36 Hours in Quebec City
4) WINE-DRIVEN DINING“It’s all about the wine,” said a waiter-sommelier at Le Moine Échanson (585, rue St.-Jean; 418-524-7832; lemoineechanson.com ), even as plates of crème brûlée au foie gras and Catalan-style duck confit made their way out of the kitchen in this small five-year-old restaurant. The seasonal small-plates menu changes four times a year, depending on the selection of organic and natural wines in stock. Dinner for two, including wine, is about 120 dollars. For a down-homey alternative, head to La Cuisine (205, rue St.-Vallier Est; 418-523-3387; barlacuisine.com ), a restaurant and bar outfitted like a retro university student’s apartment. The vintage furniture is for sale and the kitchen is open, with a decades-old stove and a pair of microwaves churning out Québécois comfort food like croque monsieur and casseroles. Dinner for two, with local beer, is about 30 dollars, live D.J., hip crowd, Nintendo and other diversions included.
That's a wrap: Lots of good news from GABF
DENVER — Yes, the Great American Beer Festival was a big party. Tickets for the three public sessions of the 30th annual celebration of craft beer were gone in record time — one week — and 49,000-plus attendees set upon the Colorado Convention Center with gusto.
An estimated 465 U.S. breweries had set up booths in the cavernous hall, serving up 1-ounce samples of around 2,400 beers, from sours to stouts to dubbels and tripels and lots of styles in between and far outside. Despite the choices, lines formed immediately for the buzziest of breweries. This year, the longest queues were not just for Russian River (Pliny the Elder on tap!) and the exotic offerings from Dogfish Head, but also Tampa’s Cigar City Brewing, a 2-year-old brewery recently cited in this article from the Associated Press as “the most visible brewer in a suddenly hot Florida beer industry.” The brewery was further rewarded with a gold medal for its Minaret ESB.
But spread across the tasting floor were plenty of wonderful options from coast to coast and from our two outlying states of Hawaii and Alaska. (Speaking of the Great North, Ashley Johnston, communications manager for Alaskan Brewing Co., told me that with luck Texans can start looking for that company’s beers sometime in the first six months of 2012. There are a few more details left to be worked out, but that excellent brewery should feel right at home here.
For dessert, try the cheesecake, heavy in chocolate, with an accent of raspberry sorbet. Dinner for two, with wine, is roughly 130 dollars. Reservations recommended. On the nearby Grande Allée, a stretch of nightclubs exerts a fierce gravitational pull
(Ronnie Crocker / Beer, TX) Friend of Beer, TX Ginger Johnson, left, was in Denver promoting women craft-beer lovers with her Women Enjoying Beer T-shirts and other goods. She's shown here with booth volunteer Jessie Liang.
Products buy-local proponents will recognize include Wholly Craft creations, T-shirts by Alison Rose and Traxler Tees, Anne Holman jewelry and Jeni's ice cream. The store is waiting for its liquor license, and will soon sell wine and beer as well.
