There has been an underground Beer Dinner Club going on in the Mission for exactly a year now. Dave and I were lucky to become friends with Eric, the beer home-brewer, who hosts each event.  Neil is his counter-part: the chef that creates and cooks for all 14 diners each evening. This time the theme happened to be tomatoes, since it’s that time of year and because it was their 1 year anniversary of the Mission Gastroclub and their first dinner was tomato themed  as well.

The food menu:

Beer flatbread with tomato olive tapenade, peppered goat cheese, heirloom tomato fritters with smoked trout and buttermilk dressing, scallops with pappardelle, wild mushrooms and oven dried tomatoes, tomato sorbet with corn pudding and candied bacon.

The beer menu:
English Mild, Extra Pale Ale, Funky Belgian Single and a Quad to finish.

Sounds tasty, right? Dave and I arrived and found ourselves with a beer in our hands  within the first minute. We sat down  at the large table (there are only 2 tables to choose from) in the kitchen and easily started talking to the people who were already there and had apparently been coming to their dinners for a few months now.

The first beer we were given was the English Mild made from the second runnings of a barleywine. 3.8% abv.  It pours a murky orange teak. No head. It smells like sweet prunes, dates,  vanilla and very slight bourbon notes. It tastes mildly malty,  slightly sweet and light. A nice easy start.

It is paired with: tomato-olive tapenade, peppered goat cheese served with beer flatbread. The sweetness from the tomato, creaminess from the goat cheese  and butteriness from the flatbread combines with the dates and prunes of the mild to create a sweet, salty and nutty goodness. The goat cheese is just amazing- melt in your mouth.  It was a good first start.

For the second course  we had his Extra Pale Ale- It pours a slightly cloudy tangerine brown with a touch of foam. It smells like sweet tangerine, mango and a touch of pine. Really pretty nose. It tastes just like pine forest, slightly bitter grapefruit skin and just a nicely balanced bitter ending.

The Extra Pale Ale was paired with:  Heirloom tomato fritters, smoked trout salad on frisee with buttermilk dressing .The sweet smokiness and creaminess of the trout combined with the crunch of the fritters adds to the pine bitterness to create a nice balance between the cream and the bitter.

For the third course we had Eric’s Funky Belgian Single. This pours a dark red mahogany- slightly cloudy. It smells like raisins, bananas, cereal, date bread and all together good funk. It tastes like light raisins, malt, slightly funky, touch  of bitterness and a dry malty ending. The nose on this one was just fantastic!

It is paired with: Pappardelle, wild mushrooms,  oven  dried tomatoes and seared scallops. The mildness of the pasta paired with the slight mildness of the beer.  The meatiness of the mushrooms brings out the caramel of the scallops and funkiness of the Funky Belgian Single. The  bitter touch of tanginess from the  oven dried tomatoes really compliments the date and raisin in the beer.  My favorite pairing if the evening.

The fourth pairing was Eric’s  Quad-11% abv. Made from Rochfort 10. It pours a dark chocolate. It smells like bourbon, vanilla, roasted malt, raisins and stewed fruit. It  tastes like freaking raisin brand and vanilla bourbon. Amazing.

Paired with:  Corn pudding, tomato sorbet and carmelized peanuts that were then deep fried and bacon (-except for us vegetarians!). The flavors together: sweet corn pudding, tangy  tomato and salty sweet peanuts with the sweet bourbony raisins of the Quad= happy  Tiila and happy everyone else (especially those with the added bacon  bits).

How much would you pay for this delicious 4 course meal complete with a beer pairing? $100? $80? $60? Try just a $28 donation for this particular dinner! (they are all around a suggested $25-$30 donation).Personally, I think they are asking too little but at the end of the meal is when they have a jar on the table for everyone to contribute. So you can donate more if you want to (and I think you all should!!)

How does one get an invite to this amazing Gastroclub? You have to sign up to be on their email list.  Mission Gastroclub.