I've been addicted to hosting beer dinners since my personal first was a complete success, when it was anticipated to flop.
Beer dinners aren't anything new. And they weren't new when I started doing them 2.5 years ago.
But, I have always held respectable positions at luxurious resorts and the name of the game, to my typical clientele, was wine. Always wine. Wine Academy, Wine Cellars, Wine Tastings, Wine Pairings, Wine Dinners, Private Wine Labels, Wine Reps, Wine Snobs, Wine, Wine, Wine.
I got sick of it. I was doing it out of assumed necessity. I didn't really care about it, it wasn't my passion, it was my job.
I like beer. I like good, well crafted, story telling beer. I wore/wear a suit EVERYDAY and rubbed elbows with some of the areas finest, most elite, most wealthy and powerful. I was involved in events costing 10's of thousands of dollars, served and planned and created. But I liked beer.
I figured, I'll bet there are plenty other suit wearing, part looking, beer lovers just roaming these halls wishing they had something better to do than pretend to love the wine event they were roped into attending.
So while working for a upper-echelon, old school,
posh resort in Massachusetts, I attempted to introduce the idea of embracing the local breweries of the East Coast and making them front runners in the restaurants. In addition to that, I introduced the idea of doing a casual style beer dinner with a brewery out of Brooklyn.
The huge success that I felt the dinner was, launched beer dinners into my new favorite thing to offer.
I always make it my duty, after securing a brewery interested in doing the event, to never pick the beer. I want to help the brewer tell his or her story. I ask that the brewer and/or their team select which beers they would like to feature. From there, I put the intricacies of the beer in the spotlight and showcase those notes to the respective Chef I am working with. The menu is designed to highlight the beer and show it off. Never the otherway around. Not for me. And that is why I always "pray" (sometimes referred to as "beg") that the brewer be in attendance. It's their story, I'm just providing some more paper to write it on.
These events have also put me in friendships with some incredible beer folks. Brewers, owners, reps, ambassadors, and fans. That is one of my favorite parts. I look up to those people. They, besides {some} musicians, are the only artists that move me, spark curiousity and cause wonder in what they create.
But like all things, repetition gets boring. Now, at a restaurant that most would think is the last place you would find a good beer, let alone a beer dinner, I am born again with the event, Evoluzione della Birra!
An Italian craft beer dinner! How lucky am I? A respected, world renown celebrity chef and a dear friend and excellent executive chef, a city booming in craft beer, and my hands on Italy's top craft beer producers!
It doesn't have to be American to be craft. And when you are working with the likes of del Borgo, del Ducato, Montegioco and Baladin, it is craft at some of its finest.
I'm not going to use this as a shameless plug for the event, so if you want to seek those details, send me a comment. I really just wanted you know that I really enjoy them.
Cheers!
As always drink good America, even when its not from America!
