"Big Boss" of Raleigh, NC local cuisine beer dinner...

Great night tonight. We recently rolled out a new dinner menu using local and seasonal produce, cheeses and such and it's going well. People seem to be very receptive to our new and improved menu and ideas, which is a relief, to be honest. My ideas of great food is not always in keeping with OTHER peoples ideas of great food. To me, there's nothing like an unctuous pork belly sandwich or a rare steak simply seasoned with salt and pepper. Most folks, sadly, eat to live and have the palate of a small child.

Anyway, people are excited about our new dinner menu, which makes me excited.

In addition to our dinner crowd enjoying our new offerings, we ran an intimate beer dinner in our private banquet hall upstairs. Big Boss Brewers offered the beers and I came up with a menu based mostly on locally produced goods. My kinda food. Its easy to pair food with beer if you have access to the best of each.

My morning started off picking up some local micro greens at Lucky Leaf Gardens and then a load of locally grown produce at Barbee Farms. Earlier in the week Ashe County Cheese delivered some of their yummy-ness and a farm in Rutherfordton, NC sent us some quail eggs and mache. Awesome.

Menu was this:

Starter

Spicy Sage and Fennel Local Scotch Quail Egg with House-Made Whole Grain Mustard (passed)
Paired with: Blanco Diablo (Belgian Style Wit)

Soup

Roasted local pumpkin and toasted black pepper bisque topped with local pumpkin sprouts and pan-fried coriander pumpkin seeds
Paired with: Hell’s Belle (Belgian Style Ale)

Salad

Honey Cider Poached Local Apple, Baby Arugula; Ashe-County Crumbled Blue Cheese, Sweet Spicy Local Chestnuts, White Balsamic and IPA Vinaigrette, Parmesan Curls
Paired with: High Roller IPA

Main Course

Slow Braised Local Pork Belly with Roasted Local Root Vegetables, Wilted Local Greens and Bad Penny Pork Jus
Paired with: Bad Penny Brown Ale

Dessert

Dark Chocolate and Roasted Apple Crème Brulee with Caramel and Apple Chip
Paired with: Aces and Ates (Coffee Stout)

Needless to say, everyone was a little drunk when they left but they all had a blast. Unfortunately, no one had the fore-site to take pictures and I just didn't think to. You'll just have to make sure you come to the next one to see how things look! :)