So, you think you know Italian?
The Pelican's Brewer's Dinner is a refresher course, in five courses
By NIKI PRICE
Oregon Coast Today
[This is a file feature about the Pelican. Visit their website for more current information, stay tuned to the Oregon Coast Today for seasonal specials and events, and check out our story about the annual Brewer's Games.]
In January, the Pelican Pub & Brewery held a Belgian-themed brewers dinner, with entrees like endive salad and Chicken Waterzooi paired with the pub’s new Belgian-inspired ales, Saison du Pelican and Grand Cru de Pelican.
It was delicious and well-received, said head brewer Darron Welch. This spring, however, he and the chefs wanted a bigger challenge.
“I think our chef team wanted to create a dinner in a European cuisine that people think they are familiar with, but that they don’t associate with beer,” Welch said. “Belgian cuisine is built around beer, but Italian food is not. They wanted the challenge of pairing the Italian food with something new.”
Of course, when this Pacific City brewer says “beer,” he’s not talking about any ordinary ale. Welch has overseen the rise of the Pelican Brewery to national prominence, winning three gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival, two silvers at the World Beer Cup and three silvers at the Australian International Beer Awards, in 2006 alone.
And when he says “Italian food,” he isn’t referring to spaghetti or lasagna, either. For the April 14 dinner, he and executive chef Ken Henson have selected their favorite dishes from five regions in Italy, each one artfully paired with a Pelican ale to achieve taste bud cielo — heaven.
The evening will begin with an antipasti with flavors from the Fruili region, in northeastern Italy. The plate offers cured meats, including a house-made prosciutto, fried calamari and wedges of seasoned, grilled ciabatta bread with a sweet-and-sour agrodolce of tomatoes and eggplant. This will probably be paired with the Riptide Red, a medium-bodied seasonal inspired by traditional Irish red ales.
“The Riptide has some nice, mild herbal hop aroma character, which ties in real nicely with the peppery character of the cured meats,” Welch said. “The Riptide also has a real caramel-type sweetness, because of the caramel malts used to make it, so it’s a nice parallel to the agrodolce relish. Then, you’ve got herbal flavors through the antipasti plate, and the light floral hop aroma from the Riptide ties it all together.”
The next course, riso al salto, comes from the Calabria region in southern Italy. It’s a pan-seared risotto cake, topped with a cream sauce with shrimp and tomatoes, sprinkled with guanciale, an incredibly flavorful bacon made from pig’s jowls. An ale with a strong caramel malt profile and a hint of residual sweetness, MacPelican’s Scottish Style Ale is a perfect fit, the brewer said.
“Even though it’s a low alcohol beer, it has a silky mouthfeel and texture to it. When we pair it with the creamy texture of the risotto cake, it’s a nice parallel in texture as well as the flavor.”
Equal care has been invested in the remainder of the pairings. A caponata di pesce, a sea bass filet poached in olive oil and served over grilled radicchio and seasoned with sage, in the style of Campania, will be paired with the hoppy ESB. An Umbrian-style braised lamb shank, agnello Marchigiana, with a porcini mushroom risotto, will be memorably served with the Doryman’s Dark Ale.
The meal will close with the Venetian tiramisu, which in Italian means “pick me up” or “make me happy,” but which the Pelican Pub will translate with Tsunami Stout as well as the traditional flavors of espresso coffee and cocoa. Three sous chefs will produce their own recipes, and the selection will be served with Tsunami Stout.
“People think that beer goes great with sausages and pizza, which it does and there’s nothing wrong with that. But we like to explore the boundaries, to make people think differently about beer and food, and pairings,” Welch said.
You don’t have to attend the April 14 Brewers Dinner to experience what he’s talking about. The lunch and dinner pub menus are full of pairing suggestions, so that everyday customers can taste the complements and parallels for themselves. They suggest the Kiwanda Cream Ale with the halibut fish and chips, for example, and the Doryman’s Dark with the wild Pacific salmon (a house specialty, ginger glazed with soba noodles).
The combinations are even more delicious when mixed with the atmosphere at the Pelican Pub, which has a broad, sandy, surf-lover’s beach right outside its back patio. This location no doubt figured in the pub’s recent dominance of the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. In 2005, the Pelican was named “Small Brewpub of the Year”; in 2006, it earned “Large Brewpub of the Year” honors.
Welch was named top brewer both times; clearly, he can speak with authority on aroma characters, flavor profiles and the like. Even so, he said, the Pelican Pub crew doesn’t want beer to get complicated and intimidating, like wine can be.
“When people think about putting on a nice dinner, they think about wines and worry about what goes with what, and it can be stressful. What we like to show is that with beer, you can do better with more foods, and you don’t have to get yourself worked all up into a lather about it, either.
“Beer is fun. Beer is simply great with food, and when you have both great beer and great food, it’s the perfect combination.”
The Pelican Pub and Brewery serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The pub is adjacent to Cape Kiwanda State Scenic Area at 33180 Cape Kiwanda Drive. For information and directions, log on to www.pelicanbrewery.com, or call 503-965-7007.
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