I’ve asked Denise to post again for me:

Tomorrow is the chef’s table event! Good luck and have fun – wish I was there [even though California is spectacular].

I had another awesome meal last night. I met up with my friend Doug in Santa Monica for dinner. Just by chance we walked into Rustic Canyon, a very swanky yet rustic restaurant that has a frequently changing menu inspired by finds from local farmers markets where the “farmers, ranchers and fisherman practice sustainable agriculture.” Gee….sound familiar!?

So we were expecting to have a casual dinner but much to my surprise they were offering a prix fix beer inspired menu – 5 beers and 5 courses for $60. Did I mention they were all Belgian beers? Heaven!

Cheese fritters with Gruyere with Deus Brut des Flanders, brewed in Belgium and then refined in France. Spicy but light with the effervescence of champagne…11.2%! A really great pairing.

Next was a nice farmhouse Saison ale that was cloudy and yellow in color. The frothy grainy lemon tartness of the ale went very nicely with a seared scallop that was sliced thinly and served with fried capers and lemon vinegrette over a bed of arugula and thinly sliced radish.

Next was my favorite…Trappist Rochefort 6 served with parpadelle with a wild mushroom ragu, which included fried enoki. This dark, nutty and earthy ale paired perfectly with the dark, earthy mushroom and pasta plate.

I was divided on the next course. The Unibroue Ephemere is this amazingly smooth ale brewed with apples, corriander and curacao. Sounds sweet doesn’t it? It really wasn’t and I think this was the beer we were looking for our beer and cheese tasting. I’ll try to find it when I return – I want you to try this one with a blue cheese (maybe my favorite smokey blue!). Anyway, it was paired with duck leg confit. While the duck was good (not nearly as good as the duck I had at Comme Ca the previous evening) it was served over a bed of sweet basmati rice. It may have just been me – but the sweet rice was undercooked and “sticky sweet.” So I polished of the duck leg and left behind the rice.

The dessert course was interesting. Ice cream flavored with Quelque Chose Ale and a chocolate cherry ale tart were good, but the chocolate tart seemed undercooked to me. That was paired with Craftsman Honesty Ale. This was a perfect sour cherry lambic ale that I was suprised to learn from the beer sommelier was a domestic brewer that uses cherries from Michigan.

Has anyone been to this or the other restaurants I’ve mentioned? Have you tried any of these beers? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

And it’s worth mentioning that it’s sunny and 70 again…

-Mike Hafford