A welcome guest
Beer is continuing to win acceptance at the dining table. Nigel Huddleston reports on how beer is being introduced at the very best
If you’re the sort of person who can afford to dine out in the sorts of restaurants where three courses set you back upwards of £50 a head you no longer have to put up with dreary first growth clarets or grands cru Burgundy to go with it.
Beer has gatecrashed the fine dining party, with Michelin-starred restaurants in the United Kingdom pepping up their street credentials with the introduction of beer menus.
Aubergine, whose location by journalistic law has to be described as ‘fashionable Chelsea’ was one of the first, in 2004, when it launched a list of 20 ales and lagers, all disappointingly served in wine glasses.
Its range included Kronenbourg 1664 as an anchor brand with Hoegaarden, Chimay and Gulpener Korenwolf.
Aubergine has now been followed by Le Gavroche, in equally fashionable Mayfair, the district where Madonna reportedly occasionally pops out from her luxury apartment for a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord.
Igbal Wahhab has championed British ales, stouts and porters, at Roast in London’s Borough Market; the Market Restaurant, Manchester’s Restaurant of the Year in 2005, has getting on for 30 beers on its list; and Quilon’s, the top-notch London Indian restaurant is doing an eight-course set menu with beers to accompany each course.
One top restaurant has gone a stage further and created its own exclusive brew. Brasserie Black Door in Newcastle commissioned the local Wylam brewery to create its own Black Door Lager.
David Kennedy, co-owner of Black Door, .....
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By Nigel Huddleston
Section : Beer Trends
Page number : 54
