Smallwares and Breakside Beer Dinner

Chef Johanna Ware of Smallwares, specializing in “inauthentic Asian cuisine” and Head Brewer Ben Edmunds of Breakside Brewery created a beer paired dinner of 5 courses on Thursday July 18 for 20 lucky guests, of which I was one! When I saw the price was $45 for 5 courses (plus add gratuity), and thinking of how great the experience was at the Breakside Brewery’s dinner at Wildwood restaurant I attended, I was happy to sign up. I love beer pairing dinners, and with all the great breweries here I don’t know why I don’t see them more often.

The dinner was supposed to start at 6pm, but started a little late because of the logistics of everyone actually getting there by that time after work. After a day of doing presentations at work, I left around 4:30pm from Beaverton and was able to make it in time, which left me some time to sample a couple cocktails before dinner. I tried The Gin, with plymouth gin, mango, yogurt, rose water, cardamom, shaked and served on the rocks, as a way to cool off from my crowded commute, and also The Whisky, with templeton rye, raspberry shrub, vermouth, lemon, shaken and served on a big rock. This gave me an opportunity to admire the bold red and white modern atmosphere of the restaurant that combined the sleek lines and textures of contemporary design elements with thoughtfully and whimsically selected eclectic touches.

 

Opener:

• Beer: Newport Summer Ale
• Food: Canapes and hors d’oeuvres
  

This Summer Ale is an easy-drinking English golden ale that is lightly hopped and uses floor-malted barley. It was paired with starters of Shigoku oysters, tomato, fish sauce, lime, cilantro, and Cantaloupe, benton’s ham, kimchi puree, shiso. Ben explained that he always like to start with a big pour of the first beer because who knows when dinner will start, and it helps everyone with a bit of liquid courage to socialize at the table. The oysters were clean acid that seemed to echo the clean flavors of the ale, while the heat from the kimchi puree and salt from the ham and sweetness of the cantaloupe were then refreshed and calmed down by the beer.

1st course:

• Beer: Smallwares Saison
• Food: Grilled shrimp, aji amarillo, lychee, pink peppercorn, chive

The Smallwares Saison is a Belgian farmhouse ale made with lychee, pink peppercorn and aji amarillo, and was inspired by another dish at Smallwares that Ben confessed to falling in love with the combination of flavors and just “ripping off” by putting those flavors into the beer. This was my favorite pairing of the evening with beer and food building on each other so that even when I had finished chewing or swallowing the food or beverage, the flavors lingered long after, tickling my tongue and taste buds pleasantly.

2nd course:

• Beer: Biere de Juillet (collaboration Biere de garde with Persian lime and coriander)
• Food: Mushroom salad, walnut puree, Persian lemon dressing, pickled shallots, hijiki

Breakside partnered with Smallwares to brew this Bière de Juillet, a summer version of a French bière de garde with Persian lime and coriander that debuted at this dinner. I was using the salad to try to wipe up that walnut puree as much as I could.

3rd course:

• Beer: Sour ApriHot (sour golden ale aged on Apricots and Chinese mustard powder)
• Food: Flank steak and apricots, mustard seed, red onion, parsley

Sour ApriHot is the latest of  experimental, culinary-inspired creations Breakside is trying, this particular one being an imperial sour apricot ale conditioned with heat… well, heat to come. At the dinner, they had added the apricot but not the hot portion yet, whether it be through Chinese mustard powder or horseradish or wasabi or what have you, they were still thinking about how they wanted to proceed. That was fine when combined with this dish though, which was already packing lots of spicy heat so the apricot ale was some relief.

4th course :

• Beer: Alan from the Wood (strong smoked ale aged in rye whiskey barrels)
• Food: Black cardamom panna cotta, mixed berries

This strong beer was my favorite of the evening in terms of flavor, and it paired well with the cardamom in the panna cotta. However, the raspberry puree was a little overwhelming in sweetness that didn’t seem to go with the beer, so I fixed that by just eating the puree on its own after scraping it off, and leaving the panna cotta so pair with my sips of Alan.

F joined me, and Smallwares was able to accommodate him with a vegetarian menu. For his opener there was kimchee but no ham around his cantaloupe, although there was no second option to replace the oyster. Tofu was the protein instead of shrimp for the first course with the aji amarillo, lychee, pink peppercorn, chive + Smallwares Saison made with lychee, pink peppercorn and aji amarillo, although his dish seemed sweeter with more lychee than the omnivore version I enjoyed.

Both of us enjoyed the same mushroom salad, and then for third course instead of flank steak, zucchini, cashews and additional salt were used instead for his dish with and apricots, mustard seed, red onion, and parsley. Unfortunately he couldn’t enjoy the panna cotta because it uses gelatin, so a friend volunteered to help him out.

The service was great, and the flow of the meal was well paced to allow everyone to have time to converse and enjoy their beer without feeling a need to rush because the next course was coming up. Later as the sun set, the staff lowered the curtains so we would not be blinded, and then later still they pulled open some of the garage door walls to open up the restaurant to the outside. The bartender returned to the table several times, offering to pour a little more of a beer taster for us from the growler, and Ben and his brewers gave a little talk at the beginning to introduce the beer, and also stopped by so that both ends of the table got to talk to them.

I love what Breakside is doing with experimenting with savory and sweet additions in their beer, and was even more excited to hear that the Milwaukie location has their Salted Caramel Sweet Stout (a collaboration with Salt & Straw Ice Cream and Jacobsen Salt Co) on tap!  It’s one of my favorite beers from them, though I also love their Aztec Bourbon Barrel, their Old Bourbon Woody, the Whiskey Dick…  it’s hard to believe they’ve only been around for 3 years because of all the great and balance of classic and experimental unique beers they have crafted in that time. Yay for the brewers of Breakside!

This weekend is the International Beer Festival, and next week on Wednesday kicks off Oregon Brewers Festival… the beer continues!