Celebrating great beer with Vanberg & Dewulf

Tomorrow is King's Day in Belgium. Somewhat coincidentally, it's also the 30th anniversary celebration of Don Feinberg and Wendy Littlefield's beer importing business of mostly Belgian beer called Vanberg & Dewulf. They also have a hand in opening Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY back in 1997.

Hundreds of establishments across the country are lining up to help celebrate with an event called Coast to Coast Toast.

Take a moment to check out their website to see how you can participate, at a bar or at home. In the Philadelphia area, Monk's Café, The Belgian Café, Eulogy, Tria, and Teresa's Next Door will all be participating to some degree. Check out their respective websites, or call, for specific details.

While you're at Vanberg & Dewulf's website, be sure to catch Lew Bryson's fine background story painting the 30 year history of the business.

I, most likely, will be indulging at home with a suggested recipe for Tartine au Fromage Frais with Radish, Scallion & Chervil from their website and a bottle or two of Saison Dupont from '07.

Where to watch the Tour de France and drink great beer? (other than my house)

I love the Tour de France. I believe it is one of the world's best annual sporting events. I won't get in to all the reasons why. Jeff Appletans, bicycling extraordinaire and craft beer lover, agrees. He noticed the weekly calendar that I put out a couple of days ago and the Tour de France-related entries on the calendar and wondered if there really weren't any more to add. Well, he has done a bit of suds and cycling sleuthing for us and gotten back to me with a short list of some pretty good beer bars in Philly and where they stand on the topic of showing the Tour. While it doesn't seem like anyone is opening early and showing it live in the morning hours, the way that they might for World Cup games, here are a few places in Philly where you can catch a pale ale with the pedal pulsing action replayed later in the day during normal bar hours. Absolutely... The Belgian Café St. Stephen's Green If the Phillies or World Cup Soccer isn't on, then you can likely catch the race at... Memphis Taproom Local 44 Resurrection Ale House Devil's Den Thanks, Jeff. How about any of you? Where are you watching the race? Do you know of any bars dedicated to tuning their TVs to the Tour de France? p.s. this reminds me of another question....anyone heading to West Chester and the Iron Hill Twilight Criterium tomorrow night?

The Belgian Café provides better relief than Brad Lidge

I'm going to keep this one short, because I'm in deep with the Ebenezer's crew and Sean Paxton for still not sharing all the goodness that was my New England journey and Ebenezer's Belgian Beer Feast/Festival. This Monk's review will now be the second food/beer event that I've covered since returning from Maine. I promise that one day very soon you'll get to hear all about it. Just think, all of the internet hubbub will have died down by then and you'll be all refreshed and ready to hear about it all over again! In case you lost track, after the tragedy above Monk's Cafe (which, emphasis added, had nothing to do with Monk's itself) over a week ago, Monk's was reopened this past weekend but didn't want to impact its customer base yet another day. So, the scheduled dinner with Scott Vaccaro of Captain Lawrence in West Chester county New York was moved to its sister restaurant, The Belgian Café. Scott's a great speaker who brought a lot of energy, passion, and expertise to the beer dinner. After being introduced by Fergie Carey (proprietor) and George Hummel (emcee...but, had never had a Captain Lawrence?!), Scott jumped into his background in brewing and the history of the brewery. Having started homebrewing at 17, making his way through UC Davis brewing school, and making a pitstop at Sierra Nevada, Scott opened Captain Lawrence on a shoestring budget in 2005. Fast forward a few years and Scott and his team are making some of the country's most interesting and celebrated beers...beers that often involve less-than-ordinary ingredients, collaborations with other brewers, barrel-aging, and blending. It didn't take long for his brewery to be recognized for its award-winning brews at the Great American Beer Festival in both 2007 and 2008. Like I said, I'm going to keep this (relatively) brief. Suffice to say that this was an all-star dinner of brewers, writers, beer geeks, and...well, who else would there be? I've sprinkled a few pictures below, and I'm sure you'll recognize some of the rock stars. Without further ado, here's the menu with some shorthand notes from yours truly. Enjoy... First Course Grilled Watermelon; basted w/Cuvee de Castleton, thai basil, orange zest & ginger ~ paired with Cuvee de Castleton; made with muscat grapes & brett. aged in oak Notes: Batch #3 of the Castleton; watermelon done grilled didn't tickle me much in any way, but the beer was perfect and actually went even better with the dessert (read on) Second Course Lancaster County Frittata; with local eggs, corn, tomatoes, & zucchini ~ paired with NY3; a 6% dry hopped amber farmhouse collaboration ale (between Southampton, Ithaca, and Captain Lawrence) Notes: I love me some breakfast for dinner, so the frittata worked very well for me; this beer, brewed for NY Beer Week, sourced with New York State hops and honey, dry-hopped with Willamette, and finished a "Belgian Yeast that Phil Markowski found" got better as it warmed, losing its initial ash-y taste and letting the honey come through a bit later on Third Course Roasted Quail; stuffed with wild rice, walnuts, & local peaches; lacquered with xtra gold and pureed peaches ~ paired with Xtra Gold; a 10% Triple that has tons of hops Notes: "tons of hops"? sure thing...as in Amarillo. Even though I'm not always a fan of picking apart a small bird, sifting through its bones, this was a tasty dish. Another beer that might actually had been better paired with the dessert. Fourth Course Cioppino; local tomatoes, clams, mussels, shrimp, & cod ~ paired with Captain's Reserve IPA; an imperial IPA Notes: Though this IPA might have gone better with the quail than did the Triple, this here was probably my favorite pairing of the evening. The pineapple sweetness and bursting hops were nicely balanced, barely disguising this as an "imperial" IPA. Chinook, Columbus, Cascade, and Amarillo if I have my notes correct. Fifth Course Pear Tart; w/ bleu cheese crust ~ paired with Smoke from the Oak; smoked porter aged in apple brandy barrels Notes: 125 cases were made and its official release will be at the brewery this coming Saturday, 9/12. Nice beer, went pretty well with the dessert, the crust bursting with bleu cheese. In my opinion (is this where I put FWIW? or IMO?), the Cuvee de Castleton and its fruit flavors and moderately funky edge went even better with the fruit tart and its funky bleu cheese crust. Oh, and since I really didn't comment above about The Belgian Café's ability to pull off this dinner, allow me to do so right about here and now. This dinner cruised along nicely with an ending time just shy of two hours after its beginning. The staff worked the square room effortlessly and efficiently. Perhaps the only drawback was the at-times overbearing din of the high decibel crowd. But, at the same time, have you ever seen everyone who attended the same Monk's Beer Dinner as you? With the dining crowd stretched out from the "exclusive" front window seating to the sometimes-participating back room at Monk's, and the tables in between, you just never will see everyone attending the dinner all at once. That was no problem at The Belgian Café. Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind more dinners moved up the Art Museum neighborhood to mix things up from time to time at Monk's.

Beer Dinner Cancelled Tonight at The Belgian Café

The High & Mighty beer dinner at The Belgian Cafe has been cancelled tonight due to illness. No rescheduling details are available as of yet.

Quick Review of The Belgian Cafe in Philadelphia, PA

I want to like Monk's sister cafe, The Belgian Cafe, across town. I really do. Why? Maybe to invalidate Craig Laban's recent review, finding it hard to believe that the Monk's duo could be stumbling in their Art Museum neighborhood foray. Maybe because I previously lived just two blocks away and would like to think the former Tavern on Green would be turned into something where I could envision myself a permanent fixture if I still resided in the area. Maybe it's because given Philadelphia's and Tom Peters' preeminent position in this country's Belgian beer scene, success for the new establishment should be a fait accompli?

Let's see, how did this all work out? Well, we stopped in late on Saturday afternoon after the Flyers overtime loss to the Bruins in a modern-day display of almost Old Time Hockey. Perhaps it wasn't the most fair time of day to stop in for a review. We sat at the bar and stayed for some beers and a dinner. This took around 90 minutes, or so.

To the first point above, Laban's criticism was mostly pointed at the vegan side of the menu. For starters, I should say that this would not be my natural inclination. Not that I have a problem eating soy, plant, or other non-animal products; it just is not usually my first choice. Vegetarian meatloaf (an oxymoron if I ever heard one) just doesn't jump off the page at me. Saying that, we opted for mussels and a salad to start with, then the beef stew for me and the ham & cheese sandwich (more interesting than it sounds) for Patty.

The mussels were decent. Around average size, I'd say, for this time of year. Plump and firm enough and they carried some of the flavor from the Herbes de Provence and Piraat that they were lounging in. Some of the rosemary sprigs could have been chopped a bit finer, since using them as toothpicks was not my preference. Providing a nice texture to the dish was the addition of chunked sausage.

The beef stew that I had was a decent sized plate full of chunked beef (mmm, more chunked meat! told you we didn't go for the vegan options) surrounded by vegetables and topped with a generous dollop of mashed potatoes. The beef was just a couple of minutes away from being cooked too long for my preference, but overall, this was a satisfying and tasty bowl of stew for what would be a chilly evening.

And, the ham and cheese sandwich that Patty ordered? It came out with each of the toasted sides of the sandwich open-faced, both layered with both ham and cheese, which was perfect for her to spread a knife of dijon mustard across. It was a really tasty, yet simple, sandwich. We would have liked to have had a bit more flavor, though, in the unremarkable slaw served as the sandwich's side.


The beer? Oh, you want to hear more about the beer, eh? They've got a dozen taps pouring beers and on this particular day they ranged from Chimay to Rogue to St. Bernardus to Brooklyn to local faves Tröegs and Sly Fox. And, while it's only a subset of what's available at bigger brother Monk's across town, the bottle selection lists most of the requisite beers from around the world focusing, of course, primarily on Belgium and the United States. Our selections were drafts from Rogue Hop Heaven, St. Bernardus 12, Chimay Cinq Cents, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, La Chouffe, and a bottle of Maredsous 8. All were poured and presented properly in fitting glassware.

The service was fine too. It was sufficiently friendly, but certainly not aggressively in our face and not always on top of our needs. We were there, as I'd mentioned, in the late afternoon nearing shift change. Things might have been a bit more disorganized than they would be, say, three hours later. Plus, we sat at the bar and did not get the full dining room experience.

Overall, The Belgian Cafe measured up just fine. Let's go back to my checklist in the opening above.

A) Our food experience seems to have been better than Laban's;
B) Based on the trendy edge, or shall I say edgy trend (I couldn't quite put my finger on whether they're going for a particular vibe), that they seem to be exhibiting, I'm thinking that Bridgid's would be a more likely every-other-day hang out for me, if I still lived in the neighborhood; and
C) Tom & Fergie have done well opening this new location, but will be interesting to see the long-term viability of it in the Art Museum neighborhood. The changing demographic of the area will help to determine.

It certainly deserves a full review after another visit and a chance to test out more of the menu and service.