Jimmys No. 43

As we continue on our Liquid Lent journey, tonight we’ll be having a “Meatless Monday” dinner, pairing Belgian-style beers to the following menu:

• Assorted cheese toasts with cheese from Saxelby Cheesemongers
• Carrots cooked in milk, over NY grits
• “Mad for Turnips” – turnips three ways: pickled, roasted, au gratin
• Wild mushroom ragout over polenta
• And for dessert: Elvis tea sandwich bread pudding with peanut butter and honey

Exact beer match-ups tonight from these beers:

• Crooked Stave, Vieille Artisanal Saison
• Ommegang, Glimmerglass seasonal Saison
• The Commons Brewery (from Portland, OR, and new to NYC), Urban Farmhouse Ale
• Westmalle, Triple
• Het Nest, Quadruppel

It’s not too late to join us: Tickets are still on sale online (here) or may be available at the door.

And if you’d like your Belgians with a more educational tone, tomorrow night’s $20 Tuesday Tasting will feature B. United leading a Belgian Beer 101 tasting. Beers to sample with complimentary cheese plates will include:

• Ichetegem’s Grand Cru
• Hansens Gueze
• Glazen Toren Saison d’Erpe Mer
• Baladin Noel
• Cuvee Freddy
• Barley Friska

We hope you’ve been following Jimmy Carbone on Twitter as he celebrates Liquid Lent, and we’re looking forward to several events we have planned in the next week featuring Monk’s brews!

• Assorted cheese toasts with cheese from Saxelby Cheesemongers
• Carrots cooked in milk, over NY grits
• “Mad for Turnips” – turnips three ways: pickled, roasted, au gratin
• Wild mushroom “farro” risotto
• And for dessert: Elvis tea sandwich bread pudding with peanut butter and honey

Inspired by a blogger who decided to live on beer for Lent, Jimmy’s No. 43 owner Jimmy Carbone is celebrating #liquidlent (yep, we have a hashtag!) with simple meals paired alongside Trappist, Belgian-style American, and Monk’s brews. Here’s what he has to say about his practice: “Growing up, Mardi Gras never had any meaning to me. Lent itself is an entire season of special foods and—as the monks show us—great beer. I’m going back to my roots!”

For the first week, Jimmy’s Liquid Lent has included:

Day 1 (3/5) – Jimmy made fried stale bread w/ scallions paired with Newburgh Hop Drop DIPA, which he found “almost Belgian like” due to it’s low (for a DIPA) ABV of 9% and its balanced hop profile.

Day 2 (3/6) – Jimmy took lunch at the vegan kosher diner around the corner (B&H), having vegetarian broth with carrots and noodles. Later in the day he drank Bridge and Tunnel’s Hazel Eyes: “What is more monk like? A nutritious brown ale with actual hazelnuts in it! Talk about a liquid meal!”

Day 3 (3/7) – Fried challah bread paired with Other Half Hop Showers, a super-fresh, unfiltered IPA. Plus Siggi’s plain yogurt with a dash of Vermont maple syrup. And Mushroom Soup for dinner.

Day 4 (3/8) – Cold kale and cabbage with rye crackers, paired with Bridge and Tunnel’s Black Rye Ale.

Day 5 (3/9) – Grandma-style pizza: Day-old peasant bread toasted with Marinara and sprinkled with cheese scraps; paired with Pretty Things 1955-Style-Whitbread Double Brown (the perfect Monk’s brown ale).

Day 6 (3/10) – Jimmy paired Ommegang’s 3 Philosophers with a simple salad.

Jimmy is documenting his Lenten journey (follow him on Twitter: @jimmypotsandpan), and you can join in by tagging your Liquid Lent with #liquidlent and #drinklikeamonk. Celebrate Lent in true Trappist tradition!

Inspired by a blogger who decided to live on beer for Lent, Jimmy’s No. 43 has teamed with Beer Sessions Radio™ and six other East Village craft beer establishments to celebrate Lent with a series of tasting events and dinners that focus on Trappist and Monk’s brews. From Ash Wednesday (March 5^th) through mid-April, we’ll offer the following events and tastings:

• Vegetarian Prix Fixe Beer Dinner featuring Belgians on Monday, March 24^th at 7 p.m. Five courses and five beers at this ticketed sit-down dinner (get tickets here);
• Belgian Beer 101 $20 Tuesday Tasting with B. United on Tuesday, March 25^th at 7 p.m. 
• Belgian Beer 101 $20 Tuesday Tasting with Shelton Brothers on Tuesday, April 8^th at 7 p.m.
• The final weekend (April 11-13) will be a culmination event and pub crawl celebrating the “Monk’s Trail.”

Plus we’ll be featuring sour beers, large bottles and Belgian/Belgian-style beers all the way up to Easter. Come drink with us, like a Monk would!

We’re in the homestretch for NYC Beer Week, and—let’s face it—the options have been overwhelming. While Jimmy’s No. 43 has played host to several events and we just wrapped a featured event (NYC  Brewer’s Choice at the Wythe Hotel), Jimmy Carbone took a page from Fleetwood Mac’s book this week and kinda went his own way. So, as we tap a new Bridge and Tunnel beer tonight and finish out the weekend, here’s what we did during our NYC Beer Week 2014.

Day 1 – Friday, February 21st

Jimmy sat in on Anne Saxelby’s Heritage Radio Network show, Cutting the Curd, where he was pairing beers alongside cheeses curated by Greg Blais, cheese/salumi monger at Eataly. Greg paired a blue vein cheese with Dogfish Head Palo Santo, and Jimmy selected Smuttynose Durty for its malt profile. For a soft goat cheese, Jimmy selected Konrad 14, and he rounded out the tasting with Jolly Pumpkin’s Bam paired with a washed rind cheese. (For a quick pairing guide, check out the graphic by Red Envelope here.)

Day 2 + 3 – Saturday-Sunday, February 22nd-23rd

It was homebrew happiness this weekend at Jimmy’s No. 43, as we welcomed Josh Bernstein’s Homebrew Jamboree (Saturday) and Zok’s Homebrewing from CT (Sunday) for some amazing homebrews. Honestly, we can’t wait to see the next round of pro-nano-breweries that will emerge from this diverse group of homebrewers.

Day 4 – Monday, February 24th

We celebrated a sold-out dinner party with Bacon Nation authors Peter Kaminsky and Marie Rama. Beers included Finback Double Sess, Rockaway Winter Harvest Ale, Rushing Duck’s Nimptopsical, along with co-hosts’ Wandering Star brews (Catnip IPA, Bert’s Disqualified).

Bacon aromas filled the air with this five-course menu:

• 1st: Platters of bacon and horseradish deviled eggs, mushroom toast with bacon, mini chips and dip (bacon, chive, sour cream dip).
• 2nd: Veggie Plate of assorted Myer’s Produce (Hardwick, VT) vegetable salads and pickles: beets, rainbow carrots, turnips, watermelon radishes, red cabbage.. with bacon fat croutons!
• 3rd: Chicken and Bacon Paella.
• 4th: Individual Bacon-wrapped “meat loaf” with bacon rosemary roast Myer’s fingerling potatoes (still on our menu!).
• Dessert: Jimmy’s favorite dish of the night – Bacon buttermilk biscuits with sautéed apples, salted caramel and candied bacon .

We have more dinners coming up next month, so be sure to join us at one of our amazing offerings.

Day 5 – Tuesday, February 25th

If Monday’s dinner was intense, Tuesday’s Classic Food and Last Bottles pairing event was as intimate as we get. We invited guests back into our cellar to choose their favorite bottles, which Jimmy and guest chef Annette Tomei then did original pairings. Jimmy led a lucky and astute group of beer lovers in this one-of-a-kind food and beer pairing event.

Day 6 – Wednesday, February 26th

This year’s NYC Brewer’s Choice pretty much blew it out of the water! The amazing food (from Luke’s Lobster, Reynard, Nordic Breads and Blue Island Oyster Co. (among others) was paired with several dozen different brews poured by the brewers themselves. Most of this year’s beers were made with local ingredients, and we’re planning to do more collaborations this year with GrowNYC’s Regional Grains Project. Each brewer who used NY State grains received a Certificate of Recognition from Empire State Development. In short, this was an awesome event.

Day 7 – Thursday, February 27th

This was an awesome Industry Night (our next Industry Night takes place on Sunday, March 9th) with brewers from KelSo, Newburgh and others (it was Brewer’s Choice Redux!) pouring beer alongside the Beer Union team of Giancarlo and Sarah Annese signing copies of their new book, Beer Lover’s New York: The Empire State’s Best Breweries, Brewpubs & Beer Bars.

Which brings us to today. We’ll be chilling at the Craft Beer Bar & Kitchen for the rest of the weekend, with a TedX viewing party tomorrow. We hope you’ll come by for a pint and bacon meatloaf! Cheers to another amazing NYC Beer Week.