The Art of Pairing Evening – Bertucci’s and Samuel Adams – Event Review

September 27, 2012

Last night I got stuffed. Not as in taxidermy, but I made my first visit ever to the Samuel Adams Brewery in Jamaica Plain, MA and I found myself gobbling pizza and guzzling beer. While that might just seem like what I do on a regular basis, this night was a bit different. As a collaborative effort, Bertucci’s executive chef Jeff Tenner and Samuel Adams’ brewmaster Bob Cannon put their heads together and came up with a bunch of cool food and beer pairings. Here’s Tenner talking about how pizza and beer belong together…

While I’m not the most adventurous beer drinker, the pairings were done to bring out the high notes of both the beverages and the pizzas. And while Bob and Jeff came up with the possibilities, the final selections served last night were the choice of a ‘flavor panel’. By the way, all the pizzas were new creations which I think will now be part of Bertucci’s menu beginning October 1, 2012.

Here’s how the selections were served up…

Roasted Mushroom & Asiago Pizza was paired with Sam Adams Cream Stout

Spicy Salami Pizza was paired with Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA

Butternut Squash & Blue Cheese Pizza was paired with Sam Adams Irish Red

Potato & Bacon Pizza was paired with Sam Adams Boston Ale

There was also some plain pizza on hand that paired very nicely with Sam Adams Boston Lager

So, what was my take? I’m a huge fan of blue cheese, and the Irish Red was perfect for the strong and sweet tastes in the pizza. With candied walnuts on top, the pizza was a fraction too sweet for me (yes, believe it), but it was my second favorite of the night. My first was the Mushroom & Asiago. LOVE THAT PIE!

And coming up third was the Spicy Salami with hot cherry tomatoes. Loved the heat from that pizza and it worked perfectly with the Latitude 48.

The Potato & Bacon didn’t sway me, but maybe it’s because all of the other tastes were so off-the-charts in personality and taste that bacon and potato was almost a ‘safe’ choice in a sea of adventurous pizzas.

Looking at the event, it was jammed. Invitations were served up to folks in JP and beyond and folks on hand had fun posing with Sam Adams and just networking and chowing on the food.

I know I had a great time and I’ll be keeping my calendar open for future events at the brewery – and especially for those that might involve both pizza and beer. Were you there? What were your thoughts?

Here are a few more photos from the evening…