Bell’s Beer Dinner at Mangia Italiano
Oct 17, 2007 beer, events, restaurants
To say I was just a little excited when Ian posted yesterday about the Bell’s Brewery beer dinner at Mangia next Thursday (2007.10.26) would be a bit of an understatement.
I picked up the phone immediately and made a reservation for four. Hours later it was a reservation for six.
And I have high hopes that we’re not going to have someone slinging the typical pretzels and beer mustard fare at us because Mangia is obviously an Italian restaurant. I’m tired of watching people pair beer with things like pot roasts, meat loafs, and other heavy foods almost as much as I’m tired of it being the only choice for spicier ethnic cuisine.
You see, the beer snobs of the world are consistently talking about how because beer is food it can be better paired with food than wine. Yet each time you see a beer dinner it’s the kind of stuff I mentioned above.
What I’ve been hoping for is a beer dinner with lighter food to show me that it can be done. While I don’t think I’ll prefer it to wine, at the end of the day I just like food, so I couldn’t be more curious to see what someone will do –so interested in fact, that I’ve spoken to some people about doing a beer dinner myself.
It will be nice to see what someone else does so that we can either have witnessed a successful attempt at what I will refer to as a Better Beer Dinner, or a massive failure showing us where we don’t want to go wrong with ours or maybe for me, that it just can’t be done.
Best of all, however, is the brewery they’re doing it with. Bell’s is hands down my favorite brewery. That picture above — it’s mine. Out of KZOO, MI, it’s the brewery we took a severe detour for in route to Traverse City, MI earlier in the year just so I could experience the Bell’s Eclectic Cafe and all it’s wonderful draft beer for about two hours.
Add to that the fact that it’s the day after my birthday and I just have to say: thank you Mangia, I didn’t know you cared.
So, if you don’t have plans for next Thursday, come down and watch me happily make a fool of myself and all those with me including local beer dork geek Mike.
And here’s what Ian had to say for the record. He finds all the good stuff.
From the mountains of Panama and Ethiopia, to the urban-jungles of Portland and Chicago, journalist Michaele Weissman takes us behind the scenes for a look at the world of third-wave specialty coffee. How did we get to Starbucks, and where we go from here?
October 17th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
That good stuff includes the menu, Bill. You want to know, or do you want a birthday surprise?
October 18th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Bill, well, as an ex-St. Louisan now living in Traverse Michigan area, I’m pleased to tell you that there are more cool beer spots for your next vacation. Have you ever been to Joe Short’s in Bellaire, MI? I get to work for Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine and our October issue just covered his brew. He’s a young guy, soon to be 29. His brews are famous for leveraging remarkable flavors like chocolate, pumpkin, tomatoes … from the article, “Today’s conconction is named Soft Parade, and with ingredients like red raspberries and black raspberries to be added at day’s end, the recipe embodies one of Joe Short’s central philosophies: push the flavor boundaries of beer. By adding unexpected ingredients–licorice, cocoa, black cherries, dill, horseradish and coriander, among many others–he creates rich and complex flavors not found anywhere else. Short’s now sells about 20 beers, ranging from Local Light to Chocolate Wheat–not a one of them “plain Jane,” he says. On top of that he makes 13 in what he calls the Imperial Beer Series. And the market has taken notice. Though Short opened his brewery in April 2004, he already sells tap beer in kegs to more than 70 pubs and restaurants statewide, and Short’s own pub has become one of Northern Michigan’s hottest gathering spots for locals and tourists–a popularity helped along by his commitment to presenting live music.” Since it’s the October issue, it is coming off of the newsstands as we speak. Of course you can order back issues on our website, http://www.traversemagazine.com or just go to Short’s site at http://www.shortsbrewing.com .
I hope on your next trip Up North, you can stop by Shorts and quaff a brew or two. Happy Birthday from one foodie to another.
Rachel North
marketing geek at Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine
October 21st, 2007 at 2:54 am
I really wanted to go to that. Stupid money.
Anyway, I don’t know if it’ll be a huge success but I doubt it’ll be too bad. The only thing I can say is to expect it to maybe take a little longer than you might like. Meredith and I enjoyed the wine dinner we did there a couple of months ago, but the whole thing took over two hours (as I recall) and there was a pretty big wait in between courses.
But I think as long as you expect that going in, it won’t be an unpleasant surprise.