Three Chefs and a Beer

We weren’t sure if it was a guest chef event; a beer event; a Jennifer Carroll New England Theme dinner featuring Allagash; or an Allagash Beer Dinner with Jennifer Carroll. All we knew was a dinner by Chef Scott Schroeder (South Philly Tap Room), Top Chef Jennifer Carroll (ex-10 Arts), Pastry Chef Monica Glass (10 Arts), and Maine’s Allagash beer with our Beerlass. That’s a big OK with us.















Marinated Wellfleet Oyster, Sea Urchin
Foie Gras Tourchon, Cranberry Gastrique
Potato-Salt Cod Fritter, Celery Remolade

Allagash Victoria

A champagne flute of the Victoria was handed to us when we arrived. This 9% beer is a merging of white wine and beer. Each annual release is made with a different grape with vidal blanc being used for this year. The beer certainly has some characteristics of a white wine. It’s smooth, it’s easy drinking; and the waitresses have no problem refilling the flute as soon as it’s half full.

We were told by Chef Jennifer to start the hor’s d’oeuvres with the oyster, then move anti-clockwise to the foie gras and the fritter. The oyster was marinated in beer. The squishy oyster in the mouth feeling was reinforced by the refreshing taste of the oyster following by the sweetness of the sea urchin. Oyster and sea urchin, I love this combination! The foie gras was also poached in beer. It was smooth, it was sweet, it was outstanding.  I was thankful that the cranberry gastrique only had a slight hint of the usually expected cranberry sauce taste. It was very interesting but I loved the foie gras just the way it was, being that it was one of the better ones I have had all year. The fritter was interesting but it was pale in comparison to the other two items on the plate.


Day Boat Scallop Carpaccio, Shaved Celery, Cracked Pepper, Chilled Cherry Tomato-Horseradish Infused Vodka

Allagash White

While drinking a wheat beer in winter may seem strange, nothing has given me a more “say what?” moment than when Chef Scott said, “You get a beer and a shot with this course."

The dish was a play on the Bloody Mary, so we’d get a shot of horseradish infused vodka on the side. What? That’s just crazy! But it’s a good kind of crazy! Yeah, there was no way you would miss that horseradish in the vodka. It certainly did clear my noise. The scallop was absolutely sublime. Instead of drinking the vodka as a shot, I dripped it on the scallop with each bite. The White may be rated by many as a top beer but in my book, the horseradish vodka had won this duel. With the nice kick from the cracked black pepper, the smoothness of the scallop, the vodka, the horseradish, there was some wild thing going on in my mouth.



Chowder Style Little Neck Clams, Milk Braised Country Time Bacon

Allagash Little Big

The room cheered when Chef Scott said, “I’ve used an irresponsible amount of butter in the chowder.”  The dish looked so delicate but the bouquet of herb and bacon hit you right in the face. There were celery, chili, beer (of course), and the “irresponsible amount of butter”; however, the broth was light, fragrant, and did not possess any of the heaviness that one would associate with any chowder. And the milk braised bacon…it was just f-ing awesome!

The Little Big is one-off beer brewed in collaboration with Alstrom brothers of the Beer Advocates fame. This 5% Belgian pale ale was aged in wine and bourbon oak barrels. The beer was hoppy but I appreciated the fact that it was barrel aged thus added a certain degree of mellowness to it.



Skate Wing, Squash Puree, Brown Butter

Allagash Grand Cru

Anybody who knows me knows that I am not into fish unless it’s raw or at a Chinese restaurant. This skate wing was very nice with the meat mouth-meltingly perfectly cooked and the squash puree was a winner. One of the very few times that I had fish and had no complaints about the dish except there was too much salt in the salad.






Classic Lobster Newburg

Allagash Triple

It was made with cream, egg yolk, Courvoisier… It tasted so good because it was made with everything that is bad for you. Even with the heavy ingredients, the dish did not feel heavy and was quite delightful indeed. Pairing it with the 9% Triple was a nice choice with its flavor and velocity a good match for the dish.






Meyer’s All Natural Beef Short Rib Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Root Vegetables

Allagash Black

I did not know Allagash makes a dark beer. Holy cow, this 7.5%  Belgian style stout is good. Lots of coffee, chocolate, very easy drinking… very nice.

There was a perfect piece of meat on the plate! It was beefy, it was fatty, It was tender, it was meaty...It was just so satisfying.  The meat was braised in the Black, and the same beer was also use in the sauce. Not sure of how much of the amount if any was used but I also picked up a nice scent of horseradish which nicely brought a surprise enhancement to the dish. Being a pessimist, I have to nick pick on something about the dish…OK, there were a few grains too much salt to my liking on the meat.


The Beerlass is now a rep for Allagash. She had as much fun spreading her knowledge on its brews as us being entertained by her. Is that a pocket in her dress?


















Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, Honey Crisp Apple Jam, Oat Streusel

Allagash Dubbel

I like a woman who knows her cheese. This is one of Chef Jennifer’s favorite cheeses. It was a very satisfying follow-up to the savory short rib.  Pairing the cheese with the fruitiness and nuttiness of the 7% Dubbel was a match made in heaven. I particularly enjoyed the genius of making the jam accompaniment with honey crisp apple. This woman definitely knows her cheese and also how to make an ingenious accompaniment.




Chef Jennifer pops out of the kitchen in between courses to be in touch with her people. Yes, the woman in the back was checking out the chef’s shoes. For the record, she was wearing a pair of black Puma sneakers.
















Maple Bread Pudding, Bourbon Ice Cream

Allagash Curieux

This was when the room started to spin on me. Yes, four hours, eight beers, and multiple refills with a few shots of liquor here and there later; I was ready to wave my heavily used white paper napkin to surrender.

I swear somebody knew I love bread pudding and had made this just for me. It was a perfect finish to this over the top meal. And topping off this over the top meal…A scoop of bourbon ice cream.

As if I needed more alcohol…  The Curieux  is a Triple aged in Jim Bean barrel to reach its potent 11%ABV. Yeah, it was damn good with the bread pudding.



For the allergy challenged Tourist Tree, she received her own rendition of the maple bread pudding. “I’ve prepared a special gluten free and dairy free bread pudding,” came a DM from Chef Monica Glass in the afternoon.

It looked the same as all the others and I couldn’t taste any difference between the two versions except there might be more bourbon in the Tourist Tree’s rendition.

Wow, thanks Monica!!!





We had a Le Bernardin dinner at SPTR price. A highbrow meal eaten with a paper napkin and lots of good beer featured. Besides pairing an Allagash beer with each course,  Jennifer Carroll and  Scott Schroeder also used the same beer in the preparation of each course, whether it was in the cooking or the sauce, or both. Special accolades to the decision to purposely limited the dinner to only 25 people.  Yes, they could easily sell out the entire restaurant to double or triple the capacity but they wanted to keep the quality and have a good time for everybody instead of selling out to the greedy devil. Although all the diners could fit into the upstairs room in the South Philly Tap Room, there were three servers being busy all night attending to the tables, refilling beer, resetting silverwares and bringing additional paper napkins, refilling beer, running meals to the table and then clearing them promptly, refilling more beer... They worked hard and did a wonderful job.


What are they talking about?

At the end of the night, a good time was had by us all.