Black Market: Holiday Beer Brunch

Last weekend, Tim and I had the pleasure of attending Black Market's Holiday Beer Brunch.  This was the 3rd year for the event, and the first year we've been able to make it.  We had a great experience!

The morning started with a "Reception Beer," to be drunk while we waited for our first course.  Three Floyds Alpha Klaus was the  choice.  It was pretty good, a solid porter.  It was relatively hoppy for a porter, but it finished clean so I didn't mind that (normally I do not care for hops much).  During this time, we got to know some of our neighbors at the large communal table where we were assigned to sit.  The entire place was packed, from the communal tables to the few four-tops around the room.

About a half hour into the event, our first course finally arrived.  It was a twist on biscuits and gravy--a light, buttery, flaky biscuit tinged with citrusy orange, which we then covered in ham and mussel gravy from a family-style communal bowl.  Really wasn't sure about this combo when I read it on the menu, but it all made sense on the plate.  The gravy was creamy and rich, just as you'd expect, but instead of making it with sausage they made it with meaty chunks of ham.  Then they tossed it all with mussels, which also went well with the gravy.  The whole thing was really, really tasty, and went well with the Dark Horse 4 Elf that it was paired with.  The beer is a "winter warmer" style and had a ton of spice.  I really liked this one, and I know Tim did, too.

The next course was goose.  Yes, goose.  I'd never had goose before, but it was pretty good!  They confit-ed the legs, then roasted and sliced the breast.  They were served with a cranberry relish as well as some whole cranberries that were super sweet and tart, plus a "savory bread pudding" that was essentially traditional dressing, and some cracklings made from the goose skin.  Oh, and it was all on top of some greens (we think kale).  The confit leg meat was amazing, and tasted a lot like duck confit that I've had in the past.  The breast was extremely meaty--it looked more like beef than poultry, really.  It was fairly gamey but not overpoweringly so.  The cranberry cut through some of the richness, and the cracklings added nice texture.  All in all, an interesting and satisfying plate of food.  It was paired with Anchor Christmas Ale (link is to the 2012 version--it changes a bit every year).  The Ale was dark and had a lot of "Christmas" spices that complimented the holiday spirit of the dish.

The third course was the cheese course--Stilton, whipped with cream to make it not-quite-so-pungent, was served over poached pears with spiced walnuts, what seemed to be candied dates, and bit of granola.  It was really interesting--the cheese, even with the cream mixed in, was pretty strong, but the sweetness of the fruits and nuts and the oaty-ness of the oats came together with the cheese very well.  It was served with Gouden Carolus Noel, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale.  This beer was a 10%, and as such was pretty strong and a bit alcohol-y tasting, but it was spicy and fruity and went really well with this course.  It had a raisin/prune flavor going on.  Very interesting.

Finally, we reached dessert.  The course was described as "Chocolate Ganache with Holiday Sweets," and indeed, that's what it was!  In addition to a dollop of the smoothest, shiniest chocolate ganache I've ever had the pleasure of eating, we received a little tower of spice cake, some English toffee shards, and a peppermint shortbread cookie.  All delicious, and all even better when dipped in the ganache.  The beer for this course was the reason that many people attend this brunch--it was the 2012 Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg Samichlaus.  The octane on this one went up even higher--14%--so we received a small portion.  Whoa howdy, was this a sipper!  It was sweet and almost syrupy with some raisin (again) and caramel notes.  I enjoyed it, but the small portion was plenty.  As you can imagine, it went very well with dessert.

At the end of the brunch, Chef Micah came out and announced that someone had a sticker on the bottom of their plate, and that that person was going to win a special prize.  Low and behold, that lucky person was yours truly!!  Santa came out to deliver my prize--a magnum of Anchor Christmas Ale and a bottle of Ninkasi Brewing Co Sleigh'r.  Tim and I were pretty psyched!  We'll be saving those for Christmas or New Year's, I think.

Overall, this was a great experience.  I tried some new things, I enjoyed the pairings, the atmosphere was jolly, and it was just a lovely time.  We hope to do this again next year!

Website:  Black Market

Room Four and Black Market (Redemption!)

I know I review these places often, but since the menus change daily I am going to continue to give you reviews on them when we go there. For one thing, I want to promote them (especially Room Four) since we get excellent meal after excellent meal there. 

A week or two ago, Tim and I were out and about on a Tuesday night and wanted to grab dinner.  After debating several other locations, we turned to our favorite:  Room Four.

I got a tomato salad ($10) that was outstanding.  It doesn't look like much, but it was packed with flavor!  There were three thick slices of tomato which were ripe and tasted like actual tomatoes.  Then they were topped with some grated pecorino cheese, sweet vidalia onions, and red wine vinaigrette, and then sitting on top of all of that was an arugula/basil combo.  The vinaigrette was incredibly bright, and when it combined with the pecorino, which was salty, it just made the tomatoes taste unreal (clearly I never get any good, ripe tomatoes around here).  Basil is a no-brainer when it comes to pairing things with tomatoes, and the arugula added some peppery-ness.  $10 is a bit steep for some tomatoes and greens, but I can't regret something that tasty.

For my main, I got another one of the starters--roasted sockeye salmon with asparagus, roasted garlic, and pistachios in a red pepper sauce ($13).  There were also some microgreens sitting on top. It was a pretty small portion since it was a starter, but it was plenty for me when combined with that salad.  The salmon was well-seasoned and really good in the red pepper sauce.  I liked the pistachios because they added a nice crunch.  The asparagus was just asparagus, but it was well-cooked.  I mixed some of the roasted garlic cloves into some bites, and it added a nice sweetness.  Not the tip top fish I've had there (because salmon isn't my favorite), but still, a super solid performance.  As I've said, they do fish very well.

The second part of this post is just a few lines about our last trip to Black Market.  I forgot to take pics until late into the game, plus it was super dark where we were sitting, so I have no pictures.  But I have to comment on it, because they completely redeemed themselves in Tim's and my eyes after the last visit we had there (with the Beef Barbacoa that wasn't actually beef barbacoa).

We went with the specials for our entire meal.  They had a starter of morel mushrooms and ramps that had been 'melted' down to form an incredible tasting topping for bread--buttery and meaty and delicious.  It felt a little wrong to eat morels this way--I grew up eating them dipped in milk and flour and then fried--but the flavor was delicious.  For my main, I got the special Pad Thai of the day, which had salt-and-pepper fish fillets in it (can't remember the type--sorry!).  I am still dreaming of that fish.  It was well-seasoned and crispy but tender inside, and with the Pad Thai just tasted amazing.  Loved it.  Tim got yet another special, a type of fried rice that had pork belly in it.  He also loved that.  Additionally, one of our friends got the caprese salad (I think it was also a special) with the most amazing tomatoes (where are these restaurants getting their tomatoes?  I need a hook-up, please) and in-house made mozzarella.  It was also super good.  We kept saying, "THIS is what a tomato is supposed to taste like!"  I think our starter and the tomato salad were in the $10 range, and Tim's and my mains were each $23-24.  Not cheap, but certainly tasty.

Websites:  Room Four and Black Market

Black Market

Tim and I went to dinner at Black Market with some friends last weekend.  It's another great local place that changes its menu with the seasons and usually has some interesting specials.  We also kind of dig the communal table thing, even if it *is* supposedly passe now.  (Have you seen the episode of Portlandia that makes fun of communal dining?  If not, check it out). 

They have a pretty extensive beer selection, and some pretty tasty cocktails as well.  I tried the Tornado Warning, which is basically a Dark & Stormy made with the traditional Black Seal Rum and Black Market's own house made ginger beer, plus a bit of lime.  It was super good, and although I generally like more lime in my stormies, this one still had a nice balance of flavors--not too rummy, not too gingery.  There was something interesting around the rim of the glass, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was!  Not straight sugar, that's for sure.  But it was good, so I can't complain.

Tim and I opted to split a few dishes rather than each ordering our own stuff.  We started with one of that night's specials, mozzarella sticks with tomato sauce ($10, three to an order).  First of all, these were the longest mozzarella sticks I've ever seen!  Each one was at least a foot long, deep fried, and oozing with delicious melted house made mozzarella.  They make good cheese at Black Market.  We've had their fresh mozzarella before in various incarnations and are never disappointed.  The tomato sauce was great, too--very fresh.  Sorry no pictures, but we gobbled them up too quickly!

We shared the Duck Confit & Tator Tot Salad ($11) next...pictured is just half of the salad, because I didn't whip out the camera until after we had split it.  It's not very pretty in that picture, but man, it was tasty.  The duck was meaty and tender, and the apples provided a nice tart contrast.  There was also a bit of bacon and roasted tomatoes, and blue cheese which brought it all together.  The tator tots were homemade, more of a potato croquette sort of texture, but acted as a slightly crunchy element.  Those sat on top of an interesting aioli sort of dressing...it was tangy and tasted good when it was mixed in, although the greens were already dressed with some sort of vinaigrette.  You can see one of the tator tots and the aioli in the above pic.  So that was a bit confusing, but it tasted good, so again, I'm not going to complain!

Tim and I decided to try the Beef Barbacoa ($25) as our main.  Overall, the flavor profile was great, but we did have a few complaints about this one. Here is the description:  "Beef Barbacoa. quajillo-puya chile broth / grilled tortillas & lime."  Barbacoa is generally slowly cooked, fall-apart tender, shredded meat, so Tim and I both imagined it'd be mostly meat with a bit of broth, and that it'd essentially be a make-your-own taco situation since it came with tortillas.  What we got was soup.  And it was almost more of a pot roast type meal.  Broth (awesome, flavorful, meaty and spicy broth, but still, broth), chunks of meat (and a few pieces of bone), carrots, potatoes, chickpeas...yeah.  Not exactly what we had imagined it would be.  Come on, people, how about some accurate menu descriptions!  Also, even though we told our waitress we'd be splitting it, they didn't put it into two bowls for us.  I don't expect that every time I split something--that would get obnoxious--but if the entree is a soup?  Come on, throw us a bone (or a bowl, as the case may be).  So it was nearly impossible for us to both eat at the same time.  Again, it did have great flavor, but it was a downer, for sure.  Not the way to end a meal.

I've always had more luck with the starters at Black Market than the entrees.  The only entree I can remember loving is the pork schnitzel that used to be on the menu all the time.  Hopefully they'll bring it back some day!  In the meantime, I'll stick with the starters.

Website:  Black Market