Month: January 2014

It’s Time To Celebrate The Super “Beer” Weekend With Our NY V. NJ Match-Up

Photo courtesy of http://www.wallydfantasyfootball.com.
Photo courtesy of Wally D.

We don’t tend to hang out much in East Rutherford, but we are in the East Village! And when it comes to finding great craft beer this weekend, everyone should be drinking for the local team. For us, that means more Finback on tap tonight (be warned; they kicked last week after a couple of hours, so get your seat at the bar early!). But the recent addition to the Queens’ brewing scene is not the only beer we’re tapping this weekend. We’ll have a full array of NY and NJ beers for our very own “Superbeer” event (oh, yeah, and we’ll have a television on Sunday for those of you looking to watch the game commercials).

The starting line-up:

Representing team New York are…

  • Finback
  • Other Half
  • Peekskill
  • Barrier
  • Singlecut Beersmiths
  • Others TBA

 

From NJ –

 

  • Carton
  • Cricket hill

 

We’ll also have game day favorites such as Duck Confit Nachos with Citrus Salsa, Pickle & Pig “Cubano” and Chili. Expect lots of cool industry people dropping by with beer! Our regular bar and restaurant service is available, although we expect to open a bit earlier (4 p.m. today).
Plus, on Sunday, we’ll be offering a prix fixe menu (reservations required – please request seat time and number in party: 6PM/6:30PM/7PM/8PM) curated by our Culinary Muse, Chef Annette!
All the menus are available a la carte throughout the weekend and on gameday, too! Reservations are also recommended for large parties that want a la carte, so e-mail here.
So come on by and show your craft beer colors as we celebrate the big day (Groundhog’s?!?) with beer!

You’re Cold? We’re Hot! With Jolly Pumpkin, Take The Black, New Winter Menu

ChefAnnetteCassouletYes, everything old is new again… as in, didn’t we just have this weather two weeks ago? Well, Jimmy’s No. 43 has the cure for what ails you, including Ommegang’s Game of Thrones Take the Black Stout, which we’ve been running on tap this week. Come and grab a pint and dream of our upcoming Westeros Feast on April 6th (details soon, but we will have the latest Game of Thrones brew, Fire and Blood Red Ale, which pays homage to Kalesie and house Targarion).

And tonight we’ll have Jolly Pumpkin beers on special, which pair beautifully with French casserole (aka cassoulet), which our Culinary Muse Chef Annette just cooked up. We’ll also be featuring shrimp & grits, our famous grassfed beef burger, and many other warming dishes on the menu.

Plus, tomorrow we’ll have the launch of Finback Brewing, Queen’s latest nanobrewery. We’ll have three of their beers on tap:

  • Finback “Pilot X” IPA, a highly hopped IPA loaded with Summit, Chinook and Columbus hops (6.1% ABV);
  • Puffin Smoked Porter, just perfect for a cold winter day;
  • and Double Sess, a Wit beer.

So come in and get out of the chill! We’ll be waiting for you.

 

Cassoulet Sources Local Ingredients and a Chef From Washington, D.C.

Gilbert Clerget of Washington D.C., winner of the 2014 Cassoulet Cookoff, with judge Amy Zavatto of Edible Magazine.
Gilbert Clerget of Washington D.C., winner of the 2014 Cassoulet Cookoff, with judge Amy Zavatto of Edible Magazine.

This past weekend, we hosted our Sixth Annual Cassoulet Cookoff, and our kitchen will be featuring a winter menu that includes a rotation of cassoulet from the weekend’s events. Some of the cassoulets will include:

1. Red Ale Braised Pork and duck breast with Duck skin cracklins
2. Confit of local chicken, heritage turkey wings, sausage and bacon ends
3. Vegetarian cassoulet with roasted butternut, Brussels sprout leaves, and mushrooms
4. Tuscan inspired all-pork cassoulet: braised shoulder with bacon and sausage, rosemary and tomato
5. Brazilian: black beans, chorizo, beer braised pork belly and black bean braised shoulder

Our winter menu also includes the Pig & Pickle Sandwish (smoked ham, local pickles, cheese and mustard), our award-winning grassfed burger, and shrimp & grits.

Winter beers include Barrier’s Dunegrass DIPA and Riprap Baltic Porter, Stoudt’s Revel Red, Greenpoint Harbor’s Antifreeze, and Great South Bay’s Sleigh Ride Rye.

At Sunday’s cookoff, Washington D.C. took the NYC People’s choice and judges’ awards as Gilbert Clerget won with his Cassoulet de Castelnaudary. Guest chef and Culinary Muse Annette Tomei created a “Cassoulet Log” (a cool video about it can be viewed from The Experimental Gourmond, here).

Cassoulet elicits interesting responses from our friends and customers. It was a great opportunity to work with local farm sourcing. For example, Jen Grossman from NRDC sourced guinea hens from Mauer’s Mountain Farm (Livingston Manor, NY); Paul Dench-Leyton of Violet Hill Farms (West Winfield, NY) provided his belle rouge chickens; our beans were sourced from Regional Access; and Heritage Foods USA sourced regional turkey wings, bacon ends, pork shoulder, and leaf lard.

Cassoulet! It’s What’s On The Menu

BeerandBeans_8Yes, it’s brutally cold out, but the weekend offers a respite… both in temperature and in our kitchen, as cassoulet comes to town! Our favorite winter dish will be on the menu all month, thanks to visiting chef Annette Tomei, who will be creating several new cassoulets for guest of our weekend ticketed events, French Beer & Cassoulet with Shelton Brothers on Saturday, January 11, and our French Wine Prix Fixe Cassoulet Dinner, which will take place Monday, January 13, at 7 p.m.

On Saturday, Shelton Brothers’ Jim Barnes will host an intimate French beer tasting, with three cassoulets and brunch items to pair. The beer list includes:

– Au Baron Cuvée des Jonquilles
– Trou du Diable Grivoise de Noël
– Trou du Diable Cholie Fraulein
– Brasserie St. Germain Page 24 Brune
– Bourganel Bière au Nougat
– Mont Blanc La Rousse
– Pays Flamand/Nøgne Ø Prototype
– Cidrerie du Perche L’Hermetière Cidre Brut
– Cidrerie du Perche L’Hermetière Poiré

The tasting starts at 1 p.m.; tickets available here.

Monday’s Prix Fixe Dinner (tickets here) offers wines from the Laguedoc area of France to be paired with a Bistro Menu curated by Chef Annette. The wine (food pairings TBA) includes:

Viognier, Domain de Massaic (white)
Cru Beajolais, St. Amour (red)
Carignan “Noe” Old Vines, Domain Faillene Ste Marie (red)
Corbieres Rouge, Domain Faillene Ste Marie (red)
Deforville Moscato d’Asti (sparkling, sweet from Italy)

So come down to Jimmy’s No. 43 and get warm with cassoulet (and don’t forget, the Sixth Annual Cassoulet Cookoff – $30 at the door, includes one drink – takes place on Sunday, January 12, at 1 p.m.)!