The Best of the West
Monk's Cafe
Philadelphia, PA
4/12/05
The Craft Brewers' Conference was
held in Philadelphia this year and all kinds of special events took place
in the City. One of these brought two great breweries from the West Coast
to Monk's Cafe, Elysian from Seattle and Pizza Port Solana Beach from California.
This is not the first time these
breweries have been to the City of Brotherly Love. Last year, Pizza Port
was doing an East vs. West Lupulin Tour with others and came to Monk's
for a special event. Also, Elysian has a local connection. One of the owners,
Dave Buhler, is our illustrious East Coast Rogue Rep's, Sebbie, brother.
The whole family was here for this one!
The lineup for this dinner had to
be a tough one for all involved. A beer from each brewery was to be paired
with each course. Not to take anything away from Elysian, but Tomme Arthur's
beers are much more aggressive. Dave Buehler even stated that himself.
Pizza Port's beers are more in the lambic Belgian-style or are aggressively
hopped and Elysian's are much more in the mainstream vein. The pairings
seemed to work just the same and both beers were given their due credit.
Dave Buehler talks to the crowd and both he and Tomme Arthur talk to
Tom Peters.
After a word from George Hummel, Dave
gave a rundown of the beers they were going to serve and a little about
the brewery. His partner, Dick Cantwell, also had a few things to say about
their direction and what we may see in the future.
Our first course was Salt Cod Brandade
on oven-dried tomato, a piece of salt cod battered and fried. PP's Mo Betta
Bretta and Saison Elysee were paired with this selection and worked beautifully!
I was concerned about what to expect from salt cod, but it was delicious.
Elysian's Bete Blanche Tripel and
one of Pizza Port's SPF series, SPF45, accompanied the Foie Gras Terrine
in a puff pastry w/ star fruit, blackberry and cactus pear compote. The
Bete Blanche is a lightly fruity 7.2% abv brew that would go well with
lots of foods. SPF45 is a big 10+% abv dark brew made with ginger, coriander,
orange peel, camomille, grains of paradise, etc. and has a lot of fruit
flavors and the usual brettanomyces tartness. The mixture of all these
flavors again made the course a special event.
Next up was an interesting pairing.
The chef, Adam Glickman, decided to make a Tea Smoked Squab to match up
with 2 hoppy beers, PP's Swami IPA and Elysian's Immortal IPA. Swami has
a nose and palate of flowery hops where Immortal is a little drier and
more balanced, but the spiciness of both beers cut through the smoke of
the squab though it didn't lessen it any. Interesting!
Braised Lamb Shank with truffled
white sauce, potatoes au gratin and fava beans was paired with the most
unusual duo of the evening. Pizza Port's most famous product, Cuvee de
Tomme, went up against The Wise ESB from Elysian. The Cuvee has probably
won more awards than most beers and is very spicy and fruity with an abv
of 12% whereas the ESB was a very nice one, but not up to the task of taking
on an opponent like that. Either beer alone would have been very nice with
the entree, but the Cuvee definitely won the day! I have had it many times,
but it never ceases to amaze me. Wish we could get it here! Can you say
"Road Trip"???!!!
Now, after all that food and beer,
they actually expected us to eat dessert! Well, I took most of my entree
home with me knowing I would have to! Adam's chocolate mousee cake is deadly!
Served with Elysian's Dragontooth Stout and Pizza Port's Mother of All
Beers, the cake was unbelievable. The sweetness of the cake and the sweetness,
roastiness and coffeeish taste of the stout went perfectly together. The
Mother brought a dry, tart fruitiness to the table and complimented the
chocolate offering.
Well, we made it through another
one of the dinners with many more to come. Check out monkscafe.com
for a list of the upcoming events. Hope to see you at the next one!
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