Top of the Hops Beer Festival in Lafayette

As I so eloquently quipped back in 2002 or 2003, "Si, me gusta cerveza."  Roughly translated, this Spanish phrase means "Yes, I like beer."  Those words hold true today.  I know that you, the loyal Bite and Booze readers, are highly surprised by this.  I don't mean to alarm you.  My apologies.  But, I do like beer.  In fact, over the past weekend, I managed to make my way to Lafayette with Jeremy, Eric, and Mandy for the Top of the Hops Beer Festival at the Cajun Dome.  With a couple tickets secured by King Cake Baby courtesy of Rouse's Supermarket, and a few more from sweet-talking the ticket folks (we were supposed to have 4 all along!), we were in.  Beer drinking commenced.  Life was good.

Top of the Hops in Lafayette had over 160 different beers to choose from.  While they weren't all new to me, I was pleasantly surprised at the variety, selection, and rareness of some of the brews.  Louisiana's own beer also poured from the taps of Parish, Bayou Teche, NOLA, Heiner Brau/Covington and Abita.  

The highlight of the afternoon for me came from Andrew Godley and the Parish Brewing Company.  His Black IPA blew me away, but even better was his amber beer that he ran through extra hops before pouring. Andrew, an engineer by trade, created a homemade system with which he used CO2 to force the beer through extra hops after leaving the keg and before entering your glass.  Those fresh hops left a taste with the Parish Amber that flowed through them and settled on my palate like cold iced tea on a hot Louisiana summer day.  Beer Heaven, I found you.  Si, me gusta cerveza.  

Louisiana Beer Dinner at Niche Bar and Grill

Wednesday night I had the pleasure of attending a Louisiana Beer Dinner at Niche Bar and Grill.  It wasn't too long ago that this would have meant an "Abita Beer Dinner," so the fact that this can now be done without a single Abita beer on hand is exciting in itself.  On tap were brews from Baton Rouge's own Tin Roof Brewing Company, Covington's Heiner Brau, and the Bayou Teche Brewing Company in Arnaudville.    

I was happy to find out about the beer dinner and get to make a larger reservation with Ause, the owner of Niche.  It was a pleasure to be joined by Eric Ducote, Dustin Davis, and Jessica Jameson.  Robert Romero was in town from New Zealand and he decided to join us along with his brother Jesse and a couple of other friends.  Aaron LaRose also came with his lady friend and a couple more pals.  William McGehee and Charles Caldwell from Tin Roof were there to drink their own beer, as was Dorsey Knott from Bayou Teche.  Even a few guys from Mockler Beverage showed up to praise the craft beer that they now get to distribute!

The Louisiana Beer Dinner featured a five course meal each paired with a different beer.  It's hard to argue with that!  And at $35, Niche also presented a great value that is sure to attract more and more people when they do it again.  So, without further ado, let's get to it.  Course one paired a French onion soup with the Tin Roof Perfect Tin Amber.  While the soup didn't blow anybody away, it was a nice course to start off with and did pair fairly well with the beer.  The soup was a little stronger than the amber brew, but at the same time I could still taste the malt and hops in the beer, so in the whole scheme of things, I'd say it worked.

French Onion Soup with the Perfect Tin Amber from Tin Roof

The second course was probably my least favorite of the evening, as it was also the least inventive.  It had a bleu cheese wedge salad with roma tomatoes paired with the Pontchartrain Pilsner from the Covington Brewhouse (Heiner Brau).  While I understand pairing light food with light beer, I think there could have been more to this. Still, for the second course out of five, I guess it did the trick... to a degree.  The salad was alright and the pilsner was reasonably crisp and a tad refreshing.

Bleu Cheese Wedge Salad and the Pontchartrain Pilsner

Course three gave us my favorite dish and pairing of the night.  Chef cooked up a great blackened mahi with a spicy mango salsa, and paired it with the Bayou Teche LA 31 Biere Pale.  The seasoning from the blackened fish beautifully complimented the pale ale flavors of the beer.  The salsa also added some citrus flavors that matched the hops in the beer.  All in all, this dish worked pretty well, and I ate every bit of it!

Blackened Mahi with Mango Salsa and the LA 31 Biere Pale

Next up, Niche Bar and Grill decided to put a little meat in our diet.  We had a beer braised beef brisket (I like the alliteration!) served along side the Tin Roof Voodoo Bengal Specialty Pale Ale.  The brisket was actually slow braised in a Voodoo Bengal broth, which I think worked really well.  The beef came out fork tender and covered in a pretty decent sauce.  The dish also came with some fairly standard mashed potatoes.  I think the brisket came in first place for many of the diners, but I still liked the fish better.  But you know, to each their own, and the beef certainly tasted pretty darn good!  Also, the beer hit home for me.  The cane syrup used in the brewing process gave the beer just enough sweetness to counter the hops and pair nicely with the sugar in the barbeque sauce.

Beer Braised Beef Brisket with Mashed Potatoes and the Voodoo Bengal Specialty Pale Ale

Finally, the dinner concluded with a lemon berry mascarpone cake and the Heiner Brau Strawberry brew.  The cake actually turned out to be really well made.  It was dense, fruity, and had a great layer of tasty cream that was not overly sweet.  The Heiner Brau Strawberry worked with the sweetness to give a good flavor profile and accent the fruitiness of the cake.  Again, complements to the chef.

Lemon Berry Mascarpone Cake with Heiner Brau Strawberry

BONUS: As a little lagniappe, we all got a taste of another beer from Bayou Teche before the meal actually began.  The Granade (the French settlers mistook Louisiana passion fruit for a type of pomegranate, so in parts of Cajun country they are still called granades (grruh-nod)) is a very lightly fruited wheat beer that was refreshing and unique.  I actually think it may have been my favorite brew of the evening!  The picture on the right is a Niche pint glass filled with the Granade.

A huge thanks to Ause and Niche Bar and Grill for hosting this Louisiana Beer Dinner.  Also thank you to the guys from Tin Roof, Bayou Teche, and Mockler for being there and sharing their passion and insights for the suds they create and market.  If you missed the beer dinner, look for the fine Louisiana beers in your local watering holes, and keep an eye out for when Niche might do it again!  Until then, drink ya later!

Beer Wars: Brewed In America

Drink craft beer!  Drinking Bud, Miller, and Coors products every time you drink beer is like eating at McDonalds and Burger King for every meal.  Support your local and craft breweries!  I do believe that macro-brewed beers have their place, just like fast food, but it is time for people to pay as much attention to what they are drinking as what they are eating!  When the occasion calls for it, go ahead.  Otherwise, help support your local economy and help fund the brewing of GOOD beer!



Local beer available in Louisiana is currently confined to Abita, Heiner Brau, and NOLA though two more are on the way in the form of Parish and Bayou Teche.  Lazy Magnolia comes from nearby Mississippi while Saint Arnold, Shiner, and serveral other are made in Texas.  Drink their beer!  You won't regret it!

Bonefish Grill

Bonefish Grill is one of those national chain restaurants that I really can't help but like.  I'm usually such a fan of local cuisine and privately owned eateries that I just naturally stay away from corporate chow.  However, when food is fresh and cooked properly it can be delicious no matter who is seeing the bottom-line profits.  In much the same way that I have been a fan of Fleming's, I'm also a fan of Bonefish Grill.  The seafood selection is always spectacular, the chef creations are rotating specials are sensational, and I always leave there full and happy... of course it helps that I'm usually with Eusebio and only paying an above-average tip whenever I dine there.

My most recent trip to Bonefish Grill was fairly typical of how they all go.  We started with an off-menu Crispy Oyster Appetizer that contained select Apalachicola oysters with a spicy remoulade sauce.  Apalachicola sounds really fancy but unfortunately all it means is that they came from a particular region of the Florida Gulf Coast.  They were really good, but unfortunately one of the drawbacks of corporate dining is not always eating Louisiana oysters!  Oh well, at least they were still delicious, salty gulf oysters, fried golden brown, and served with a spicy remoulade sauce that complimented the magnificent molluscs very nicely.  We also had the seared tuna appetizer.  It was pretty good, but not as memorable as it has been in the past.

Crispy Oyster Appetizer

I have been drinking a lot of wine and martinis lately and was time to drink beer!  Bonefish had one on tap so I decided to give it a try.  Heiner Brau out of Covington, La has recently come out with a Strawberry Ale that I had never had before so I ordered a pint and gave it a taste.  The Strawberry Ale is a light and refeshing beer with just a hint of strawberry so I did not find it to be overly sweet.  I'm not sure that it could really compare to Abita's Strawberry Harvest, but it was pretty good and is available on draught and year round.  I finished my first pint and ordered another!

Heiner Brau Strawberry Ale

For my main course I went back to the daily specials.  I ordered the Atlantic swordfish topped with a crab cake over asparagus.  The entree was served with garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables.  The wood-grilled swordfish was dense and flavorful.  It was tender and flaky like a typical fish but also had a consistency that reminded more of alligator tail or frog legs than a typical fish.  The crab cake was made of lump crab meat a served with a creamy sauce that had a great taste to it.  A bite of the crab cake and swordfish on one fork was a party in my mouth!  The asparagus was tender with a bit of tang to it from sitting under the fish and crab cake sauce.  The garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables were average but still satisfying to a hungry stomach.

Wood-Grilled Atlantic Swordfish with a Creamy Jumbo Lump Crab Cake, Asparagus, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and Seasonal Vegetables

For dessert Eusebio couldn't resist ordering a bowl of vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce.  I had a couple spoon fulls myself and it was quite delicious.  It hit the spot and properly capped off the meal.  All in all I left full and satisfied again.  The service at the bar was kind and friendly and our food tasted terrific.  No reason to ever complain about that!