Dionicess IX: A Craft Beer Cocktail Pairing for Charity

Dionicess is an annual beer-centric charity event hosted by Gev Kazanchyan and benefits Real Medicine Foundation. The ninth iteration recently took place at Steingarten and upped the bar with craft beer cocktails and food pairing. The pairing is a collaboration by bartender Matt Biancaniellio from Library Bar and Dave Watrous from Beachwood BBQ who were preparing the beer cocktails, and Randy Clemens, author of the Sriracha Cookbook, who prepared all the food (along with the staff at Steingarten LA)

We were greeted by some mint water while Matt and Dave were hard at work shaking up the first cocktail:
“The Lambic Pentameter” - white balsamic, basil, strawberries, elderflower liqueur and Drie Fontinien Spirit of Armand.

The name Pentameter was chosen because the drink consisted of 5 ingredients. The Armand is a rare distilled Lambic from Belgium that is not typically not available in the US. Only one website in the world sells it!
Watrous told an interesting story behind the Armand. Purportedly they were trying to make lambic but the thermostat broke during lambic fermentation so he basically had cooked the lambic. They considered throwing it out, which was going to drive them out of business, but the distiller decided to try to distill and save it. The cocktail had a tartness that all came from the spirit, as there was no added citrus. (Traditional lambic is not the sweet type like peche lambic that we are mostly familiar with here, but it's tart and acidic).

This cocktail was paired with:
“Don’t Let This Get Your Goat, Just Figure It Out” – figs and herbed Chevre.

Second course: “The Cascading Hophead” made with gin infused with seasonal Cascade hops for 3-4 days, grapefruit, honey, lemon and Beachwood Brewing Thrill Seeker IPA. This was the first beer cocktail Matt had ever created.
This drink was very hoppy, just like a straight up beer, except that it was 40% alcohol.

Second bite: "The Hop and The Hound" - Cabot Clothbound cheddar with yuzu marmalade, pickled habanero, and micro greens.

The pickled habanero in  the marmalade was very spicy. I had to take most of it off but it was a good pairing with the hops.

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Giveaway: Healthy Juices from Juiceology!

I love fruit juices, yet it's hard to find a good one at grocery stores. Most are artificially flavored and full of high fructose corn syrup. Naked Juices are supposedly all natural and most have no added sugar, but they tend to be thick and smoothie-like. I wanted something more juice-like. Enter Juiceology.

All natural juice with no sugar added that actually has a juice texture. Drinking juices are also not as good as eating the real fruits because you don't get any of the fibers that are in the fruits. To bypass that, Juiceology adds 5g of vegetable fiber (from chicory) to each bottle. They also add 18g whole grain extracts from oats, barley and brown rice.

They sent me two flavors to try. I liked the Peach Mango which had a strong mango flavor. The Blueberry Acai tasted mainly of apple juice but both were still very good!
What I liked best was that they didn't have this aftertaste that sticks to my throat like other "juices" with high fructose corn syrup. They tasted, well, pretty natural.

Juicelogy is currently only available in Southern California at Bristol Farms, Ralph's, Famima, and Northgate. They retail at $2.99 each.

If you want to try these juices for yourself, I'm giving away FIVE coupons for a free bottle to THREE winners, so you can go choose the flavors you want yourselves!

To enter, just leave a comment below with your email address by Sunday, Nov 27.
You can also get an extra entry by liking my page on Facebook.
I will draw the winners sometime on Monday. Remember, you have to be living in Southern California!

Lexington Social House: Social Hour and Fried Chicken

Good cocktails in the heart of Hollywood, for cheap? We're not talking dive bars, here. It's possible during Lexington Social House's Social Hour, where all specialty cocktails are priced at $7 on weekdays 6-8PM and all night Sunday.

With the launch of Social Hour they also launched a bar menu (items from this menu are also $7 during social hour!)
Do try the Chipotle Pork Belly biscuits with aged gouda, fried egg ($14)

I have a soft spot for McD's sausage egg mcmuffin, but this is (of course!) so much better! Everything you'd ever want from a breakfast sandwich, even if it isn't breakfast time. Great buttery biscuits, thick and tender pork belly, fried egg with runny yolk. I will definitely get this again.

The cocktail menu was created by barman Kyle Ackley, who used to work at XIV, and the cocktails are quite good and interesting (well, the bottom half. The top half consisted of mainly vodka drinks catered to the usual Hollywood crowd).

For my first drink I ordered the Palmera made with Zirbenz stone pine liqueur, pineapple juice, lemon juice, velvet falernum, angostura bitters

This refreshing drink is a great one to start the night off with. Frothy, velvety, nice light grassy note.

Next bar food: Short rib panini, port salut, pickles, IPA mustard ($12)

One word to describe this would be "rich". Very rich. The bottom slice soaks up the juices from the braised short rib and melted cheese.

My friend got the SPANISH HARLEM with tanteo cocoa infused tequila, maraschino liqueur, agave nectar, chocolate-chili bitters

As you lift the glass, you'll get a strong chili aroma, but the drink itself is actually not spicy. Strong and balanced.

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