Beer Dinner at Kings Row Gastropub With Smog City Brewing Co

King Row Gastropub in Old Town Pasadena has launched a monthly beer dinner series, starting with local Smog City Brewing Co earlier this month. The five course dinner, paired with five beers, was quite a deal at $30 per person! The dinners are limited to 30 people and will take place in a communal setting. We had the owners of Smog City coming out to talk to us about the beers as well.

The theme for the Smog City dinner is Smoke and Beers, in which all the dishes have something smoked in them.

There was an amuse bouche of taro chip topped with salsa crudo of melon, mint, cantalope, and beans - all of which were smoked.

The first course was a Smoked Gouda with Porter honey, fresh beer bread, cornichons.

I really liked the beer bread but thought they too thick in proportion to the cheese. I loved the porter honey, though. This course was paired with Lil Bo Pils.

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Three Jerks Filet Mignon Jerky and Launch Party

by: @gourmetpigs and guest blogger Bryan Tsunoda @bstunoda

Three Jerks Jerky, made with 100% filet mignon, was some of the best beef jerky I've had. "Jerky" brings to mind the tough, chewy stuff you get at the grocery store, but Three Jerks' is very tender. At the moment they come in three flavors: Original, which is a tad sweet, Memphis BBQ which is surprisingly spicy, and Chipotle Adobo (I originally expected this to be the spicy one, but don't be fooled by the BBQ).

Photo courtesy of Three Jerks Jerky

Three Jerks Jerky held a launch party and I sent guest blogger Bryan to cover it for the blog. Here's his post:

Three Jerks recently held their launch party at SHOREBar in Santa Monica and I had the great opportunity to experience the event. SHOREBar is located on Channel Road just east of Pacific Coast Hwy in Santa Monica. It has a cool atmosphere, is dimly lit, and has a modern design. A DJ kept the music lively that evening.

Three Jerks, which is located in Venice, was started by three friends: Daniel Fogelson and Jordan Barrocas (the third is no longer with the company). After meeting them, I can attest that they are definitely not jerks. In finding the best possible taste experience, they finally decided to use filet mignon due to it having the least amount of fat. In addition, Three Jerks uses no nitrates or preservatives, making their jerky a much healthier alternative (be sure to refrigerate after opening, though).

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Chianina Steakhouse: A Rare Breed in Long Beach

Before, if you had asked me where to eat in Long Beach, I would have no answer. But now, Chianina Steakhouse has moved in and will soon be bringing the rare cattle breed to their menu. Chianina is an Italian breed that is the largest and one of the oldest breed of cattle in the world.

Since they are raising and breeding the cattle, the Chianina steak won't be available at the restaurant until March or April, but lucky for me they had butchered one for a preview dinner so we could try it!

More on that later, as there are plenty of other things to eat here. Our dinner started with a cup of buttery lobster broth.

Next is a Beet and winter root vegetable salad with mâché, almonds, raisin ($14)

I'm used to having my beets sweet and with creamy cheese like burrata or goat cheese instead of the slightly tart dressing here, but everything was fresh.

I loved the Dungeness crab with jicama, avocado, micro cilntro, Meyer lemon, Fresno chili

The dungeness crab is hidden inside the rolled avocado. Sweet crab, creamy avocado, and a light heat from the chili.

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