Last night I enjoyed an opportunity to preview one of the food + beer pairings that will be featured at this year’s Craft Beer + Food, Seattle’s premiere beer and food pairing event. For the 5th Annual event, we teamed up 12 restaurants/purveyors with 12 local breweries. Among them, Beardslee Public House, chef John Howie’s recently opened brewpub in Bothell. We teamed-up Beardslee with itself because we could; we have that much faith in both the food and the beer.
For Craft Beer + Food this year, Executive Chef Jed Laprade worked with head brewer Drew Cluley and assistant brewer Paige Zahnle (who is also a cicerone) to devise the combination: Four Ginger IPA paired with Kalbi Pork “Meat Candy” (sweet-spicy Korean teriyaki flavor with ginger). Yes, the meat candy is as good as it sounds, and the pairing is spot-on.
But why am I telling you this? Craft Beer + Food is sold out, so unless you have tickets, you’re out of luck. But wait! You can try this particular beer + food pairing any time you want. In fact, you can try a lot of lovely beer + food pairings at Beardslee Public House; brewer Drew currently has a dozen of his beers on tap waiting for you.
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About two months ago we shared the announcement that Beardslee Public House was open for business. You can see our original post here. Truth is, John Howie’s public relations people asked us not to go too crazy about sharing the news. They were afraid that the initial onslaught of neighborhood customers (if you can call Bothell a neighborhood these days) would overwhelm the new restaurant and its staff. Bothell is something of an under-served community when it comes to stuff like this.
But that is all behind Beardslee Public House now. That initial crush of exuberant humanity has finally subsided. Also, as I mentioned, they currently have a dozen different beers on tap. When they opened, just three. So now, fellow beer nerds, there are 12 delicious reasons for you to visit. They do taster flights, serve pints and smaller sizes, and also fill growlers.
The year-round lineup of beers includes the usual suspects: a Pale Ale, a Porter, a Wit, a Blonde, and two different IPAs. One of the IPAs is the aforementioned Four Ginger IPA. On top of that, they’re currently pouring a Pumpkin Ale, a Stout, a Double IPA, a Cascadian Dark Ale, a Wheat beer, and an ESB.
Back to the pairing that I was talking about, which is waiting for your approval. The meat, which chef Jed describes as the best pork he’s ever had, is sliced paper thin, kind of like thin-sliced jerky. It is tender and sweet, sticky and delicious. The Four Ginger IPA is basically and IPA infused with four types of ginger: Thai ginger, pickled ginger, candied ginger, and fresh ginger.
The spiciness of the ginger in the beer is quite subtle until you combine it with the sweetness of the meat candy, which creates an explosion of flavors in your mouth—the sweet and the heat accentuate and compliment each other.
But IPA and Meat Candy are just one very small part of the story at Beardslee Public House. Truth is, last night I sampled a lot more than that. It was all very, very good. If you know anything about chef John Howie, the mastermind behind Sport Restaurant, Seastar, and John Howie Steak, you will not be surprised to hear that the food at Beardslee is fantastic. More interesting is the way chef Jed has found to use the beer in his cooking.
You can learn more by reading the post we did back when they first opened, or you can just go experience it all for yourself. Although you should do the former, I highly advise you to also do that latter.
Beardslee Public House
19116 Beardslee Blvd.
Bothell, WA 98011
Map
425-286-1001
Kendall; it was a pleasure to have you re-visit us now that we have a proper lineup of beer to offer. I love that we have the ability to have 12 unique beers pouring, and that we are featuring a lot of the beer in the food Chef Jed prepares. Cheers!
Drew Cluley ~ Head Brewer BPH
“Beaver Bait Blonde”? T-shirts emblazoned with “Get More Head” (or something to that effect)? I was amazed at the banal, misogyny of a place with a higher-end rep a la John Howie. An approach like this manages to simultaneously alienate half their potential clientele and perpetuate the image of the dumb-ass beer drinker. I work within walking distance, but unless this place turns around, I won’t return. It’s a sincere disappointment because I had high hopes for a place so near.
66 – I think you’re blaming Beardslee for something your own mind is doing. ‘Beaver’ in that beer name refers to actual beavers, not what your dirty mind assumed – and the style of beer is ‘Blonde’. That does not refer to blonde-headed women.
Many of the beers at Beardslee have names inspired by a giant Sequoia they removed from the property during construction.
Also, I saw no t-Shirts bearing that phrase during my visit, so I’m not sure what you’re referring to on that front.
Haha, love that the jazz/jizz master double entendre is offended by the blonde beaver entendre. Time for a beer, bye.
I have seen t-shirts there which said get more head, or something similar. Beaver Bait Blonde is certainly a double entendre, whether intended or not. Neither of these offend me, and won’t affect my decision to go back, but just want to set the record straight.
IMHO, you could make a T-shirt that says, “Our beer is good,” and someone would be offended. I’m not a woman, but if I were, I think I would be offended that someone presumes I’m so fragile.
If the proprietors of BPH don’t think the aforementioned, obvious double-entendre – and whatever else was on the servers’ t-shirts, “I’d tap that,” or something other – will offend some of the women clientele or the many young female servers who toil there to make the brewery and restaurant run, then I won’t waste my breath. But that is only half my disappointment.
It gives beer a bad name and adds to the undying stigma that beer is merely cheap swill and only for mouthbreathers. BPH has obviously poured a ton of effort, thought, time and capital into establishing this business, yet someone’s chosen to sully their beer menu and employee uniforms with language that isn’t even fratboy level, but more at the level of uninspired, junior high locker graffiti. It’s just that juvenile. Am I missing something? Are these double-entendre true laughers? Or, are they infantile attempts at chauvinistic humor that do more harm than good? To me, BPH is aiming for an elevating dining and drinking experience, yet they’ve chosen language that tastes like Busch Light.
66JizzMaster, you are entitled to your opinion. I’m guessing it’s a minority opinion, though. Do whatever you need to do to be happy.
Will do. And for what it’s worth, my handle is a reference to my guitar (1966 Jazzmaster), not … that. [insert ‘git yr head outta the gutter!’ comment here] 🙂
66jzmstr, I ant to respond to your comments about our t-shirts and our beer. First off, it was never our intention to offend anyone with something as trivial as our uniform. The shirt slogans were meant to be tongue-in-cheek but, sadly, people have responded with anger and disappointment. In response, we have ordered different shirts so now all of our staff will be wearing non-offensive shirts.
As for name “Beaver Bait Blonde”, this falls in line with the rest of our beer names, which are derived from logging terminology. Logging was a very integral part of the area’s history and “beaver bait” refers to small branches, scrub and tree debris that clogged waterways. Loggers refereed to this material as Beaver Bait.