Nora McGunnigle

That's right, it's Nuit Belge Week ! The big event itself is on Friday night, but there are great food and beer events featuring participating restaurants and out of town breweries happening all week. Here are the ones I know about: (And please do let me know if I've missed any)

Mark your calendars for Friday, March 9, at Generations Hall. My absolute favorite beer event (and one of my favorite events in New Orleans) is Nuit Belge, an evening focusing on pairing Belgian beer and high end food. 2018 is the third year the party has come to town, and it is delicious, delightful, and just the teeniest bit debauched. (I myself stumbled -literally- out of the Saint at 4am after Nuit Belge.) I call it Beer Nerd Prom, and the attendees have really leaned into that, getting super gussied up to drink fancy-ass beer, eat amazing food from some of the city's best restaurants, and suck down Murder Point oysters all night long. It is killer.

I'm enjoying the concept of doing blog posts while avoiding both 1) work (of course) and 2) political shit on Twitter. Today, I wish to extoll upon the awesomeness of the Freret Beer Room. FBR's been open for about 6 months and it is killing it with both the food and the beer. I had a keg of Cuz I Said So beer sent there and today they did a charcuterie pairing with it and a salami piccante from Framani. I went over there to check it out: Obviously this was just a snack, so I ordered one of their specials, a tomato and burrata tartine, which was absolutely phenomenal. It's got the grilled bread that I've already fallen in love with (from the mussels dish), summer tomatoes, and burrata, which is like the cheese of the gods. I also had the meatballs (on their regular menu) which comes with polenta, and another special, blistered Padrón peppers. (I did not plan on having these but I was awfully happy it worked out that way.) Everything I've ha...

Happy Monday, y'all - it's been a little crazy getting ready for the upcoming Craft Brewers Conference being held in Philadelphia the first week of May. But I've been getting stuff up and published, including two pieces on CraftBeer.com, the web content arm of the Brewers Association. Having them published back to back is cool, but gets complicated considering that if I get a certain number of Facebook shares I get a social media bonus. So I've been dividing my pimping time between the two pieces, and as a result, the numbers have been climbing pretty slowly. I think they're both great pieces, check 'em out and see. 3 Overlooked Beer Styles to Pair with Food , in which I examine three different beer styles that are scientifically proven to pair well with certain foods. I discuss the whats and whys of that, based on a cool panel/forum I attended at last year's CBC composed of both beer and science nerds. Cask Ale’s Journey Into the Modern Beer World ...

In my Gambit column a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that World of Beer is doing a fall food menu with suggested beer pairings. They invited me in to taste it and I've gotta say, it's pretty good. I didn't pay for the food and drink they had me try, but I would definitely go back and pay for that cornbread and chili. Mmm, on this rainy day, both of those sound awesome. But why should I be the only one to get free food from World of Beer? I have a $25 gift card to give away to someone who responds in the comments below their favorite food and beer pairing.

Press Street Station is holding a Thursday night supper series this month, and the one on October 29 will be an Oktoberfest themed dinner with German food. The menu looks awesome (see below) and you can go here to make a reservation on the hour (5pm, 6pm, 7pm, and 8pm.) The folks at Press Street originally wanted me to come try the food and make some recommendations that Press Street could make for people to bring with them - Press Street is still BYOB. It didn't work out to do that, but Patrick Hunter, resident beer geek at Brady's Wine Warehous e took a look at the menu and made some pretty spot on recommendations.

Taps at the Wayfare So, one of the things I'm lucky enough to do is experience a pretty wide variety of beer and food pairings with local and national craft breweries (and occasionally some international ones too). I think that this has honed my palate over the years to appreciate the interplay between different food flavor profiles and the diversity of flavors that comes from beer's malt, hops, alcohol content, and thousands of other chemical compounds and interactions. It takes practice, and I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to practice a lot. A specific opportunity recently came my way with the Wayfare restaurant on Freret, who reached out to me to pair a beer with one of their dishes. I chose Great Raft's Provisions and Traditions 3, an oak-aged Marzen style. It was a bit of a gimme, given that it was created in partnership with Chef Drake Leonards at Luke, and was therefore very food friendly. I headed to the Wayfare and ordered an insan...