were fortunate enough to indulge ourselves last night in JuJuBe's 6 course paired beer dinner. While i'm generally content to leave food blogging to the experts, i didn't notice any of them in attendance.

The set up was a long row of tables for two, some pushed together to make four places, some not, and a round table off to the side that sat 8 people; so 26 people all together. I kinda like the round table idea better because you'd get to converse with more than just your immediate table mates (we didn't know anybody else there.) But as we were seated with James, the beer host for the evening, we got lots of inside information. There were a couple of other fans of Sam's Blue Light in attendance as well.

for the most part, the pairings worked very well, especially the mussels and the Golden Ale, the won ton and the Abbey Dubbel, and the dessert course, which was great. Minor quibbles - the aioli was a bit too salty for my taste (garlic would have been just fine; mussels and garlic go together like Lemmon and Matthau); the Grand Cru is a very sour, cherry infused ale that i think overpowered the more delicate flavors in the pork loin. I wouldn't mind trying it again with some baby back ribs that brought a little more smoke and sweetness to the table.

But as i say, those are minor quibbles. The fennel mussels were exceptional, and virtually everything else was great. I've been urged on numerous occasions to check out JuJuBe; now that i have i'm hoping to save up for a return trip for one of Charlie's Tuesday night chef's tables.