Belgian-plus beer dinner at Millennium

I’ve been carrying the Millennium beer dinner around in my purse for almost a week now, so it’s high time I write it up.  I realized exactly how incredible a job Eric (the chef) had done in picking beers for the dinner when I tried to list my favorites for a friend, and ended up naming four of the six beers. 

For those who haven’t seen my last write-up on Millennium, it is an upscale vegan restaurant based in the Hotel California (since writing that last line, the Eagles have started playing on repeat in my head).  But, as tonight proved once again, they really ought to be known as an all-around amazing restaurant, for vegans or otherwise, that just so happens not to use animal products in their food. 

So, I was excited for the dinner given my prior dining experience at Millennium, the enthusiasm that Eric and Erica (the General Manager) show for beer, and because this was to be a debut of sorts for The Thirsty Hopster.  Generally, when I have attended beer dinners, it’s been as an eager diner.  This time, I was still an eager diner of course, but I was also invited to ‘provide local commentary’ along with a few other ‘panelists’ of sorts.  The other panelists switched up a bit the day of the event as they were supposed to include Tim Selvera from Bar Crudo and Vinnie Cilurzo (to introduce the Russian River beers on the menu).  Tim had gotten the flu and Vinnie ended up get stuck at the brewery, which I have enough conflicted feeling about to write a whole blog post in itself.  On one hand, I was devastated because getting to sit across the table from Vinnie at Millennium was going to be an experience for me equivalent to an avid politico getting to sit down for dinner with the president, or a U2 fan getting to eat with Bono, or a foodie sitting down for dinner with Thomas Keller.  So, yeah, I disappointed by this news. 

On the other hand, I have to admit that I was both a little relieved (I had a fair bit of anxiety about discussing Russian River beers with their creator) and completely excited when I saw who Tim & Vinnie were replaced by: Christmas from Russian River, and Nicole from The Trappist.  This was the first time I’ve been to a beer event where, not only were 50+% of the attendees female, but 100% of the ‘commentators’ female, and young women to boot.  Way to go, women of beer!  It got me thinking that it would be useful it will be to have some sort of career development society for women interested in the beer industry.  We’ve got the Pink Boots Society, but they’re brand new and I’m not sure how often they intend to meet, and whether it will be a strictly professional group, or also a social group.  I just hope they grow and develop quickly because it would be great to be able to have role models, or even just a single role model, of my own sex.  Nothing wrong with looking up to the big boys, but it gets significantly harder to imagine myself stepping into their shoes one day when I’ve never personally met a woman who’s been able to do that. 

In any case, Christmas and I sat at the far end of the table, and I slowly realized that I’ve just about followed her from job to job, as her prior position, pre-Russian River, was at Father’s Office in Santa Monica.  This is one of my favorite places to eat or drink in LA, despite the velvet roped wait for a hamburger (oh, so LA).  My favorite story of the night was when Christmas told us about the time during which she kept their water tap handle labeled “Koors” and would serve it up on requests for macrobrew, until of course, she was required to take it down for fear of lawsuits. 

As we talked, the courses started arriving, one tasty bite after another:

• Trumpet mushroom ceviche with coconut milk, chiles, aromatics, and little gem lettuce
• Russian River Little White Lie (witbier)

• Cornmeal crusted squash blossom with herbed tofu ‘cheese’, roasted corn salad, saffron scented squash coulis, and New Mexican chile emulsion
• Lost Abbey Red Barn Farmhouse Ale (saison)

• Apricot and caramelized onion flatbread with purslane salad, cashew ranch dressing, white beer battered blue lake green beans, and basil aioli
• Russian River Beatification (gueuze)

• Butter ball potato stoemp cake with seared porcini mushrooms, wilted bloomsdale spinach, smoked dried cherries, and a Supplication reduction
• Russian River Supplication (Belgian-style sour similar to a Flanders red or oud bruin)

• Beer braised morel and exotic mushrooms with Collaboration broth, grilled broccoli rabe, and gigante beans
• Avery & Russian River Collaboration Not Litigation Ale (A blend of a golden strong Belgian-style ale, and a dark strong Belgian-style ale)

• Summer cherry napoleon with bourbon glazed cherries, coconut vanilla bean ‘ice cream’, toasted coconut tuile, and black pepper-marionberry coulis
• Avery Samael’s (old ale/English strong ale)

I prepared some materials on the styles represented here to give the diners, especially the new beer drinkers, some context about what it was they were sipping. 

There’s a lot to love on this menu.  My favorites from the food were the cornmeal crusted squash blossom and the apricot and onion flatbread.  The squash blossom was crunchy on the outside and soft and rich on the inside, putting aside any doubt I had about whether ‘cheese’ could ever stand up to cheese.  The flatbread was sweet and tart, a perfect pairing for the super-tart gueuze that was served alongside it.

Of the beers, I loved the Red Barn (on of two favorites from the saison tasting), the Beatification (which I acquired a new respect for at this dinner), the Supplication (my all-time favorite from Russian River), and the Samael’s (definitely a night-ender, but oh so good). 

Samael’s was the only one that was new to me on the menu.  It’s an oak-aged English-style strong ale, meaning that it is dark, rich, and highly alcoholic (14.5% ABV).  It could easily replace brandy or cognac as an after dinner digestif.  The aroma was magnificent, carrying many of the same notes apparent in the taste, and I just sat there cupping it in my hands for several seconds breathing it all in.  My first thought on tasting it was oak (vanilla, woodiness, slight mustiness), but the more I sipped it, the less I tasted the oak and the more I tasted tropical fruits.  It was a very different fruit flavor from the fruits conjured by Belgian esters, which often taste like bananas, apples, pears, or citrus.  As I was trying to put my finger on what kind of ‘different’ fruit it was, strawberry came to mind first for its sweetness.  However, this was actually a quite a bit more lush and less tart a flavor than strawberries, and I eventually settled on tropical fruits more generally and papaya specifically.  Papayas have a muskiness and a lack of tartness, that I think fit this flavor well. 

Talking to other people around the room, it was clear that while there were definitely some other beer geeks there, there were also a fair number of vegetarians and other Millennium regulars who had come for the food, not necessarily the beer.  I loved this because it meant our numbers are expanding slowly but surely as we win over all the different foodie niches.  Long live beer!