Craft beers and brown spirits are among the hottest beverage categories, and savvy restaurant operators are building promotions to showcase them as well as satisfy their customers' demand for something new. Among recent events:
• In Long Beach, CA, the Wine Down Lounge offered a $25 craft whiskey tasting and seminar. Choices included Templeton Rye, Sazerac Rye, Angles Envy Breaking & Entering and Blanton's Single Barrel. Food choices included bourbon-glased filet bites with smoked sea salt, caramelized applewood bacon spears and vegetable and goat cheese sliders with bourbon aioli.
• Andre's at the Monte Carlo Resort in Las Vegas launched a weekly Whisk(e)y Wednesdays program. The evenings, set in the restaurant's 35-seat cigar lounge, offer flights of five whiskeys for two hours. Patrons pay $25 in advance or $35 at the door for two hours of unlimited tastings. The most recent event celebrated five rare varieties of Irish whiskey.
• Gordon Ramsay's Fat Cow at the Grove, also in Las Vegas, introduced a monthly Beer 'N' Bangers night. The $42 package features a three-course prix fixe menu of beer-inspired dishes and house-made sausage paired with three different craft beers. The first course options included beer and Cheddar soup made with a pilsner, jalapeño smoky bacon and aged cheddar cheese or chicken wings in a beer marinade with chili sauce. Entrees included house-made duck sausage with mustard glasze and mashed potato or, even more traditional, toad in the hole, consisting of beer-braised sausage in a Yorkshire pudding batter served with onion gravy. Desserts choices were chocolate beer cake or raspberry beer float.
• Claddagh Irish Pub in Columbus, OH, is combining eight irish Irish whiskeys, a four-course meal and traditional Irish music at a whiskey dinner in March. A Jameson representative provides the story behind the whiskeys. The ticketed event runs $50.
• Nashville, TN, is in the midst of a city-wide celebration of Craft Beer Week. On the schedule: beer dinners at a variety of restaurants, brewer meet and greets, in-store tastings and other opportunities to sample unique craft beer.
