Wednesday night was the Friends & Family and open tasting of the Market Garden Brewery beers held at the Speakeasy across the street under Bier Markt. After tasting the beer last week, I was ready to make a return trip to get a few more tastes of the beers before the brewery opens.
Besides the hosts, Sam McNulty and Andy Tveekrem, I ran into a lot of people in the food & beer scene including Rick Seibt from Willoughby Brewing Co., Sean Heineman of Cleveland Restaurant Group (owners of Willoughby Brewing Company, Ballantine and The 1899 Pub), Jason Workman and Chris Lieb from the Tremont Taphouse, Marlin Kaplan from Luxe and Roseangel, Mr. Crighton from Whole Foods, Jennifer Hermann, Reps from Heidelberg Distributing , Nicholas Pauley from Thirsty Dog, Wyatt Routson from the North End Market and brewer John Passo (formerly of Hoppin’ Frog). It was a nice representation of the local scene and it is pretty impressive list with 3 Certified Cicerones (Andy Tveekrem, Rick Seibt and Jennifer Hermann) in the room.
The beer I was craving was the Hefeweizen, but it was not available for this tasting. Andy said it was not quite ready yet so he was busy kegging the Cluster Fuggle IPA 5 minutes before the event started. It was a good crowd with a lot of people anticipating the opening of the Brewery.
During the event, Sam took me and Jason Workman into the back prep room at the Speakeasy to see Chef Adam Lambert and his crew break down some pig heads that will be magically transformed into tasty tacos for the Chef Jam event this coming weekend. Chef Lambert directed as his apprentice carefully removed the meat and skin in one piece from the pig’s skull to then be rolled up and roasted and shredded. I now wish that I had some tickets for the event. Pig Head Tacos anyone?
