Recess: Brooklyn Brewery Beer Dinner

Last night, Tim and I had a really great experience at our very first Beer Dinner at Recess.  I didn't initially think I'd write about it, since I've reviewed Room Four and Recess so many times, but it was such a wonderful time that I wanted to share.


I am on the Recess/Room Four mailing list, and had gotten several messages about this beer dinner.  It was super intriguing to us, but we had decided to be smart and not spend the money ($75 per person--yikes!).  For Recess, it's a pretty good deal--a normal meal there runs around $56/person for 4 courses and no drinks.  This was 5 courses and 6 beers.  Still, it's expensive.  But when I saw on Facebook Monday afternoon that they still had some spots left and mentioned it to Tim, we decided to just go for it since we've never done something like that and the menu looked incredible.  I'll be focusing on the food rather than the beers, since that's where my greater interest lies.

We arrived at 6:30, and were promptly handed our "reception beer"--a can of an English style Summer Ale.  It was great.  Light and ridiculously drinkable in an almost lager-ish way, it had a slight fruitiness from the hops but without being bitter like an IPA (key for me).  We both really enjoyed it.

Around 7pm, we were invited into the dining room to take our seats.  Everyone was seated at two long communal tables.  We weren't sure whether we'd like that, but thankfully we were seated next to a friendly couple who we ended up having a ton in common with (the craziest connection?  Our youngest and their oldest sons are in the same preschool class!).  So that aspect of the evening was really fun.

For our first course, we were served a "shrimp cocktail" with probably the most outstanding, tender, delicious shrimp I have ever had.  It was so well cooked!  In the glass was scallop ceviche in a cold tomato broth with avocado, jalapeno, and cilantro.  It had great flavor (excepting the cilantro, of course), with a low amount of heat.  The shrimp was the standout to me, although Tim loved the scallops.  The beer that course was Fiat Lux, which is a Belgian Witbier.


The second course was one of my favorites.  The large pieces of fish in the picture are kampachi crudo, which I had concerns about (I've never been a large-thick-pieces of raw fish person), but which turned out to be incredible.  It was served along with small thin slices of Mojama Tuna, which was kind of like tuna jerky and added a great saltiness.  On the side were two fried oysters (probably the only less-than fantastic part of this dish--there was too much breading and not enough salt involved), and some cucumbers that had been marinated in Tabasco and something creamy (mayo?).  There was also a red pepper gelee, almonds, and green onions, and under the crudo was a mix of what seemed like fennel and a few other finely chopped veggies, which had a pepperiness to it. Greg Hardesty said that with that dish, they wanted to explore several forms of peppers (gelee, hot sauce, and whatever they used in the veggies).  With that course, we got Sorachi Ace, a saison beer. I really enjoyed that one.

 
Our fourth course was roasted lamb rack.  As you can see, it was perfectly cooked.  It was served over what they called a "picnic salad" with grilled corn, broccoli, cauliflower, dried blueberries, and sunflower seeds, all in a slightly sweet mayonnaise based sauce.  The salad was so great, I could have eaten a plate of just that!  Creamy and sweet from the mayo, with all those wonderful textures...yum.  Also on the plate was a salted caramel made from a reduction of the beer we were drinking with this course--Local #2, which was a dark Abbey ale (in the background of the pic--at this point I realized how many pictures I'd be taking and started to combine drinks and food in one pic).  This was a standout dish--my one desire, though, was for just a touch more salt on the  lamb.  Our tablemates pointed out that the salted caramel provided a nice saltiness, and it did help, but it still needed just a touch more salt.  Recess is usually so great about seasoning their meat that it let me down just a touch.  Tim and the others seemed happy with it, though.


The fourth course was another standout.  It was a cheese course called raclette.  It's a Swiss (i.e., from Switzerland) cow's milk cheese that is traditionally set by a fire so that it begins to melt, and then it's scraped onto your plate.  To make things easier, they melted it in ramekins for us and served it with bread from Amelia's Bakery, house made pickles, boiled fingerling potatoes, and Walla Walla onion petals.  This was definitely another of our favorites.  The cheese was pungent and sharp, and so satisfyingly melty.  This course was served with Monster, a barley wine.


Our final course was dessert.  THIS course was definitely my favorite.  The heart of the dish was an amazing little glazed cherry cake doughnut, which sat atop a cherry puree.  It was dusted with powdered sugar and "macadamia snow" (ground macadamia nuts), and was served with Fernet ice cream.  Fernet is most commonly served in espresso in Italy--it's an herby spirit.  It made an AMAZING ice cream.  A bite of everything together was like the best cake and ice cream you've ever had.  The course was served with Black Chocolate Stout.


At the end of the evening, Greg Hardesty came out and announced that he had a $100 gift card if anyone could guess the theme of the music they had been playing all night.  When everyone shouted out "bands from Brooklyn!" right away, he said that instead he'd give it to anyone that could name the one musician they'd played that most people don't realize is from Brooklyn.  Tim was able to quickly and correctly identify Barry Manilow (who knew?!  So grateful for my musically knowledgeable husband!), and we scored the gift card!  Needless to say, it made our last minute decision to attend all the more sweet.

Website:  Recess