Last night was a special night for beer lovers and long time friends in the industry of beer and restaurants. Two long time friends, Dann Paquette of Pretty Things and Danny Valachovic the owner of Vee Vee in Jamaica Plain. Together they hosted a wonderful evening of beer and amazing food.
We were introduced to the newest arrival of Dann's beer collection called Baby Tree. A Belgian style Quad with plums/prunes.
Dann Paquette has a long standing history with the Boston area as a brewer. He has a long love and passion for Belgian beers which has inspired him and many of his beers over the years. For many who know him, he is considered one of the most creative and brilliant minds when it comes to brewing beer. He will never admit to that however. But for the rest of us, we know.
He was a Brewer for Concord Brewing Company where he was the creator of Rapscallion and Blessing among many others. He also brewed for The Tap in Haverhill, Ma. where he created Leather Lips IPA. Since then Leather Lips has been brewed by others and now bottled. It's good, but not as good as when Dann made it.
Dann then met the lovely Martha, his now wife. She is from York, England. They moved to the U.K. He then brewed for Daleside Brewery where he became familiar with brewing the classic British styles, such as milds and bitters.
Today Dann and Martha are back in the Boston area. They are back with a mission of beer. Their concept is called Pretty Things. The name derives itself from their unique perspective of the ingredients that make beer. The small things that may not always be seen from the eye, such as yeasts and bacterias that are found in beer, and the the hops that grow from the dirty Earth, to the grains. All of these sometimes unsightly things that come together and make pretty things like beer. Such a fabulous way to look at it.
Dann then teamed up with Danny Vee a long time friend, whom recently opened up a new restaurant in Jamaica Plain. It is a modern American food focusing on grains, local fresh vegetables, and seafood.
When we arrived at Vee Vee, we were greeted with St. Bernardus Prior 8, a Belgian dubbel and chef Seth Morrison's selection of house offal as little appetizers and amuse bouche. The beer was chosen by Dann as a beer that has inspired him as a brewer.
This included: Fresh New England oysters, clams with kimchi, fried lamb tongue and cheeks, lamb hearts, and lamb kidneys.
We were then seated and Dann and Martha welcomed us and gave us an introduction to their beers and company story.
[Caption this contest for image two. LOL!]
The First Course:
Seafood Course: You'll be seated social-style and dig in to the "Bayou Bake", a Louisiana-style clambake. Communal bowls of wild shrimp, crawfish, crab, oysters, clams and mussels along with andouille sausage and new potatoes cooked in a beer broth. (Jack D'Or beer broth.)
Beer: Pretty Things Jack D'Or: Saison Americain 6.5%
Side Note: Please click the links to the beers. The Pretty Things website has the full story of the beers and the reasons for the names. It's well worth the read and better than I can describe them.
The beer is a very crisp and clean Saison. It is not cloying with too much spices as some tend to have. Nor is too funky with wild yeast strains as some of them can be. This beer is refreshing with nice carbonation and beautiful hops that give it a nice balance of bitterness.
These lighter styles of beer work awesome with seafood. Jack D'Or is no exception. It's clean and fresh hop flavors play nicely with the flavors of boiled crab. The sweet malts and light spicy notes of the beer allow things like Old Bay which the fish boil was seasoned with, to come out and not fight with one and other. The sweet shrimp and flavorful crawfish all work similarly with the beer like the crab. The clams were nice and salty which added an extra pop of sweetness from the beers malts.
This was truly an awesome course. It was served family style, allowing all of us at the table to dig right in and get our hands dirty and force us to be social with the newly met friends at our table.
Second Course: Spring Lamb In Three Parts
The lamb is a local fresh spring lamb bought through a co-op of local farmers.
From Vee Vee's Website:
Beer: Pretty Things St. Botolph's Town, a rustic dark beer 5.7%. Served with all three courses.
A.) Loin of lamb, sliced and served with a salad of lamb's quarters.
This was a roulade and the lamb was rare and so beautiful and delicious. It was rolled with a salted lamb sausage. The greens were fresh local wild greens with some radishes and lightly dressed in oil and lemon.
The greens were nice and earthy and added a nice fresh taste with the lemon that had a unique way of working with the rustic brown ale flavors of roasted, sweet malts. The roasted malts tend to have a toffee, chocolate, and coffee notes, combine that with the earthy flavors on the greens and salted flavors of the lamb and you have one hell of a combo. The beer is a surprisingly bitter beer with a dry finish despite the initial onslaught of huge toasted malt flavors.
This was * "a playful little dish" * and the lamb was so soft and absolutely divine.
*Quote from American Psycho that was totally appropriate for this course. "New York Matinee called it 'a playful but mysterious little dish'."
B.) Roast leg of lamb, served with spring vegetables: favas, fiddleheads, snap peas...
The tender and beautifully soft lamb again was deliciously and perfectly cooked. Salted and presented with spring veg. and snap peas. This pairing brought out a different effect of the malts. It was sweeter and caramel like, less roasted flavors. The beer also brought out the very subtle rosemary that seasoned the lamb. Generally with lamb, rosemary is a no brainer, but this was subtle and pleasant. The lamb being so fresh and juicy, it didn't need to be masked by heavy rosemary.
C.) Beer-braised Lamb Shank & Shoulder Stew, with garlic and Cranberry beans.
This was presented to us and then a St. Botolph's Town/Lamb stock broth was poured on top. It also had braised leeks. This part of the course in a way, got the shaft. It was beautiful and tasted amazing. But by the time we got to this course, we were becoming very full.
This cassoulet had the most tender chucks of lamb shoulder and again this lamb with the most soft texture and delicious flavors really shined though. The flavors from this rich stew again added another unique perspective as the broth brought out richer and deeper flavors of the beer. Less sweet malts, but more rustic earth notes. More raw grain flavors.
Truly a unique and wonderful experience to be able to have three courses in one setting with lamb that bring out all the different intentions with this beer in pairing it with food.
Last but not least,
Cheese Course: A selection of farmhouse cheeses and accompaniments will bring this springtime feast to a close.
Beer: Pretty Things Baby Tree, a Belgian-inspired Quadrupel 8.6%
This was the first time I had tasted the beer. It was very clean and refreshing for a Belgian-style Quad. The plums/prunes where apparent along with deep berry flavors. The plums left a delightful lingering taste on the palate and the beer finished clean when normally big Quads tend to hang on in the mouth feel with a lingering cloying effect. This was fresh and quite different.
The cheeses were a German Kasse (aged cows milk, similar to a gouda, but more dry and aged) which I never got the name of, and Tallegio (an Italian cows milk cheese, soft and funky with a washed rind.)
I missed the whole presentation of what was on the plate. And frankly I had no interest in the kasse because the tallegio was paired with a raw honey comb and was absolutely perfect with the beer. I wanted to focus on that.
It's not like me to deny myself cheese and I am not about to fake it in my review that I tried the kasse pairing. But as far as the kasse and fruit compote, the reason it would work is because Kasse tends to have sharp rich flavors. It's aged and has crystallized whey crunchies in it. The rich flavors like similar to gouda have a rich flavor and strong sharpness as well as a creaminess despite the aged dry texture that the sweet fruits in the beer marry well to each other. The fruit plays with the cheese and the crisp nature of the beer and the hops cuts through the oils and allows more of the grass and raw flavors to come out on the cheese. The fruit compote only enhances the fruit that is already in the beer and tags along with the malts in the beer.
Over all this was a wonderful experience. A very long night, but spent well with good friends, new friends, wonderful food, and extraordinary beers.
Dann Paquette has come back to the Boston area with a vengeance. A breath of fresh air to our brewing community. New ideas, new approaches to how we look at beers and styles.
Dann's beers are incredibly drinkable. From the nice surprise and pleasant hop kick in the saison, to the roasted malts that are very typical of American style brown ales in a beer made to be an homage to the English styles he loves, and the very clean and less sticky Belgian-style Quad. There is definitely love and well thought out care to these beers. You can expect more greatness from Pretty Things in the future to come.
As for Vee Vee, wonderful! You must go there and visit. Even if it is all the way out in JP, it's well worth it.
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