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Beer Dinner at Osteria La Spiga
On Tuesday night, I went to an Italian beer and food tasting at Capitol Hill's Osteria La Spiga, hosted by co-owners Sabrina Tinsley and Pietro Borghesi. While I've heard about a craft beer renaissance in Italy, my Italian beer knowledge has been limited to the drinkable but bland Peroni and Moretti. Looking at La Spiga's beer choices, I'd only heard of one out of twelve.
At the tasting, we got to sample five of the beers from the menu paired with different food courses. In addition to a full stomach from all the tasty food, I walked away from the event a bit wiser about Italian craft beer. If the beers we tasted are any indication, Italy is looking primarily to Belgium for its brewing inspiration. Here's a brief rundown of each course:
- Four Italian cheeses (Taleggio, Goat, Ricotta Salata & Ash-aged Cow's Milk Truffle) were served with the Super Baladin, a Belgian-style strong ale.
- Fried vegetables were served with Tè, a lighter beer brewed with pilsner malt and shui hsien green tea leaves.
- Sausages with peppers & onions were served with Bran, a Belgian-style strong dark ale brewed with twelve different malts.
- Herb-crusted rack of lamb was served with Bran Reserva, a Barbera wine barrel-aged version of Bran.
- Ricotta cheesecake was served with Scires, a sour beer brewed with sweet black cherries.
My favorite beer of the night was Tè since it was what I most wanted to drink in this warm weather. Light and refreshing, you could taste the pilsner malt and the green tea and, though they were a strange combination, the flavors worked. The best pairing of the evening was the cheesecake and Scires. On its own, the sour cherry beer was a shock, but with the cheesecake, I appreciated the flavor contrast. Even someone new to food and beer pairing would tell that this one was a success.
The other three beers were very rich and strong. They were worth tasting, but a little bit went a long way. I can't speak of the pairings of the two meat courses since I'm a pescetarian. Fortunately, chef Tinsley prepared two vegetarian pasta dishes (linguine pomodoro and asparagus ravioli) on the fly, which were both delicious and valuable in maintaining a decent level of sobriety.
I commend the owners of La Spiga for adding craft beers to the menu at an upscale Italian restaurant, a place that's typically very wine-centric. The beer prices range from $18 for smaller 330 ml bottles (such as Tè) to $35-45 for 750 ml bottles of stronger beers (such as Bran). That's a little rich for many beer enthusiasts, but some of these beers aren't even available elsewhere in Seattle. Also, in comparison with some of the ridiculously high prices you might pay for a good bottle of wine, the beers are a unique bargain.
