Our meme

My parents visited Chicago this weekend; it was great to spend time with them; amongst other things we took a tour of Half Acre Beer Co., visited a friend's mom's photography show at the Chicago Cultural Center, and walked around Millennium Park.

The highlight of the trip, though, may have been our dinner Friday night at The Publican, Chicago's top "beer and food" restaurant. Anyone's who's asked or given me the chance to tell them about the brewery concept that Danny, Jason and I have underway has heard my spiel about the niche that our pub will fill in the brewing world: there are breweries that serve great beer and decent (sometimes great) food, and there are excellent restaurants that have started focusing on their beer lists and beer/food pairings, but there is no brewery that has conceived itself as fully devoted to pairing its food to its beer and vice versa. Thus, our niche.

The interest in beer and food together has been growing steadily in the past few years. In Portland, Higgins Restaurant has been pushing its beer list for ages. Garret Oliver, the brewmaster at the Brooklyn Brewery, wrote the seminal The Brewmaster's Table almost ten years ago. Cafe d'Alsace in New York grabbed headlines a year or two ago when they brought on a beer sommelier (now called a "cicerone" in the beer geek world). Lucy Saunders published The Best of American Beer and Food: Cooking and Pairing with Craft Beer in 2007. And the number of restaurants offering brewer's dinners has been growing steadily; in Chicago's foodie scene, The Publican is always cited as a top beer/food destination.

The beer list focuses primarily on Belgian and French ales, with a reserve of German, Scandinavian, British, and American beers as well. As an appetizer round, my parents and I split the ham platter, spicy pork rinds (the house specialty), and an apple salad that we paired with the St. Feuillien Saison. Given my mom's dislike for sweeter beers, I was concerned she might find the fruity esters of a saison to be overwhelming, so I was both nervous but also hopeful that the dry finish would be a palate pleaser. Saisons have a reputation of being a great "food" beer as they seem to go well with almost anything that's not overly sweet, and it turned out to be a great success! Both my parents liked the pairing, and I was especially impressed by how well the saison went with the pork rinds, complementing the light heat from the cayenne that they dust on.

The Publican is known for its pork dishes and hews to the "snout to hoof" method of carnivory, using as many parts of a pig in the dishes as possible. So the menu is awash in pork belly, head cheese, pork shoulder, tongue, and tripe. For our main dishes, my mom and I both took the cue from the large wooden pig sculptures that hang from the walls and ordered country ribs and pork belly, respectively. I deviated from the conventional wisdom of using a German beer and opted for one of the French biere de gardes on the menu. This time, the votes were split. Neither my mom nor dad cared for the beer, which was a little frutier, mustier, and earthier than the St Feuillien Saison. I thought it cut nicely through the richness and oiliness of my pork belly, but in hindsight, I might have opted for a lighter Belgian ale, like a wit, a lighter German festbier, or even something in the vein of Fat Tire, a hybrid Belgian pale/American amber, which has a really nice balance of malt and hops. I thought that the earthy flavors the biere de garde would be a crowd pleaser, though something a little more spicy seems like it would have been a more accessible accompaniment.

My dad ordered the walleye, and for his beer, I went out on a limb and ordered him an Orval. Orval is a Trappist beer--it's made by Belgian monks--and is sui generis in the brewing world: it is it's own style, and while a few American breweries have attempted to brew a New World version of it, no one has really matched it. What makes Orval unique is that it mixes some of the light caramel of a Belgian pale ale with a distinctive wild yeast character that is often described as lemony, leathery, and (the unfortunate descriptor) barnyard-like. Though he was taken aback when I described the beer as having a barnyard character ("Don't use that to sell your beer," he cautioned), my dad loved the Orval which was light enough to match a mild fish like walleye without overpowering it.

The food, the beer, and the company were all wonderful. The Publican, for its menu, beer list, atmosphere, and service, is almost exactly what I aspire our brewpub to feel like, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. Did I mention that they were packed with a youngish crowd all night Friday?

I was reminded about how much fun and how challenging it is to pair specific beers to specific dishes. Given that we're attempting to take on that challenge in developing the brewery, I imagine that the test brewing season will be labor intensive, involve lots of trial and error, require lots of feedback (I'm looking at all of those thirsty and hungry Portland folks who are willing to become trained tasters!), and, hopefully, lead to some brilliant pairs.