Iron Tap: Bringing More Craft Beer to Waconia!

I moved out to Waconia in 2004.  Since then I've really grown to love my new town.  However, when I first moved here there was a serious lack of two things: craft beer and decent food.  In the past two years we've finally had some improvements in the beer front with Waconia Brewing J. Carver Distillery, and Schram Vineyards & Brewing popping up right in town.  These options have been a drastic improvement for me (a super beer geek) over the many "drinking-man's bar" options downtown. Not to disparage those particular establishments, but craft beer has not been a priority for them up to now.  But here we get to the focus of my story--Waconia now has its first craft beer bar and restaurant!

Iron Tap opened this summer in the space previously occupied by one of my favorite restaurants Terra Waconia.  [A little plug--Terra's new project Terra Truck now provides Chef Craig Sharp's excellent food around the West Metro.] The building has been a restaurant for over a hundred years and did require some significant remodeling and updating for Iron Tap to go in.  They also purchased the space next door and built a fairly impressive multi-tiered patio area which is bright and airy, and now includes an enclosed three-season section.  The actual indoor dining area is still somewhat small, with a long bar across from the doorway hosting 30 craft beer taps.  The floor is finished concrete and the walls are rough paneled wood.  Metal pipes form the Iron Tap sign behind the bar and also make up cool industrial looking light fixtures.  The overall effect is rustic but clean and comfortable--perfect for a small town like Waconia.

The owners of this new establishment are Greg and Bria James, and Greg was kind enough to share a beer or two and tell me more.  Greg himself grew up in Indiana, spent time in Colorado, and has now been here for about 9 years.  He's traveled extensively for work and has enjoyed checking out breweries in the places he visits.  Upon moving here, much like myself, he was dismayed at the lack of good food and drink options in our area.  Greg and Bria talked at that time and decided, "Waconia needs a restaurant!"  Other than working as a server in the past, Greg doesn't have much direct restaurant management experience.  To avoid many of the common pitfalls he's made sure to surround himself with people who have experience and know what they are doing.  The James' are also open to criticism and have already made several changes since opening based on feedback from visitors.

View from the top tier

Shall we talk food?  One of the things they've changed since opening is hiring a new chef--Robert Underwood, formerly at Crave.  With a seasoned chef at the helm they envision a changing menu over time with favorites and also new dishes depending on the time of year and ingredient availability.  At this point they have a focus on house smoked meats as well as classic fare like burgers, salads and pizzas.  From personal experience their beer battered onion rings are stellar!  I'm also a fan of their Big Tom--a brisket sandwich topped with white cheddar, bacon, BBQ, and one of those fantastic onion rings.

How about beer?  So many bars boast 20 taps but have all versions of macro lagers, or worse macro beers imitating craft beers.  When formulating their plan for Iron Tap, they specifically did not want to be "just another dive bar."  I can tell you this--Iron Tap has an Eric Wentling approved list of really good craft beers!  I've had Surly's Todd The Axe Man, Bourbon County Stout, Alesmith Speedway Stout, and more on tap there.  Greg notes that he wants to focus on local beers but doesn't want to lose sight of excellent regional breweries like Deschutes and New Belgium.  I would say at least half of the tap list is Minnesota based, often including things I haven't seen at other Western Suburb bars like Tin Whiskers' Wheatstone Bridge.  I asked Greg if he's had difficulty getting our smaller town drinkers into craft beer.  His response: "We started out carrying a few mass-market lagers but were able to pull Coors Light off the taps after 2 months.  People are buying Todd and other craft beers.  I'm happy that these beers are selling and that I can put on tap what I like!"  For those who need them (or who may be hipsters), Greg does keep a stock of macro cans including PBR ready for all takers.

So what kinds of beer does Greg like?  He mentions that his tastes change and he always likes trying new things, but right now his favorites are double IPAs and Russian Imperial Stouts.  Way to go big or go home!  I made sure to ask the difficult desert island beer question of him: coming from Indiana he has special place in his heart for Three Floyd's Zombie Dust.  I can't fault him on that choice!

This summer has been about getting the restaurant and bar open, but what lies in the future for Iron Tap?  Short term, they just enclosed that part of the outdoor seating area which should help out with capacity in the cold winter months.  They would also like to make sure their servers know more about craft beer, including brewery tours, tasting sessions, and possibly Ciccerone training.  I hope they follow up on this, as I've been to bars with large numbers of beers and servers who know nothing about them.

Thanks to Greg James for meeting up with me and taking the time to talk about Iron Tap!  I'm happy so far and have high hopes for the future.  If you are in Waconia, come check out our new craft beer and food destination--and try out the rest of the city's fun options while you are at it!

Terra Waconia & Waconia Brewing Company Dinner

So our sleepy little town of Waconia now has its second brewery!  Waconia Brewing Company is open for business!  I will be doing a full write-up on them soon, but wanted to do a quick blog post about their first beer dinner that occurred Thursday the 30th at Waconia's own Terra Waconia restaurant.  This is the second time I've been at a beer dinner for Halloween there, and they do a great job of getting you in the mood!

This particular event started right across the road at Waconia Brewing's tasting room.  Several of us dressed up for the event--I as Indiana Jones and Sj as Willie the shrieking maiden from Temple of Doom (complete with bugs in her hair and stuck onto her clothing!)  We were greeted warmly and a large platter of cheese, meats, and olives provided sustenance for us hungry patrons.  Within minutes, Tom the brewer handed me a new hoppy and complex Belgian pale ale made with an experimental hop.  Once most of us had arrived, we got a quick tour of the brewhouse (my first time being in there) and then headed across the street to the restaurant.

The small entry way to the restaurant was coated in white plastic with artful bloody hand prints and gore spattered across it.  Once you moved into the building, the windows were blacked out and the place was lit by flickering scattered candelabra and individual candles in wine bottle holders.  Cobwebs with suspended spiders coated the old tin ceiling and many of the walls, grabbing out at passers by.  Creepy horror music led a disturbing tone to the darkened surroundings.  A freakish doll hung from a fan.  Another doll on the bar held half its face and scalp in one hand...  All of my pictures are pretty sad due to the low light, so keep in mind that things looked better than this!

Sj and I got to sit with Dave and Sarah Manley this year and had some great conversations while waiting for each course to arrive.  Strangely much of the talk revolved around Halloween and horror themes...  The kitchen staff were all decked out in bloodstains and gore, working by headlamps so as not to break the mood for us diners.

Our first course was a seafood cake made to look like small bloody brains on a plate.  This was very good, but the texture was as squidgy as the brains it was supposed to be!  The pairing was with Waconia's kolsch and was a good one in my opinion.

Second course was a most disturbing squished and decomposing rat dish!  Made of potato carved into a ribcage, beets, beef, and a beet "blood pool", this was one of the craziest looking dishes I've ever had.  Tasted great!  I believe this was paired with the IPA, nice and refreshing for a palate cleanser after lapping up all that blood...

Did I mention the dead rat being the craziest dish?  Yup, but only until the next plate arrived!  This plate of finely shaved duck in broth, topped with hideously worm shaped gnocchi was my favorite of the evening.  Gotta tell you, it was hard taking that first bite!  Paired with the Waconia Amber, also a good combination.

Last dish was Eyeball Soup.  A melon soup served in a wine glass with floating lychee "eyeballs" with a firm apple pupil inside.  I'm not a melon fan so this was not my favorite of our courses, but still totally fun.  The texture and shape of the lychee was so spot-on for eyeballs that this was tough one to eat!  This was paired with the Waconia Wit, perhaps the only pairing I didn't love.  The beer itself was fine, but the soup and the beer seemed to clash a bit.

After the dinner was served, Chef Craig Sharp came out in his freaky clown mask with a devil doll to give us one last scare!  This was a great dinner, filled with scares, good food, good beers and good friends. 

Terra Waconia's Enki Beer Dinner 2013

The other night I was fortunate enough to take part in Enki Brewing's first official beer dinner.  Our local fine dining establishment, Terra Waconia, has done several beer dinners over the past 2 years, most notably a dress-up Halloween dinner and a 21st Amendment dinner that I presented at.  They do a fair number of wine dinners, but they are clearly getting the hang of the beer side. 

Upon arriving in quaint downtown Waconia, Sj and I discovered our friend and fellow Jack Of All Brews alumni, Jon Baldwin sitting out in front of Frost & Steam getting caffeinated.  He was kind enough to give me bunch of his home grown Honeycrisp apples for later devouring.  Apparently he had also supplied the restaurant with fresh hops from his enormous Jack & The Beanstalk sized hop bine.  Soon we were also greeted by Jeff Capiello, another JAB member and husband of one of the wonderful chefs (Kim). 

Karie Menser McDougall and Dan Norton from Enki were there,  put to work pouring beers and presenting on them between courses.  Poor John and Jason missed out on this one!  At this point the brewery has only been open for 12 weeks.  Currently Enki has four beers in their line-up, so we had a four course paired menu to go with those beers.  Now is the part where I'll make you readers drool.  Oh, and it was fairly dark in the restaurant so my pictures don't do the food justice!

The first course was a sweet corn chowder with red, white, and blue potatoes.  The dish was topped with fried corn silk and one of Jon's deep fried cascade hops.  A beautiful dish that tasted of the fall harvest.  I'll admit I was hesitant to eat a whole hop--those suckers can be horribly astringent--but I was willing to take the gamble.  The frying process must have tempered the bitterness, because it was actually quite good and very unique.  The bitterness from the hop and the corn silk actually worked well with the sweet chowder, making the entire dish have a nice balance.  The soup was served with Enki's Victoria Gold, (the new version using American ale yeast), that is a pleasant and very easy drinking beer.  I think this beer will appeal to the locals who may not be ready for a pale ale, but is still a clean beer than a craft guy like me can still handle.  The pairing was spot on.

The second course of awesome was a salmon fillet atop a fresh salad of fall greens.  This dish was served with my new favorite pale ale: the Enki Citric Journey.  I love the mix of English malt, and bitter, but restrained American hops in this beer.  The beer cut the richness of the fish quite nicely and complemented the light dressing on the salad. 

Third course arrived next: a crisp philo dough wrapped around a flavorful cabbage roll, filled with barley and locally sourced beef.  I could have eaten 10 of these.  The crispy outer shell of the roll took the traditionally soggy cabbage roll to new heights.  This was paired with the Auburn Kolsch, the maltiness of the red ale working in harmony with the earthy delights of the dish.

And of course desert!  This was my favorite dish of the night--a light apple soufflé made with corn flour and topped with cream.  So airy and delicious.  And so small.  Again--wanted many more to throw down my voracious gullet!  This one was paired with the first iteration of Victoria Gold, made with a Belgian yeast.  This has been my least favorite beer by Enki so far, and I think it is starting to get some more unusual flavors over time.  The apple notes in the beer, while not thrilling on its own, did pair well with the desert dish. 

I really enjoyed this meal a lot.  Tracy and Craig run a tight ship at Terra, putting out amazing dishes made with locally sourced ingredients and a ever changing menu.  Paired with beers made by new local brewery, this made for a fun and relaxing evening with friends.  We love the rest of the staff at Terra, (shout out to Nikki and Kim), as well.  It was also great to hang out with Dan and Karie.  I feel that this was a great start to hopefully many more beer dinners for Enki in the future, especially as they expand their portfolio of beers.

Terra Waconia 21st Amendment Dinner

I had decided to hold off on writing up any more beer dinners and focus more on homebrewing and other beer events for a while.  But the best laid plans and all that...

On May 1 Terra Waconia (our local fine dining/farm to table restaurant,) had a beer dinner paired with 21st Amendment beers.  I love this restaurant and their use of fresh seasonal and local ingredients speaks to the locavore foody in me.  I've also been a fan of the 21st Amendment beer since they started distributing here in Minnesota, so this dinner really appealed to me. 

Apparently the distribution representative was unable to attend the dinner at the last minute and Tracy asked me if I would be able to help out on the beer side of things.  I don't really consider myself a beer expert, but I have certainly enjoyed enough beer dinners to be able to fake it!  I am not, by nature, comfortable with public speaking, however I really wanted this dinner to be successful for Terra.  So I jumped in, and had a quick tasting of the beers with Tracy on Tuesday evening.  I made sure to do a little research into the brewery as well, just in case anyone asked me some tough questions.

I have been listening to The Brewing Network Podcast for a long time now and the 21A has been one of their sponsors for most of that time.  For years I listened to advertisements for the brewpub, including a hilarious club/dance remix of one of them.  They often have the brew master Shaun O'Sullivan on the program to talk about brewing and beers, so I feel like I have some second hand background knowledge of the brewer and brewery.  When I first heard that they were brewing and canning beers in Cold Spring, Minnesota I was excited that we would get to finally try these beers.  Then it took quite some time to start getting them in our market.  Now we get all their year-round beers and some of the seasonals, so I can't complain anymore!

On the day of the dinner we had Dave, Sarah, Mark and Kelly from Jack Of All Brews at the restaurant, so I already had a dedicated cheering section.  It turns out there were a few homebrewers from other clubs at the event as well, and it was nice to meet those guys.  Several of the diners were regulars of Terra's wine dinners and were just trying something new.  Hopefully my brief description of how to critically taste beer was good enough for the newbies in the crowd! 

Prior to the dinner service, Tracy ushered me into the small but clean and brightly lit kitchen for a pre-service.  This was a very interesting experience for me.  I am a huge fan of fine dining as well as a budding cook myself.  I like watching shows like Top Chef and Restaurant Impossible and learning some of the details of what goes on behind the scenes in those restaurants.  Chef Craig poured tiny samples of the beers for everyone to taste when discussing the pairings so that everyone knew what to expect.  Craig is typically a fairly soft-spoken guy who seems to avoid the lime-light and likes to stay behind the curtain doing what he does best--cook amazing food!  Seeing him in his element was impressive:  he was firm and no-nonsense, running his kitchen with an organized intensity.  I really enjoyed getting this peek behind the curtain!

Back out on the floor I shrugged off my innate social phobia and talked (probably too quickly) about the beers and the pairings.  I think that being the head of our brewclub has really helped me to get at least some small comfort level with talking to smaller groups...especially when it is a subject I feel knowledgeable about.  Tracy did a great job talking about the food courses.  Having been a part of the pre-service I was able to speak briefly about the potential flavor components in the dishes.  While in this intro period we were served the meet-and-greet beer Bitter American: a 4.4% ABV take on an English bitter, with a large amount of American hops.  This is a tasty session beer and a good one to open the show with. 

Not groundhog...

The first course was Ground Hog Nachos, as a way of getting back at Punxatawny Phil for allowing us to still have falling snow on May 1.  Everything was incredibly well seasoned and the freshly made chips were crisp and amazing.  Clarification: this dish was made with Ground Hog...NOT groundhog!  The dish was paired with the well-balanced West Coast style Brew Free Or Die IPA.  The beer was refreshing and the strong flavors cleansed the palate well after the nachos.

The second beer was the Marooned On Hog Island, an imperial strength oyster stout made with real oyster shells.  This beer has a roasty aroma with a hint of brine; flavors to match with a silky and salty finish.  The oyster is subtle in this beer, with most people not picking it out unless told about it.  The dish paired with the beer was a complex and layered golden lobster soup that truly accentuated that briny character of the beer.  The best pairing of the dinner by far!

Third course was a bison short rib that had been rubbed, marinated and then grilled for a melange of deep meaty flavors.  The pairing was interesting: using the Back In Black black IPA.  That style is not my favorite, but the pairing with the bison and the spice rub really brought out the roast in the beer and toned down the citrus notes.  This beer is made with 2-row grain from our wonderful local maltster Rahr in Shakopee!

The final dish was Tracy's heavenly strawberry-rhubarb crumble.  The beer pairing was a bold move in my opinion, but worked quite nicely.  Tracy told me that she had tasted the Hell Or High Watermelon Wheat beer and based on that alone had wanted to do this beer dinner!  Most dinners would have used this as a meet-and-greet beer or paired with a melon salad...but not Terra Waconia!  No, they paired it with a dessert course!  The beer itself is unique, with mild melon flavors and a fairly neutral wheat character.  The tart rhubarb really brought out the melon flavors in this beer, making it actually taste better than on its own, the sign of a great pairing. 

This dinner was probably the best food I've had from the restaurant and they obviously had a great time producing the food and pairings for it.  I appreciate the opportunity to be involved in the process and see a bit of what goes on behind the scenes for such an undertaking.  They were prepping ingredients for some of these dishes days in advance!  Hopefully those who hadn't been to a beer dinner before had a good experience and learned a little something about beer tasting and pairing.  Despite being the "beer expert" I feel like I learned something from both Chef Craig and Tracy that evening!  Keep those beer dinners coming guys!

And more glasses for the collection...

Terra Waconia Halloween Dinner

After radio silence for a bit here, I'm back in action looking into all the beer events I can get to.  I am very disappointed that I was unable to take part in Darkness Day at Surly, but some of my friends were able to go and I'll get to take part vicariously with the official Limited Release episode when it is done.

On the day before Halloween our local fine dining restaurant, Terra Waconia, had their second beer dinner.  They tried to organize this event for last Halloween, but things fell through, so here we are one year later and it really happened!  Having been lucky enough to get to know Tracy and Craig, the wonderful folks who run the restaurant, I was invited to help out a bit with selecting the beers.  I am very appreciative that they involved me in this.  For a while they had planned on a Magic Hat dinner, but that was difficult to organize, so they rethought the event a bit.  Through unusual circumstance, Adam O'Brien, the local Samuel Adams Representative, has been staying in town recently and had dinner at Terra about two weeks ago.  He jumped at the chance to help out with this dinner and I give him a huge amount of credit for doing so on such short notice.  Last week Adam, Tracy, myself and Craig (when he took quick breaks from chefery,) got together in the evening and tasted through a bunch of Sam Adams beers.  We were looking for overall quality, as well as potential for pairing with food.  This is the best way to plan a beer dinner: start with the beers and then mould the menu around that, looking for contrasting or complementary flavors.

We tasted through about 10 different beers and came up with a plan.  Sam Adams has a huge portfolio of different beers to choose from, and many for this dinner came from the Fall Sampler.  They have some newer and more unusual beers but most of them were not feasible to get on short notice or to serve to large group.  Say what you will about the Boston Beer Company, they have been making and marketing true craft beers since before there was even a name for that.  They have moved with the times and make funkier beers to please the beer geeks (Infinium, Utopias, etc.) but continue to make a lot of great drinkable beers.  Tasting through the beers that night, I realized that I have pretty much counted them out of my regular drinking line-up over the last few years.  I may have to re-think that and give them a bit more of my time. 

We arrived at the restaurant right at 6 PM and were greeted by a "Welcome" smeared in sticky blood on the glass door.  Entering the small vestibule, the walls and floor were coated in plastic sheeting and spattered with very realistic looking gore.  Hmm, were we walking into a restaurant or a murder-house?  As the door closed behind us, it gave an agonized groan, prompting us to spin around and look back. (Apparently the door always does that, but for this night it was perfect!) Into the restaurant proper, we came upon a tableau of skulls, bone-saws and lit candles upon the console table/hostess stand.  Two skeletal life-sized dummies were near the entry way, one of which rotated it's head toward us, flashed red eyes, and warned us to enter at our own risk.  The lighting was very dim, and each table had black table cloths and two candles in wax-coated wine bottles.  Disturbing music played in the background.  I was shocked at how much effort had gone into setting up this change in the restaurant interior.

We were seated at our table and Nikki, our server, handed us a Samuel Adams pint glass full of Boston Lager.  At the bar they had a small grave-yard model with house-made suckers dressed in white ghost outfits poked around the periphery.  We each got one to pair with our intro beer.  Apparently they were made with pancetta and had a cranberry center...a very interesting mix of sweet and savory.  Tracy gave a quick introduction and smoke billowed out from near the entry, further creepifying the atmosphere in the room.  Adam, initially startled by the smoke, took it in stride and gave a quick talk about Sam Adams and the first two beers prior to our first course of food.  We invited him to sit with us since they had him sitting at a small table by himself.  It was great getting to talk beer with him during the dinner and his very sweet wife showed up later to join us as well.  Later we realized that the kitchen staff was actually using headlamps and cooking by flashlight to keep the dim vibe of the dining area.

The first course was a crazy-good lamb sausage served with a cabbage salad.  Sitting plopped upon the salad was a molecular gastronomy masterpiece of an eyeball!  This was a circular globe made of parsnip puree with a black olive pupil and either chili thread or saffron red veins making it look bloodshot.  Once you punctured the eye, the thick and viscous filling oozed out.  Craig outdid himself on this one!  The pairing was with the Oktoberfest, because what goes better with sausage than a German style malty lager?

The second course was a wonderful (and not creepy) fish and chips.  The fish had a perfect crispy beer batter and was served with tasty fries and house-made tartar sauce and vinegar foam.  This fancy take on a classic was paired with the English style IPA, Latitude 48.  I am a huge fan of this beer, the earthy English hops and a strong malt backbone really cleanse the palate with fried foods.  Last year they released a sampler pack called Latitude 48 Deconstructed which featured 6 single hopped versions of this base beer...an amazing thing for a commercial brewery to do.

The third course was a small serving of cider sorbet paired with the Angry Orchard Ginger Cider.  Sj loves this cider and we always have some at home.  I learned from Adam that Sam Adams used to make Hardcore Cider (which we never really loved) but had discontinued that and moved to a more impressive cider line-up for Angry Orchard.  They use tart apples from France and Italy for these, which explains the improvement in complexity and flavor with the new brand.  The ginger really accentuates the tart and sweet of this particular libation.

The fourth course was wonderful, named Tongue & Cheek.  The base was more or less a cassoulet with large white beans, lamb tongue and wild boar cheeks.  Atop this daunting hearty plate sat a disturbing reproduction of a severed finger.  The finger had "bones" made of firm white turnip, "skin" of garlic flavored fruit-roll-up, and a dried cranberry "fingernail."  Wow was this a crazy dish.  The flavors were fantastic and the presentation was up there with some of the best restaurants I've been to (I'm looking at you Moto!)  A very filling dish that had me groaning, but I had to finish it!  This was a pairing made in heaven--Sam Adams Double Bock.  The strong alcohol and malt truly played off the savory components in the meal.

The final course came with the sad knowledge that the meal was nearly over.  Even the best things must end.  We were served a plate that looked like a grave: a mound of chocolate ice cream topped with hazelnut "dirt" and a R.I.P. decorated shortbread cookie on a base of chocolate truffle.  Amazing.  This was paired with the new Sam Adams Hazelnut Brown Ale.  I think this was the only pairing that didn't quite work, as the desert was much more rich and flavorful than the milder beer.  Still both were great on their own.

Near the end of the meal Tracy came around with ballots and the people who didn't come in costume (lame!) voted on who was the best dressed couple.  Sj and I were dressed in steam-punk outfits, (though Sj could be mistaken for sexy French maid in the low lighting.)  One couple was dressed as a mobster and moll.  And the last couple to dress up were a cowboy (complete with lasso) and an Indian with elaborate buckskins and headdress.  Until that last couple came in I thought we had it, but Sj and I looked at each other and knew we didn't have a shot.  They won a $50 gift card to Terra and a Sam Adams Fall sampler pack.  At least we tried!

I have to give thanks to all the staff of Terra Waconia and to Adam for making this event happen on short notice.  A lot of effort went into this and it was a great way to spend the night before Halloween.  This brought back why Halloween always used to be my favorite holiday...dressing up, scary stuff, sweets.  Terra plans to have this yearly now, and I highly recommend placing this on your calendars now.   I will certainly be there again!  And probably a bunch of other times in the year as well.

A beer dinner...in Waconia!

My new home town of Waconia, Minnesota is not known for its restaurants.  We have one mediocre restaurant on the lake that hasn't changed its menu in 4 years and has a lousy beer list; a McDonald's and several Subways.  A few years back Terra Waconia opened up in the space that used to be The Green Room, and changed all that!  Craig Sharp and Tracy LeTourneau do a great job running the place and have managed to bring an upscale eating experience to this town.  The menu changes daily based on seasonal and local cuisine, so the poor servers have to memorize a fairly complex list each day.  Overall the restaurant puts out very good food, but is sometimes a bit slow, so don't show up if you are in a rush.  You should take your time and enjoy your food and dining anyway!

Terra does frequent wine dinners, and there have been a couple attempts at doing a beer dinner here before, with varied issues leading to fall-though.  Last night everything finally worked out!  I recently talked with Tracy about ideas of breweries to involve, and one that stood out was Brau Brothers.  Not too long ago they went through some re-branding, with new labels, tweaked recipes and focus on different beers, so I was interested in what they were currently doing.  They are also a family run, local company that would pair well with the style of the Terra Waconia.  For the beer dinner, they sent out Alex (not sure of his last name...) who was a great beer ambassador, educating the predominantly wine-loving clientelle. 

The food was excellent, my favorite being the arctic char.  All were served in a paper tray with parchment paper lining, which worked for a beer dinner, but wouldn't fly with a wine dinner.  I think this actually sped up the serving quite a bit, since the staff didn't have to spend a ton of time washing plates between each course.  The beers were better than I remember them, certainly some changes in recipe going on here.  My favorite beer was the Hop Session, a low gravity hoppy ale with (I think) Zythos blend hops and an experimental New Zealand hop that hasn't been named yet.  The meal was finished off with a stout float and biscotti that was quite nice.

Overall a great local experience and I hope there are more to come.  If you visit the restaurant, (and you should help keep them in business,) please tell them you want more!