Aristocrat Pub: Bier Brewery Beer Dinner

A week or so ago, the Aristocrat Pub held a beer dinner with Bier Brewery.  It was reasonably priced ($30) and we LOVE Bier, so we decided to give it a try.

This was different than the other two beer dinners we've been to, in that it was much less formal--there was no official menu posted beforehand and no assigned seating.  And it turns out that the Aristocrat mostly just used items off its normal menu, rather than create a whole slew of new dishes.  The surprise was that this actually worked pretty well!  Just about all of the dishes paired with their respective beer pretty beautifully.


The six-course meal started with a little crock of beer cheese, which came with crostini (they were thoroughly crusty and buttery) and granny smith apples.  This went really well with Bier's Special K Kolsch: a German-style ale very similar to a pilsner, but more aromatic and less bitter, and which is a great, clean, drinkable beer.  The beer cheese was good--would have been great with a soft pretzel (looks like it's served with pretzel bread on their regular menu)--but not warm at all, sadly.  I imagine it sat around waiting for the event to get underway.

Next they brought us Belgian Blonde (a light pale ale similar to a Belgian Triple, but slightly sweeter and with less alcohol, but still over 6%) to go with a kale and bean salad.  The salad was warm and surprising--there was a lot of acid in it, and quite a bit of heat.  I wasn't sure about it at first, because I'm not huge on beans, but I ended up eating most of the kale because it was pretty tasty.  I didn't see this one on their regular menu.  The beer was great.  I'm a huge fan of Belgian beers, and this was a solid Belgian Pale Ale.  Not bitter at all, with a smooth finish.

Our third course was a little crab cake, along with Bier's DFG IPA, an American Double IPA, which packs an alcoholic and hoppy punch!  I generally despise IPA's (I am not at all a fan of hoppy beers), but I actually, and to Tim's great delight, liked this one.  Probably couldn't drink a whole glass, but I did enjoy it, I'll admit.  And it went well with the dish.  The crab cake was really very good, which is saying a lot since I don't normally like them, either.  If you are looking for a mostly lump crab meat, hardly any filler, fresh, chunky crab cake, this one isn't for you...it was pretty creamy inside, but in a good way, and was fried crisp on the outside.  I really dug it with the chipotle mayo on top and greens with a tangy dressing on the side (and a squeeze of lemon).  Very satisfying couple of bites.  This one's on the menu.

Fourth course was portobello raviolis in a marsala cream sauce.  It doesn't look like much in the picture--it was VERY heavily sauced--but I love a lot of sauce, especially when it's as good as this one was.  The raviolis were meaty and mushroomy, and the sauce had that slightly sweet marsala wine flavor, and was well-seasoned.  It contained a few slices of button or crimini mushrooms, also.  This dish also suffered from not being very warm, but Tim and I both still loved this it--it was that good. I'm sad to say I don't see it on the regular menu!  They have other pasta dishes--maybe they'll add this one someday.  I know it seems crazy to consider going to a pub and ordering pasta, but this was really flavorful.  Yum.  The beer was their Belgian Dark Strong, a robust, malty, dark beer with a slightly sweet finish that balances out the high the high alcohol content (about 8.5%) nicely.  Again, I love Belgian beers, and this was in my wheelhouse.

Our next course was Bier's Chinookalicious with fish tacos.  I really enjoyed my taco.  The fish itself was cod, battered and fried crispy--I'm assuming it's essentially their fish and chips fish that's been re-purposed.  They break it up so you don't have one huge piece and it's easier to eat, then top it with a jalepeno slaw that was outstanding, and an avocado/cilanto/tomatilla salsa that adds nice tang.  I'd totally order these again some day.  Well balanced, good textures.  On the other hand, I am not a fan of Chinookalicious.  Many, many people LOVE it (Tim included), and they are entitled to do so, but this IPA made with Chinook hops is just too bitter for this gal.


To finish, we had a special beer--an Oak Aged Pumpkin Porter.  It deserved a great dessert, and was perfectly paired with a flourless chocolate cake.  I'm not normally a massive chocolate person, but it went so well with the beer, and there were some candied walnuts adding crunch.  It was a great way to end the night!  The beer was spicy in a fall pumpkin pie spice way, but with no cloying flavors--they were all mellowed by the oak barrel aging.  Really smooth, really delicious.  And special--this one is a rare seasonal they held back just for us!

Aristocrat is not one of our regular haunts--we've been there a few times, but never to eat.  It's got some tough competition, being just down the street from Twenty Tap and a myriad of other fantastic restaurants.  I venture to say that it will be more on our radar, now, though.  We had a lovely experience, and as at other beer dinners, we had entertaining conversation with the folks we were sitting next to.  All around, a lot of fun.  Give beer dinners a try!

(I just have to add a special thanks to my husband, Tim, for helping me with the beer descriptions!)

Websites:  The Aristocrat Pub and Bier Brewery

Szechwan Garden

A few Saturdays ago, Tim and I went to Szechwan Garden at Lafayette and 38th.  He and his co-workers had recently started going there at lunch, and he was very impressed, especially with the dumplings he had.  He had noted that they serve dim sum on the weekends, and we'd both always wanted to try dim sum, so off we went.

First, a brief explanation for the uninitiated--servers come by with carts that are filled with bamboo steamers and plates of food.  They tell you what they have; you select a few; they stamp a card on your table to show the cashier what you bought.  Most of the plates came with three pieces of whatever the item was.  Since everything was in Chinese, and we had no idea how much we were paying for each item, we decided to just go with it and eat until we were full.

I won't go into detail about everything we had, but you can see from the pictures that we were pretty dumpling-happy.  The top left was a relatively standard steamed dumpling with pork, if I recall; the one on the top right was shumai that contained some shrimp.  Bottom left contained shrimp and pea shoots (this was one of my favorites); bottom right were a pan-fried version with pork and scallions.  They did offer us a hot chili paste dipping sauce; I would have loved a soy/ponzu based dipping sauce, too.  (Tim said they serve one when you order dumplings off the menu--we probably could have asked for it.)

The highlight for me, though, was the pork buns--yeasty rolls stuffed with barbecue pork (picture to the left).  So amazing.  I wished they had come by earlier; if they had, we probably would have had two plates of them.  Yum. 

The other highlight for me was the sesame balls.  These odd, sweet little nuggets were first introduced to us by some Chicago friends, and I've wanted to try them again ever since.  Well, there they were, and they were as good as I remembered.  They're glutenous inside--I believe they're made with rice flour--and are stuffed with sweet red bean paste.  And yet, they are crispy on the outside because they've been deep fried, and with the nutty coating of sesame seeds... it's just a strange and wonderful experience to eat one.  You have to try one for yourself to understand.

As I mentioned, we have no idea how much each individual item was, but our total came to around $20 for 6 plates of food, so I'd imagine they are each in the $3-$4 range (some cost more than others, I'm certain).  Not bad, and we certainly left full.

I would love to go back for more dim sum, now that we know what to do.  And I'd also like to try their regular menu, which Tim assures me is also tasty.

No website, but here's their Urbanspoon page:  Szechwan Garden