And now for something completely different: regular, good old fashioned local beer and food blogging. Since my Old Oak Beer post is drifting off the top of the page, I’ve added a link in the right hand sidebar that will take you directly the our website. Plus, you’ll hear more from me as our release date gets closer.

But in the meantime, let’s explore one of my favorite in-vogue topics: underground restaurants. They seem to be everywhere these days, and I’ve been to some very, very good dinners. Whenever I attended one, I usually came packing a selection of fine beers.  If beer was offered, it was almost always Tecate and PBR – a disservice to the food being served.   Luckily, a new underground gathering has formed centered around homebrew and great experimental food: Mission Gastroclub. (Hat tip to FemALEist for introducing me to them.)

Each meal is four courses, served with a paired beer.  They aim to use homebrew whenever they can, but aren’t afraid to supplement with commercial beers when they need to.  The theme for the dinner I attended was “Breakfast For Dinner.”  Most of their dinners are one-offs, not be repeated.  Unlike a restaurant, which will tinker and toy with a dish over time, here it has one shot to shine, and then it’s gone.  This is good and bad – it create a high wire act of experimentation and excitement – but also means that a dish has more of a chance of arriving not quite perfected. In this underground environment, at this price point – it’s a good thing. I came looking for something new, something exciting, something in it’s incubation phase, just being explored and discovered – and that’s just what I found.

 

Pairing adventurous cuisine, classic homebrew styles and a very small informal space is an easy sell for me.  Doing it all for $30 a plate – even better. Well, enough preamble – let’s get into it.

A little background on underground restaurants: It is illegal to operate a restaurant out of your home and serve the public.  It is also quite illegal to sell or serve homebrew to the public. However, it is perfectly legal to operate an informal club and serve food to it’s members, with membership fees that happen to coincide with the cost of dinner.  It’s through this loophole that most of these dinners operate.  The team behind these meals is Eric – the brewer, and Neil, the chef.   Together they convert a surprising spacious Mission apartment into a brewpub for the night.  Their dedication to the craft is on display in a room lined with homebrew equipment.

 

 

When we walked in, Eric (and his enormous beard!) greeted us with pours of a homebrewed IPA.  It was balanced with a nice malt backbone and bracing bitterness.  It’s certainly one way to wake a palette up in the morning (and by morning, I mean dinner.)

First course: French Toast (cinnamon bread, egg), bruleed banana, coffee infused maple syrup.

We started off with that brunch standard: french toast.  The coffee infused syrup was a nice touch, and the toast had a well-earned crust on the exterior, with a custardy interior. Since the dinner only serves 14, all of the food was cooked to order, and served fresh off the griddle.  While it wasn’t an exciting dish, it was tasty.

The beer pairing with Lost Abbey’s Red Barn – a classic Saison.  The light malts and yeast worked to balance to the eggy french toast.

Next, glasses of Oscar Blues’ Pilsner, Mama’s Little Yella appeared before us.

Second Course: Chilaquiles made with house-fried chips, house salsa verde, soul food egg sunny side up, queso fresco, crema

Now we’re talking. A deconstructed and rebuilt Chilaquiles.  Now, mexican food officinados are now doubt looking that that plate and thinking “that’s clearly not chilaquiles.  that’s breakfast nachos!” And they would be right.  But semantics aside, it was an outstanding dish.  The housemade salsas were bright and balanced, taking on a slightly mediterranean influence more than Mexico. Eggs were perfectly cooked, and fresh, hot from the oil chips were delivered during the meal to make sure everyone got enough.

The pairing wasn’t as special as the dish – the pils brought to mind Mexican lagers – and pretty much started and stopped with that reference. It didn’t add much, but they didn’t take away either.  I would have preferred the IPA we were served at the door to bring our the herbal qualities of the salsa verde.   But no matter: great things were afoot for the next course.  Homemade Bacon! Eric’s beard quivers with excitement.

Third Course:  English Breakfast with house blood sausage, house-smoked bacon (honey brine), roasted heirloom tomato,  pickled scotch egg, sauteed mushrooms

This English Breakfast set the bar for the night.  It was an indulgent plate of homemade charcuterie experiments, and those experiments payed dividends. The tomato provided a nice acidic balance, and the beans something to mop up the fat.  As for the meat: the thick cut back was smokey and well cured, with an outstanding texture.  The pickled scotch egg combined two bar snacks into one (had the yolk been a tad less done, we’d really be talking about something) and finally, the blood sausage, hiding in the back, out of focus in the picture above.  The sausage was cut, and seared, giving each slice a crust on the outside, just barely holding the insides together.  It was rich was fat and texture, and the single best bite of the meal.

All of this was served a homebrew smoked porter.  Smoke in a beer is a delicate balance, and they got it just right.  It can easily run away with the beer, rather than playing a supporting role to the underlying darks malts, as it does here.

The reaction to this dish was jubilant.

Finally dessert, which was unfortunately my least favorite of the night.   There’s a good idea hiding in this dish, it just needed more tinkering.

Fourth Course: Waffle with fig jam, blueberries, chocolate.

The waffles weren’t done to order (like most other dishes) and it showed in the final texture. The fruit and chocolate weren’t the best of friends either.

The beer it was served with was great, and showed the inspiration (but not the execution) for the dessert. Eric’s dark quad was sweet, with tons of dried fruit and dark candi character.  Loaded with layers of raisins, figs and bit of cocoa, it was sweet but balanced with a bit of alcohol heat from it’s 10% ABV.  This beer served as my dessert, and a great last taste before heading back out into the mission night.

 

I’d hate for my criticism to feel like I’m disparaging the over-all meal.   Quite the opposite – given the price, the space, the beers, and the people – this is an exceptional meal.  Currently a puny seventy-five people are signed up for their list serve announcing dinners. With that number, the reserved seats usually sell out in around eight minutes.  Such is the dedication and excitement that Eric and Neil’s underground restaurant engenders in its customers. Diners feel a sense of ownership over these meals, that they create a succeed in creating a sense of place and community. The tables are alive with chatter and excitement though every course, and no nit-picking food details could ruin that. (Case in point: while taking pictures, two other diners offered lighting equipment to help out, because they were eager and proud as the guys behind the stove.)

So, given the already quick reaction time it takes to secure a spot at these meals, I implore you: please don’t go.  They’re too popular as it is. Don’t follow them on twitter. Don’t sign up for the email listserve. And don’t compete with me for those fourteen spots when they open up.  I like it just the way it is, delicious successes and less-than-successes and all.

Tags: gastroclub, homebrew, mission, Underground DInner

This entry was posted on Friday, October 15th, 2010 at 12:16 am and is filed under beer dinner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.