Last month was the Oktoberfest beer dinner and this month at Pizzeria Paradiso was an Autumn Smuttynose dinner. I took Sarah to her first beer dinner and it turned out pretty well. I’m starting to get spoiled and remember a few of their extra delicious pairings from the many dinners I’ve enjoyed. Now if it’s not an over the top taste bud sensation I’m almost disappointed. This was a good dinner though. The brewer was in attendance and speaking about his beers which is better than the usual regional rep. Maybe I wasn’t blown away by the beers.
We sat with an interesting tall character with blond hair parted down the middle and almost in his eyes. He met his quite friend at some odd neighborhood dog/drink street gathering that has been going on for years. The other two were a young couple at their first beer dinner who liked the restaurant and didn’t know anything about beer. The tall old blond dude kept the table high in group sprits. The menu:
Sweet Potato Coffee
Robust Porter 5.7%
Spinach, Artichoke, Olive Salad
w/ Farmhouse Lemon Dressing
Farmhouse Ale 7.5%
Salmon Pastrami
IPA “Finest Kind” 6.9%
Pumpkin Pesto, Pancetta, Parmesan Pizza
Pumpkin Ale 6%
Old Brown Tomato Sauce, Fontina, Gorgonzola, Roasted Garlic, Cherry Tomatoes, Thyme, Oregano Pizza
Old Brown Dog 6.7%
Autumn Pound Cake
Baltic Porter 8.7%
The first course, “the bite”, isn’t sweet potato coffee it’s coffee sweet potato. And I didn’t taste much coffee. Everyone seemed to like it though as long as they only had a bite. And everyone liked the Robust Porter. It was an interesting start.
The salad dressing was a lot of lemon but I liked it with the Farmhouse Ale. The dressing was made with the ale but it was pretty much all lemon. There was a lot of artichoke which was good but I would have liked more spinach.
Everyone was curious about the salmon pastrami. It came out as two peppered strips on toasted bread with a cream cheese made with the IPA. It was quite good. The table wasn’t so much a fan of the IPA as I was but the appetizer was given the thumbs up. The salmon pastrami and cream cheese on toasted bread was delicious.
The first pizza was interesting, almost a little dry with just the pesto, but still pretty good. The pesto was made with a lot of pumpkin but I didn’t taste it. The Pancetta and toasted parmesan was good with the Pumpkin Ale. The brewer said he likes his beer tasting like beer with the spices kept subtle which was good to hear. The Pumpkin Ale was good but I think it was the only pumpkin beer I’ve had this year other than the 1 yr old Dogfish Head Pumpkin Ale.
The second pizza was pretty good looking to the table. I sent a MMS to Teri as she is a pizza lover. This was a cheesy creamy pizza. Greg the beer guy said he wanted a creamy pizza to go with the Old Brown Dog. It was too cheesy to eat with your fingers. It was a lot better than I thought though not being a fan of an overly cheesy pizza. I ate more than one piece. The Old Brown Dog was not as robust as I’m used to. The brewer said it was a good session beer. He also said he was told to brew Really Old Brown Dog as they had the idea and the label ready to go. He said that one was very malty, which I liked, and this next one will be more of a Barley Wine, which is not my favorite style. Apparently they sorta skipped 2009 and will brew it next year.
The Autumn Pound Cake was good. And of course not just a pound cake. There was some super thick rich chocolate/maple sauce on top as well as roasted apples. It was quite good. Of course by the time you get to the deserts they always taste damn good. The Baltic Porter was much different than the Robust Porter. That is all I can say.
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