Saint Arnold Beer Dinner at L'Auberge Baton Rouge

Coffee Crusted Beef Carpaccio with the St. Arnold Santo

Nobody ever really questions the perks of my job.  Lately I've been trying to convince everyone how difficult it is at times.  On a trip to New Orleans, Chuck P experienced a draining albeit food and beverage packed day in the life of myself.  However, as Chef Wadsworth says, "it's good to be Jay Ducote."  I'll never complain that I found a way to eat and drink for a living.  It might be difficult at times to constantly write about it, or to record radio show after podcast after radio show.  Or perhaps sometimes the eating and drinking actually takes its toll and I need a break.  That does actually happen.  But still, at the end of the day, I've created the best job imaginable for myself.  It has been a lot of hard work to actually turn it into a job, but if it wasn't, everyone would do it!  So back to the perks.

During American Craft Beer Week I received an invitation to attend a beer dinner at the Stadium sports bar in L'Auberge Baton Rouge.  The beer dinner paired brews from the Saint Arnold Brewing Company in Houston, TX with creative cuisine from the casino's culinary team.  The dinner began with the Saint Arnold Santo, a malty Black Kolsch that is quite enjoyable.  The darker German style beer came paired with an appetizer of sorts: coffee crusted beef carpaccio alongside fried capers, pickled red onion, roasted beef tallow, and a beer bottle tuile.  The carpaccio itself had a delicate flavor with a hint of coffee bitterness and the natural savoriness of rare beef.  When all the flavors on the plate combined into one bite, this dish became magical.  The beef fat livened up the lean carpaccio while the pickled reds added enough acidity to cut through the fat.  The fried capers chimed in with a blast of texture and saltiness.  Great dish!

Root Beer Granita and Vanilla Hop Pickled Strawberry Pearls

After the first course came a creative intermezzo.  Utilizing Saint Arnold's Root Beer, the chefs came up with a root beer granita to pair with vanilla hop pickled strawberry pearls and chocolate mint oil.  I enjoyed the palate cleanser, though it confused me slightly.  Somewhere between a dessert and a refreshing stop between courses, the flavors were sweet and delightful though reasonably strong.  It also came between the appetizer and fish courses, which seemed a little odd.  I felt like it would have fit better between the second and third courses as a true palate cleanser between entrees, but perhaps the chefs had good reason not to.  Perhaps they wanted to keep it farther away from the dessert course.  Either way, I ate it all.  And the hop flavors really worked quite well with the strawberries!

Beer Poached Salmon

The second course of the evening featured beer poached salmon with a plantain chip, citrus salad, and blood orange vinaigrette.  This salmon once again made me really enjoy the fish in cooked form.  I'll have remember to beer poach my salmon in the future!  The beer served with the fish dish was Saint Arnold's Icon Series Amarillo Hefe.  With some hop presence to add to the citric flavor of the beer, it partnered up with the salad very well to complete a light and refreshing course.  

Roasted Pork Poboy with a Cascadian Dark Ale

Perhaps the most interesting plating of the night came with the main course.  L'Auberge has very cleverly worked packaging design into their craft beer dinners, and this Saint Arnold dinner proved to be no exception.  The course featured a very pedestrian menu item done up in a very nice way.  Wedged into one side of the four-pack container, the roasted pork poboy featured some nice mustard greens and smoked provolone as well as au jus.  The sandwich hit the spot.  Comfort food for sure, the poboy fit the vibe of the beer dinner and the atmosphere of the Stadium.  Served with seasoned potatoes that actually had hops in the seasoning, the course also paired extremely well with the latest in the Saint Arnold Icon Series, the Cascadian Dark Ale.

Dessert at L'Auberge with the Endeavor Double IPA

My first thought when I looked at this menu item was that it is quite the risk to use a double IPA to pair with dessert and end the meal.  I like risks though.  And the bright floral notes and bitterness in an IPA can certainly work with dessert.  To match the more assertive flavors of the Saint Arnold Endeavor, the chefs served Endeavor poached citrus peaches, vanilla bean candied orange swirled gelato, and orange essence sponge cake.  The fruity citrus flavors complimented the DIPA and the dish played on my palate with the different textures.

Keep an eye out for more craft beer dinners at Stadium as well as rum and wine dinners at 18 Steak.  L'Auberge is definitely a nice addition to the culinary scene of Baton Rouge in addition to the entertainment scene!  And look for Saint Arnold Beers all around Louisiana as well.  Our neighbors in Texas are brewing some great suds!

Fleming's... a magical place

I couldn't have planned this better.  This is just love how things seem to work out for me... so they say.  So, last night I started a blog about my life as it relates to food and drink.  And today, for happy hour, I met some good people at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar for, what else, food and drink!  Fleming's is pretty much my favorite place to go in Baton Rouge.  Usually it is only on a special occasion when I get to go, but every now and then, and especially at happy hour with the 5-6-7 deal, I get to go just for fun.  I'm typically not such a big fan of corporate eateries or watering holes but this one is special.  It turns out that I know the chef partner that opened the restaurant from college days.  And then, the real important thing, one of my best friends, Eusebio Gongora, took a job there and has worked his way up to Sous Chef and doesn't seem to be stopping there.  Everything seems to taste better when he brings it out to the table and can add that personal touch.  He has the best food mind that I know but has no formal training.  All of his knowledge comes from his own learning and personal experience... you know, the kind of stuff they can't teach in a classroom.

This evening I met my buddy Brent Broussard, LSU soccer star Chelsea Potts, and my brother, Eric Ducote, at Fleming's for a couple rounds of cocktails and some fine dining.  We got a table on the patio area outside because the weather in Baton Rouge was fantastic today.  I started off with a nice Petite Sirah from the Vinum Winery in California.  It was a tasty red wine that certainly wet my appetite for more concoctions.  Every Wednesday in September Flemings was giving away samples of their burgers during happy hour.  We got to try the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake Burger, Portobello Mushroom Burger, Fleming's Prime Burger, and the Sliced Filet Mignon Burger.  All four were fantastic, but my favorite was the portobello which included sauteed spinach and goat cheese.  It was a unique creation with flavors that blended together perfectly between the buttery bun.  After I finished my glass of vino I looked at the 5-6-7 drink menu and decided to give their cocktails a try.  I'm all-too-often a beer drinker, followed by bourbons, red wines, and then rarely other drinks.  It is not because I dislike the taste, so I imagine it is just a routine that I've fallen into.  Perhaps this blog will bring me out of that pattern and I can give my take on the signature cocktails around town.

Shaken, Not Stirred

My first choice was the Fleming's Classic Martini.  I do enjoy a good martini and it had been years since I had one.  It was a slightly dirty beverage made with Ketel One Vodka.  The olives were stuffed with blue cheese which created a very interesting flavor.  I also tried a Fleming's Mojito which was a standard rum-mint-syrup-soda mojito mixture that was very clean and crisp and ideal for the outdoor weather.  The final drink that I tried was a Tropical Martini made with Malibu coconut rum.  This was definitely not my kind of drink.  It was consumable, but very sweet and fruity.  Such is life.

The beverages were great but the real treat of the evening was that we were also able try ALL the appetizers on the 5-6-7 happy hour menu.  It was really a perfect amount of food for the four of us.  Appetizer one was the seared ahi tuna.  The seared tuna is marvelous at Fleming's.  The sear around the outside is perfect and the fish is a delectable, melt-in-your-mouth slice of heaven served with a spicy mustard sauce that complements the dish perfectly.  Next we had a taste of "wicked cajun barbequed shrimp".  The well-sized crustaceans were served in a classic New Orleans style buttery, spicy sauce and were as good as any I've had before.  The jumbo lump crab cakes were nice but certainly not the best crab cakes I've ever had.  Still, it is hard to go wrong when you are working with really good lump crab meat.  Next up was the beef tenderloin carpaccio served with a cheesy bread for delivery to the mouth.  The thinly sliced beef was mouth-watering at first taste.  It is definitely one of my favorite appetizers on the 5-6-7 menu.  But the best in show for the night was not the carpaccio, it was the sweet chili calamari.  The succulent squid was fried golden brown and drizzled with a sweet chili sauce that hit the spot.  The flavor was immense as it had the truly perfect combination of sweet and spicy to go with the wonderful textures of the calamari.

To sum up, it was a great happy hour dinner and drinks evening with great friends.  I'm really glad I got back in touch with the martini, and I definitely preferred the classic version.  The mojito was delightful and I'd certainly drink one again on a nice Fall day.  As far as the food goes, it was all spectacular.  I love every time I get to go into Fleming's.  The highlights were the Portobello Mushroom Burger and the Spicy Chili Calamari... but man, it was all so fabulous!

Happy eating, and drink for your health!