The Return of the Beer Dinner

Standing: Dave Trosko (left) and Seth Morgan (right).

The 2020 pandemic and related preventative shutdowns changed a lot about our commercial landscape, both consumer and retail behavior alike. The effects were possibly felt harder by the alcoholic beverage industry because of its reliance on site-specific (bars, pubs, restaurants) and event-specific (festivals, concerts, sports) sales which, of course, just weren’t available.

One casualty of the pandemic restrictions was the beer dinner (or beer-pairing dinner, to be more precise). For the unfamiliar, a beer dinner is a specific one-time event hosted either by a restaurant, a craft brewery or a beer-centric bar or pub that consists of a ticketed multi-course meal with each course paired with a specific craft beer or beer style, often spotlighting the wares of a single brewer. It can be a grand social event for a small and intimate crowd, often taking up an entire evening with chefs and brewers narrating the flavor pairings as each course is introduced. Once a fairly common experience in cities with a healthy craft beer scene, specialized events like beer dinners all but disappeared as the hospitality industry struggled these past couple of years just to keep their lights on.

Optimistically, this may finally be changing. The past summer saw several North Texas craft breweries hosting isolated beer pairing events, a trio of which were held a month apart in the back room/brewing floor at Denton County Brewing Company. The three dinners were named the “Speakeasy Supper Series” and were the conceptual work of local chef Dave Trosko through his private catering company Trosko Culinary, featuring the house beers of DCBC with all dishes served and prepared in the crowded brewpub workspace.

Trosko is no stranger to the restaurant scene of Dallas/Fort Worth, even with a background that includes some small theater and voice acting credits. Working his way through Dallas-area commercial kitchens and eventually into management, Trosko left that career to focus on his growing family and a specialty food truck concept in Denton called Swine & Garden. When the pandemic forced bars, restaurants and breweries to close, he pivoted to his catering and consulting business organized as Trosko Culinary.

If ever there was an example of Trosko’s talent and imagination with food, the Speakeasy Supper Series showcased it in spades. The three dinners naturally included a flair for the dramatic and featured some highly specialized cooking techniques while remaining approachable to the casual Texas diner. DCBC’s owner and brewer Seth Morgan likewise provided thoughtful pairings of his products served just a few feet away from the stainless-steel tanks in which they were brewed.

The best beer dinners work within a collective concept for each of the included courses, and Trosko’s meals were each fully unified by a separate themed menu:

The Speakeasy Supper (June 17th), the introductory concept of the dinner series, featured more chef-driven, international courses like Gulf oysters, Duroc pork belly and Wagyu picanha. Nostalgia (July 22nd) was an interpretation of a grown-up “kid’s menu” featuring highly refined takes on dishes such as grilled cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and sliders. The Elements (August 19th) was a loosely Pokemon-inspired dinner that included the classic Earth elements as well as courses of “Mind” and “Electric” with some minor theatrical touches.

Highlights of these meals included preparations such as a cured baby back rib, a Denver steak carpaccio, a homemade beef tenderloin hot dog, wild boar andouille, and a prawn ceviche inside a gyoza dumpling. Sides and accompaniments were no less impressive, featuring techniques as well as ingredients like cured egg yolk, purple Peruvian horseradish mashed potatoes, smoked tomato molasses, homemade farfalle pasta, and pickled enoki mushrooms.

Desserts were just as skillful with items such as a PB&J apple pie, a homemade pudding cup and a key lime tartlet with Schezuan peppercorn sugar glass. Paired beers were mostly from DCBC’s everyday lineup, but certain servings like the barrel-aged Russian imperial stout, an oud bruin and their traditional weizen brewed with aromatics were saved just for these events. One dish was served with the Devil’s Tears lager followed by a sake shooter, which washed down the course perfectly.

Other local craft brewers are also ramping up their beer dinner programs again, each hopefully successful enough to appear on a semi-regular or regular basis. Similar multicourse pairing events have been hosted recently by On Rotation Brewery & Kitchen in Dallas and Funky Picnic Brewery & Café in Fort Worth.

This summer’s series of beer dinners in Denton was so successful that Trosko plans a similar fall series of dinners, also to be held at DCBC. Check his website or at the brewery for tickets and details. PH