Good Beer at BAM: Awesome Artisanal Suds and Snacks in Downtown Brooklyn

August 25, 2009 6:45 pm

Good Beer at BAM: Awesome Artisanal Suds and Snacks in Downtown Brooklyn

I have to apologize for the tardiness of this post. Good Beer at BAM happened nearly a month ago and was blogged about prolifically while I was on vacation. I wouldn't be writing about it all, in fact, had it not been so overwhelmingly awesome. There's really very little that can go wrong when you plan an event that combines New York's best craft beers with New York City's best restaurants. All the brew big timers were there including Smuttynose (who busted out a commendable IPA), Brooklyn Brewery, Allagash, Sixpoint and Kelso, to name a few. Edible Brooklyn connected each brewery with a restaurant and asked them to play nice. The results? Suffice to say that I will never be satisfied by a pedestrian beer/peanut combo ever again.

The perennial overachievers at Gramercy Tavern racked up even more brownie points than usual by brewing their own beer. Hearty, smoky and dark without a hint of syrupy cloyingness, the homebrew was the perfect foil for their pretzel-wrapped sausages. I had to remind myself that other guests wanted to try them as well.

Another brilliant, if improbable, combination came from the corner where Park Slope restaurant Palo Santo was stationed with Brooklyn Brewery. BB brought a wonderful, limited edition beer called Cuvere de Cardoz that paired famously with a West Indian duck curry and homemade roti bread from Chef Jacques Gautier.

I also found myself revisiting The Good Fork's table for their splendid pork dumplings sprinkled in soy sauce and chives. Paired with a refreshing sip of (one of my all time favorite beers), the little packages were both light and deeply flavorful. The most amazing part of the dumplings, however, was that Chef Sohui Kim, looked as if she was about nine and a half months pregnant.

iCi's summery corn bread, packed with cheddar and squash was yet another delight. Kelso's "Gownus" beer, on the other hand, made me shudder. Of all the images to conjure when someone is about to imbibe, the Gowanus Canal is at the very bottom of my list. Perhaps all the hip young things who've overrun Brooklyn in the past few years don't understand that the canal is a warm bath of dead bodies, nuclear waste and general filth.

Finally, I have to toot my own horn a little bit. The company that I work for Basis Farm to Chef delivered some pretty outstanding mini meatball subs. As the only non-restaurant there, we held our own using all local ingredients from farms that we work with (we deliver product from farms in the area to restaurants in NYC). Maybe we didn't have the fancy presentation down, but they definitely had a certain rustic appeal.

Instead of insisting that you live vicariously through me every time there's an Edible Manhattan/Brooklyn event, I am attaching a link to their website here. They occur pretty regularly (although not on the scale of Good Beer) and the money you pay to attend goes to support a good cause. Good Beer, for example, was benefiting the organization Just Food at the Red Hook farm Added Value. If nothing else, though, they are a delicious way to learn more about the NYC food scene.

BAM—Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Avenue
(between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street)
Fort Greene, Brooklyn