On April Fool’s Day we went with friends Jeff and Deena to a beer and pub food tasting at Cerulean. It was a sunny warm day, a perfect day to sit with friends along the canal in Winona Lake, watch the sun go down, and enjoy some great beer and food.
There were about 30 people there, and we were the oldest by at least 20 years. The young and hip were tweeting it all during meal. Ol’ grandpa is doing it old school, blogging it 3 days later.
They started us off with a beer made by a local homebrewer (that had to break all sorts of Indiana’s ridiculous liquor laws) and then an aperitif beer. See the beer list if you’re interested in the details of each beer.
Having had a homebrew amuse-bouche and then the Hennepin aperitif, I was definitely ready for some food. First up on the food was Cerulean’s take on fish and chips; skate, breaded and fried, with blue potato chips. The enormous portion was light and tasty.
Next up was roast chicken, basted with honey and saffron to go with the Midas Touch. It was splendid and the touch of sweetness from the honey went nicely with the beer. If half a chicken wasn’t enough, there was a ramekin of incredibly rich macaroni and cheese for a side dish.
The next beer was a stout and they served that with two small hamburgers. One was a traditional pork and beef burger on a grilled bun with tomatoes and ketchup-like sauce (I forget exactly what it was, we were deep into the beer at this point.) The other burger was on grilled sandwich bread and was topped with a hard-fried egg and crispy onion rings. It had a pesto sauce on the side.
The meal rolled inexorably on to dessert. The beer(s) were Framboise and Double Chocolate Stout. You mixed it them together to get the blend of raspberry and chocolate that you liked. The dessert was a chocolate banana cake.
We’ve been to Cerulean several times for meals and have always been impressed. This was our first time for a tasting and it didn’t disappoint.
Click below to see the beer list:
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