Whipped Cream and Stout

Last night Sally ordered cake.  I'm not a cake guy, but a glass of stout for dessert seemed like an excellent idea.  Off to the side of Sally's cake--the far side in this picture--was a dollop of whipped cream.  I idly scooped it off the plate and tried a sip of the stout.  Amazing.  Not that a serious beer aficionado like me would ever recommend such a thing, but you could actually serve stouts with a whipped cream head, ala Starbuck's.  Could.  Apostasy and all that, but...

Wanted: Good Food

It's a note I've sounded on this blog many a time, but it's worth seeing the NY Times play the full tune with their very big orchestra:

More and more bars are taking a great deal of care to make new beers available while presenting the old classics. But too many bars think the job stops with the beer. Instead of serving food worthy of these great brews, many bars offer throwaway versions of clichéd pub grub.

Good beer deserves better than fried mozzarella sticks, dried-out burgers, chicken fingers and greasy wings. American beer culture has progressed to the point where it offers wonderful, civilized beverages rather than the infantilizing mass-market brews, yet many beer bars offer grownups these reprehensible kids’ foods. I mean, chicken fingers?

My idea: a joint that fuses the best of slow-food, organic Portland dining, with all its rich seasonal freshness, with a flight of beers that are designed to work perfectly with those dishes--which means a mostly-seasonal line-up of beers, too. Hardcore foodies know a little bit about beer, just not enough. Hardcore beer geeks know a bit about food, just not enough. Can we put these two on a blind date and see if they will bear us a wee brewpub worthy of both Portland's food and beer? I'm happy to play matchmaker--email me and we'll set something up.