Perfect Pairings

Beer and cheese, a match made at Haddington's

Cask-conditioned Red Seal Ale with a the evening's cheese plate.
Photo by Jessica Dupuy
Cathy Strange, Global Cheese Buyer for Whole Foods Market and Tom Allen of NorthCoast Brewing Company.
Photo by Jessica Dupuy
Cathy Strange shows off her cheese selection for the evening.
Photo by Jessica Dupuy
Fresh plates of cheese waiting to be sent out to the crowd.
Photo by Jessica Dupuy
Haddington's self-proclaimed Beer Geek Kyle Pierson pouring North CoastScrimshaw Lager.
Photo by Jessica Dupuy

“Life doesn’t need any more mediocre.”

Consummate words to live by if you’re Mary Keehn, owner and head cheesemaker for Cedar Grove Chevre in Humboldt County Northern California. They’re the words of her own father who taught her that especially with food and drink, there is really no point in eating anything that wasn’t delicious.

Fitting that she made these remarks at a dinner event at Haddington’s one recent Monday evening as the summer heat doggedly hovered in the triple-digits.

The event featured a beer and cheese pairing — along with some inspired nibbles from the kitchen of Jimmy Corwell, the restaurant’s new chef.

The evening was led by Cathy Strange, Global Cheese Buyer for Whole Foods Market and Tom Allen of North Coast Brewing Company from California’s Mendocino Coast.

Most would agree that cheese and bread are the perfect duo. Consider the ingredients that make up beer and you essentially have the quintessential liquid bread.

Why pair cheese with beer, you ask? Why not wine with cheese? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do? Not necessarily. Wine and cheese have somehow lived a long life together. Perhaps because we’ve romanticized the French joie de vivre as a lifestyle of drinking loads of wine and nibbling endless rounds of cheese and bread. When you’re drinking wine, and you need a little filler, cheese and crackers are an easy supplement to satiate the appetite, but as Tom Allen of North Coast mentioned, “most wine and cheese pairings are a train wreck.”

Some wines have an acidity that doesn’t work well with cheese, others are too bold and overpowering. With the exception of some Sauvignon Blancs with fresh goat cheese, and some ports with rich blue cheeses, Allen’s point is fairly true. Cheese, as Cathy Strange described it, is intended to coat the palate when you’re eating it and beer has an effervescence that lifts that coating to reveal more complex flavors in both the cheese and the beer itself. Don’t believe me? Try it.

Most would agree that cheese and bread are the perfect duo (soft, toasted, cracker, what have you). Consider the ingredients that make up beer and you essentially have the quintessential liquid bread. While wine may have a blend of different grapes, it is essentially made of only a couple of ingredients. Beer, on the other hand is made with a number of different flavor elements with everything from hops and yeast to coffee, nutmeg and cocoa. This diversity makes it a perfect pair for the many elements that effect cheese beginning with goats on a lush green pasture in California or grass-fed cows in Dublin, Texas, and finishing with the method by which the curds and whey are separated and handled.

Take the Haddington’s Beer and Cheese Pairing for example. Strange selected seven different cheeses to accent seven selections from North Coast Brewing Company.

Self-proclaimed beer geeks are likely already familiar with North Coast Brewing Company, a sort of pioneer in the craft beer movement in America churning out award winning beers for more than 20 years including the popular full-bodied, citrusy Pranqster Belgian Style Golden Ale and the rich, dark, chocolaty tones of Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout.

Strange found an unusual Norwegian cow and goat cheese blend made primarily from whey to pair with the Old Rasputin. This Gjetost is a common Norwegian breakfast cheese and looks and tastes a lot like caramel, making a sort of turtle brownie combination with the smooth and creamy stout.

The nationally-recognized Le Merle, a Belgian style farmhouse “saison” beer, paired with Humboldt Fog soft-ripened goat cheese, made by Mary Keehn of Cedar Grove Chevre. And her Humboldt Fog is anything but mediocre. Coupled with the tangy hop-driven flavor of Le Merle, the cheese became like liquid gold in the mouth; a perfect example of why cheese and beer belong together.

North Coast also introduced a couple new-to-Texas releases including the Red Seal Pale Ale, the first cask-conditioned ale in the state—a fermentation process used without introducing carbon dioxide, making for a smoother feel. The Red Seal is heavy on hops giving this English-style ale a nice spicy finish. The other new release is the Old Stock Ale, a classic balance of malt and hops, as well as a bit of age in the bottle and hefty legs with the alcohol content weighing in at 13 percent. The Old Stock is best enjoyed like a fine port, sipped slowly after a long, enjoyable meal. Fitting then that it rounded out this occasion with an equally decadent and creamy English Stilton made exclusively for Whole Foods Market.

See below for the full menu and be sure to check out Whole Foods Market for both the cheese and the North Coast beers. If you’d like to experience a formal beer and cheese pairing, Haddington’s is looking to host them on a semi-monthly basis featuring different cheeses and both local and global beers. Look for the next one at the end of this month. But if you’d like to host your own home pairing, there are a few tips Strange suggests following.

Tips on Cheese

· Buy cheeses with the intent to eat them within 3-5 days. Cheese continues to age as it is exposed to air, which means it is best consumed as soon as possible.

· Buy only as much cheese as you need. Because you only have 3-5 days to eat it at its best, ask your grocer’s cheese department to cut cheese based on what you need.

· Before serving cheese, it should be brought to room temperature so it reveals the best flavor. (About 30 minutes before serving.)

· When enjoying a cheese plate, always start with the lighter (in taste, not necessarily color) cheeses first, the flavors get more complex as you go.

· Mold on cheese isn’t a bad thing. You shouldn’t be concerned if a good cheese develops some mold after a few days. You should be concerned about cheese that doesn’t mold. i.e. If that yellow block of processed cheddar sitting in your refrigerator for the past two weeks is still looking clean, you probably need to invest in better cheese.

· Don’t scrimp on cheese (or beer for that matter.) You’ll enjoy it more if you buy the good stuff, and so will your guests.

***

Haddington’s Cheese & Beer Pairing

North Coast Brewery & Whole Foods Global Cheese Buyer Cathy Strange

Scrimshaw Pilsner with Le Gruyere (Swiss Cow’s Milk)

Red Seal Pale Ale with Saracino (Italian Sheep’s Milk Gouda)

Pranqster Belgian Style Ale with Yodeling Goat (Holland Goat’s Milk)

La Merle Belgian Style Farmhouse Saison with Humboldt Fog (California Goat’s Milk)

Brother Thelonius Belgian Style Abbey Ale with Robusto (Holland Cow’s Milk Gouda)

Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout with Gjetost (Norway Mixed Goat and Cow)

Old Stock Ale with Stilton (England Cow’s Milk)

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Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

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