The summer beer festival season is right around the corner. the Manayunk Beer Fest used to be the event that kicked off the season….it’s coming up by the way, but now I can say without a doubt that it’s the Brewer’s Plate that signals the spring. This event combines two of my favorite things into one: Eating and drinking. Did I mention the eating?  Let’s start with the important stuff. The Brewer’s Plate is an event that features fresh local beer paired with fresh local food. It is a fundraiser for both Fair Food and Buy Fresh, Buy local. It features some of the very best brewers and restaurants in the area showcasing Cuisine a la beer. Now, that’s kind of right up or alley, nice.

After we set up our booth I made ’the rounds’ with my friend Jen Hatton. We started right out of the gate with a total winner: Varga mac and cheese with bacon. Now i’m a self professed Meat-a-tarian so this stuff appeals to me in may ways. 1) it’s mac with cheese. Real cheese not yellow powder. 2) piles of bacon make this taste like heaven and it’s so good that even a couple of cow lovers I know were sneaking platefulls of it while fully aware if the porky component. Good work gang. I’m loving Varga’s selection of local and craft beer too!  The rest of the day was a blurr of great beer and great food including more chocolate than you can shake a stick at (although notably no Eclat this year….Hmmmm I’ll have to ask my friend Chris about that), a brisket sandwich I’m still dreaming about, gelato, oysters, tons of local cheese from the Pennsylvania Cheese Mafia,  and of course, our pairings which were Braised Lamb Shoulder Shephard’s pie with FE10 and Humbolt Fog  ripened goat’s milk cheese from Cypress Grove with Saision. MMMMM.