Jimmys No. 43

We’re getting ready for spring with more additions to our menu and some great local beers coming up for American Craft Beer Week (May 12-18). First up, we still have tickets for tonight’s Prix Fixe Beer Dinner with Augie Carton! Not only is this a great chance to drink some of the best beer being made in NJ, it’s also a wonderful opportunity to get to meet Augie, who is one of our favorite beer personalities. He helped create tonight’s menu, which will be paired with five of his awesome Carton Brewery beers (with Augie’s notes… he’s a bit of a poet!):

• Long Island Sea Scallop Ceviche, paired with Carton Boat Session Ale—”You can’t go wrong with a Boat and citrus/light shellfish app!”
• Ramp and Ricotta Pasta Primavera paired with Comma Ale—”Comma could kill it with a pasta primavera-type dish; something richer but pepper heavy.” We’ll also have some charcuterie to pair with Comma, “for 100% are you fucking kidding me awesomeness.”
• Duck Confit paired with Carton Brunch Dinner Grub Ale—”Being Jimmy’s, I think there should be a cassoulet with BDG.”
• Seared Duck Breast paired with Decoy Brown Ale.
• Raisin/Moroccan Bread Pudding paired with Shipwreck Ale—”I’d do a raisin/Moroccan inspired savory leaning desert with Shipwreck.”

We hope you will join us at 7 p.m. this evening for this great beer dinner. We’ll also be hosting a spring market beer dinner next week, Wednesday, May 14th, at 7 p.m. in honor of American Craft Beer Week, as we pair NYC Brewers Guild beers (e.g KelSo, The Other Half, Bronx Brewery) with a menu specially curated day-of by guest chef Annette Tomei. This is a great opportunity to taste what our craft beer kitchen is famous for: making the most from locally grown produce and regional meats/dairy. Menu TBA day-of, but you can get your tickets here.

And you may be aware that we’ve expanded our traditional Tuesday Tastings to encompass more sit-down affairs with food. Tomorrow night (Tuesday, May 6th) is a great example, as we pair local cheeses curated by cheesemonger Pam Brewer for a Beer & Cheese 101 tasting class (tickets here). You’ll sample different cheeses of diverse styles that represent the best of their region, season, and production method. Pam will walk us through the basics of cheesemaking, the stories behind the producers, and the art of pairing. Even the cheese neophyte will feel like an expert by the end of the evening!

And on Tuesday, May 20th, we’ll have another food pairing event with our Beer v. Wine Showdown, featuring local brews and NY State wines paired with foods in a you-be-the-judge tasting event (tickets here). Decide for yourself which pairs better with food: wine or beer?

Of course, our regular bar and kitchen service is always available during our events (reservations recommended for parties of 4 or more). We’re taking bets that spring is gonna stick around this time, and we’ll be pouring for you as the days get longer (and, we hope, warmer).

It’s our annual Sour Beer Dinner. Five-courses of spring market freshness paired with lambics, gueuzes and bretts.

It’s our favorite time of year when we get to “ramp” up our sour beer inventory. Beginning tonight through next Tuesday, we’ll have plenty of opportunities for you to pucker up and enjoy a delicious line-up of lambics, gueuzes and bretts.

This evening (Tuesday, April 23 – happy Earth Day!), we’ll have one of our famous Industry Nights, whereby brewers, reps, and industry insiders congregate, answer your questions, share their love of great craft beer, and keep the pints flowing! We’ll have sours/spring seasonals from Allagash, Shelton Brothers, Crooked Stave, Peekskill and The Other Half, among others.

And be sure to get your tickets for next week’s April Sours beer dinner (on sale here).  Five courses from locally-source markets, farms and fisheries. Beers that will be served include the finest lineup of sours:

Crooked Stave from Colorado
Cantillon Gueze-Lambic
Trois Dames from Switzerland Grand Dames Flemish Red
The Commons Brewery (Portland, OR) Flemish Kiss

Paired with a special menu of spring farm highlights, including:

Hudson Valley Duck
Ramps from the Hudson valley
Scallops from Long Island
Grits sourced from the Finger Lakes region
Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler from upstate

Plus we’ll have pay-as-you-go spring menu and sour beer options all week (and if you want to balance your palate, be sure to join us for the Educated IPA Blind Tasting on Saturday).

This weekend we’re taking a serious look—er, taste—at some widely available commercial craft beers in a quest to find the best widely-available IPA. With nearly every craft brewer in America seeking the quintessential hop rush, we wondered if the label factors in to how we perceive taste. Thus, the Educated IPA Blind Tasting was born!

Jimmy’s No. 43 owner Jimmy Carbone notes, “There are may ways to judge beer. Around the country—and at Jimmy’s No. 43—BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) courses are taught to discern flavors and styles based on the BJCP style guide. We wanted to create a blind tasting and judge IPAs based only on taste, to find out how the commercially available IPAs stack up against those hard-to-find beers.”

While we won’t be sneaking in any Pliny or Heady Topper, we will have an extensive list of IPAs from Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Bell’s, Smuttynose, Lagunitas, Victory and many others.

Day One (Friday, April 25) of the Educated IPA event is an invitation-only professional judging with a panel of esteemed judges, who will conduct a blind tasting of 10 IPAs. Judges include beer writers (e.g. Justin Kennedy, Paul Sullivan), food bloggers (e.g. Chris Schonberger), and some of New York City’s favorite beer bar owners (Ed Berestecki, Jimmy Carbone), among other special guests. The judges will blind taste the 10 entries and vote on the best example of the style (based on BJCP style guidelines). The IPAs will be judged from specialty IPA glassware courtesy of Spiegelau/Riedel. The winner will be announced during the Public Tasting on Day Two!

Day Two (Saturday April 26) offers the public to “be the judge” with a ticketed event (get them here) that includes the same 10 IPAs, plus food and “swag” giveaways from industry reps. Certified Cicerone Ross Shepard will teach you how to properly taste and judge an IPA. You’ll be making “Educated” judgments, with a list of breweries whose beers are entered, as well as a description of the hops used in the entries.

The Saturday event begins at 4 p.m., but we’ll have pay-as-you-go options from noon. Come and mingle and get your hop on with two days of Educated IPA tastings.

TRAVIS TESTING ONE DOLLAR TICKET