This post is really late, but better late than never, right?
On June 28th, my best friend Tiff and I had the opportunity to (finally!) eat at the pop-up that BeerBelly hosted for Wolvesmouth. The way we got the tickets to go was kind of funny.. the original tickets sold out super fast to the dinner and we weren't able to get any.. but then I saw on twitter via DimSumPup that they were offering two tickets to whoever could tweet the best rap.. I told Tiff, and she laid down some mean rhymes. She totally won. . and took me as her 'date'.
I had never been to a Wolvesmouth dinner before, but had seen others' pics/reviews. I was excited! We got there pretty early, wandered around in the parking lot until people started to clear out since we were there for the second seating. It was BYOB, and since we didn't know what all would be on offer at Beer Belly, Tiff was kind enough to bring 6 bottles of beer for us (yes, we are lushes). Once people cleared out, we picked out a table. People were super friendly, and when they started seeing our beer bottles, they donated their leftovers!! We started accumulating a ridiculous number of bottles at our table.. I think everyone must have thought we were serious alcoholics. Tiff has the super-picture of all the donated bottles, so I'll update this post if I get it from her. We sat next to a nice couple who shared their wine with us (like we didn't already have enough to drink?) and we both went OMGWTFBBQ!?! as surreptitiously as possible at the girl's Birkin bag.
First, the menu: I pretty much let out a girly *squee* when I saw this, since it's all my favorite things rolled up together.. just add foie gras in there somewhere and I'd be rolling around on the floor in a food-induced heavenly stupor..
There was some bread (good but didn't knock my socks off) served with some barley malt butter (omg how do I make this??) at the beginning of the meal.. unfortunately I ate it before I could take a picture. hah!
First course: Corn Soup - this was super yum. How can you not love it - crab, corn, richness, savory and sweetness.. it all worked well together. This was my second favorite item of the night.
Second course: Black Truffle Risotto - I liked this dish - I thought the cheese and other flavors complimented each other well. The rice was a little more al dente than I usually cook for myself, but I think I trend toward the goopy side so maybe don't pay attention to me.. regardless, I thought it was good. Some people had said they wanted more truffles but for $50 I don't think you can ask for more than what's already in there!
Third course: Blue Lake Beans - I really enjoyed this course for its originality. At this point in my life, I've eaten out at so many places that I feel like I don't often have something where I haven't had some variant of it before. This was a totally new flavor combination, and everything was very fresh. Super cool! Plus, I love squash..
Fourth course: Lamb. Bring out the meat! I'm gonna guess this was cooked sous-vide due to the wonderful uniform consistency throughout. A great piece of meat. The potato puree was pretty good, we scraped our plates clean.
Fifth course: First dessert! Cornbread ice cream. I know this sounds really weird.. but it was so good. I've noticed that Craig has a (fun!) habit of taking things that aren't normally ice cream flavors, and making them ice cream flavors. This was so delicious... totally my favorite dish of the night. My one question is.. how was it so smooth? I guess he has a much better blender than me..
Sixth course: Second dessert! Gotta love a guy who has two desserts.. I'm not the biggest panna cotta fan, but this was pretty good. The strawberries were especially delicious..
And then.. it was over! So soon? *sigh*..
The one thing that really disappointed us was the other patrons not leaving anything for tip.. we didn't see other people leaving anything extra on the table! WTF, people.. these people worked hard, and for all those ingredients at that price, you bet they aren't making that much money off of this! Lame!
I feel like the Wolvesmouth dinner at BeerBelly was an amazing bargain at $50. I really enjoyed every dish and it was a great experience - I'm so glad I got to go! At the end Craig came out and was talking to everyone and very graciously took pictures with us and chit-chatted a little, he was very cool and easy to talk to. I wish my pictures of the food were better.. I need more practice taking food pics and maybe a better camera. I'll try harder in the future. mm.. looking at these pictures takes me back. This was a good meal.
I hope someday I'll win the lotto ticket to attend a full Wolvesmouth dinner, since based on this dinner I can only imagine how crazy those must be.. oh yeah and he owes me (and some other person) a chicken dinner, since I won another contest he had on twitter! I'm definitely looking forward to that. :D
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