If my cheapo guide to SF Beer Week was of no use to you — ie, you are too classy to sneak your own food into beer festivals — rest assured that SFBW also knows how to do it up high-end, especially when food is involved. For those accustomed to nice restaurants, these events might not even seem pricy. Check it out and treat yo’self.
The opening celebration
It’s up to $75 now (plus $5.12 service charge) but the opening party of SF Beer Week is pretty damn awesome. I’ve gotten a media pass for the last few years, so this is one of the few $30+ events of SFBW I can personally vouch for. And vouch I do. It’s got 78 breweries in attendance and it’s often the first place to taste the one-off beers brewers whipped up for the week. If you know a lot of “beer people,” most of them will be there. Tickets will not be sold at the door and are running low, so if you’re going to do it stop waffling. (details and tickets)
Beer dinners
Your phone is probably worth more than my car and I have not actually eaten at any of the restaurants I’m about to mention. However, I’ve heard great things from people whose palates I trust.
St. Vincent is throwing two beer dinners with a neat concept: matching one veteran brewery with one founded last year. One dinner features local breweries Marin and Henhouse, and the other spotlights Craftsman and Sante Adairius — four breweries I love. If eating at St. Vincent is as lovely as drinking at their bar, these are worth investigating. (Craftsman/Sante Adairius details and menu, Marin/Henhouse details and menu)
Bar Tartine and Linden Street Brewery have been doing great things together for some time, like brewing beer with sourdough bread yeast. They’ve got another partnership coming up for SFBW 2013, a beer dinner that looks pretty sweet and includes two new Linden Street beers. Two words: fried cheese. Okay, two more: beef tongue. (details and tickets)
On January 1, I happened to see a bunch of people who’d spent New Years Eve at a beer pairing dinner at Hops and Hominy. They were very, very happy with it. And very hungover. Hops and Hominy is having several dinners for beer week that should be equally fun: one with Ale Industries, one with Pacific Brewing Laboratory, and one with Stone. (details)
I’ve been hearing a lot of delicious-sounding buzz about The Abbot’s Cellar. I’ve also heard it will make all the money fall out of your wallet, and its SFBW events are no different. But if you’ve got $125 for dinner and drinks, there are a helluva a lot of worse places to spend it than chillin’ at a beer dinner with brewmasters from Firestone Walker, FiftyFifty, Boulevard, Sam Adams, Alaskan, or Alesmith. Also, can I borrow twenty bucks? (details)
Finally, I live in Bezerkeley so I am required by law to mention that Chez Panisse is busting out special menus for beer week. Did you know Chez Panisse was one of the first nice restaurants to embrace craft beer by carrying Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the early 80s? Now you know. (details)
