Monday, June 15, 2009

Wegmans was serving some food and pouring some beer; a few people showed up

What do you get when you offer up 12 ounces of beer, half a sausage sandwich, a half dozen littleneck clams, 2 pieces of sushi roll, 3 pieces of roasted pork, a hunk of cheddar cheese, and sorbet? Oh, wait...I should mention it occurred during the lunch hour on a Saturday afternoon....and....that it was free? Well, you get around 600 people lined up over the span of 4 hours to sample decent food from Wegmans kitchen and beer from Allagash and Lindemans, and locals Sly Fox, Victory, Stoudt's, and Yuengling. Let's see what I have for pictures here. Ah, here's one of....er, no..I was asked not to use that one. Let's see, um, no not that one either. Or this one....or...c'mon Suze, work with me here. Guess I need to work on my Francis Ford. Okay, here I've got one that's Beer Lass-approved. Gotta give it to her, though. She was doing her typical bust-ass routine. Serving up the beer while chatting up the crowd sharing bits of information about the brewery and giving tips about the food and beer pairing. Pete Danford was doing the same on the other side of the aisle for Victory...maybe next time Suzanne's not stealing the spotlight, I'll snap a picture of him. Impressive, too, was that when we cruised by her table in the fourth and final hour, Suzanne said that we were only the second set of familiar faces. And, only saw one beer t-shirt...though, a high quality Cantillon one at that. Makes me wonder where the likes of the usual suspects were. Maybe it was the lunch hour timing of the event or the free factor...or maybe this beer and food pairing thing is really taking off, j'think?! For the record (or, if anyone cares), there wasn't a dud in the bunch of carefully planned pairings. If you pressed me, I'd give the nod first to the Feta/Spinach/Chicken Sausage with Sly Fox Route 113 IPA, followed closely by the Spicy Tuna Roll and Allgash Dubbel, and finally the Victory V-12 paired with the Roast Pork and Black Beans. I'm hard pressed to wonder how the format could have been more organized and controlled. From the orderly line, to the ID checking (yes, everyone!), to the sequentially numbered bracelets and ballots, to the punching of the ballots, to the carefully measured beer pourings, the only drag was how slow the line moved at times. But, remember....free! The ballots were meant to give the attendees a place to rank the beers and the food and to comment on the event. Children were welcome to participate as well...of course, sans bracelet. Everyone was encouraged to fill out the ballots which would then be entered into a raffle for Wegmans gift cards, which could naturally be spent on...more beer. Top it off with Lindemans Kriek poured over lemon sorbet and....ah, a very good Saturday lunch indeed in Downingtown. The grocery family plans more beer events in the near future...stay tuned.

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