The O-town Scene

Continued from Page 12 Like any respectable Belgian eatery, Ommegang's cafe serves a full variety of crepes. For the main event, diners can enjoy duck confit, ham and cheese, smoked trout or tomato and basil stuffings. In a nod to every child's favorite food, there is a pizza crepe — with Gouda, roasted tomatoes, and a choice of ham, mushrooms or peppers and onions. The cafe even serves an upscale pig-in-a-blanket crepe filled with bratwurst, peppers, onions and a Dijon cream sauce. To satisfy a sweet tooth, the cafe also serves a luscious vari- ety of crepes with sweet fillings, such as local jam with fresh whipped cream, a twin mousse crepe with hazelnut/chocolate and peanut butter mousses, as well as crepes with fresh berries or homemade maple butter. The Pick Me Up has coffee/carda- mom ice cream, espresso, fresh whipped cream and Slickepott fudge sauce. Local cheese and Duvel beer combine for a custom spin on fondue: Fonduvel, which comes with sliced apples, bratwurst and bread for dipping. And then there are the frites, served in paper cones supported by spiral wire holders with a choice of two sauces. Frites are serious business in Belgium, which claims to have invented the delicacy that some would call french fries. In Belgium — and in Ommegang's cafe — chefs select specific breeds of potatoes that have just the right sugar content, then fry them in a double-dipping technique that gives them their unique, lighter-than-air consistency. As in Belgium, Ommegang's frites come with dipping sauces, including garlic aioli, truffle-soy aioli, spicy chili aioli, remou- lade, Dukkan yogurt dip, Abbey Ale and cumin ketchup, mustard with Witte Ale and honey and (say this 10 times fast) chipotle aioli. Of course, everything on the menu pairs nicely with Omme- gang's selection of Belgian-style ales, which are incorporated into many of the dishes on the menu. Contributed Chef Tommy Harder of New York City's Blind Tiger prepares his dish at Omme- gang's Mussle Tussle at the brewery's Belgium Comes to Cooperstown event July 30. Harder's winning mussle dish will soon be on Ommegang Cafe's menu. Bennett notes that all the alcohol cooks away during the cooking process, so that even the youngest diner can enjoy the cafe's offerings. In addition to the on-site cafe, Ommegang has launched a national campaign to raise awareness of pairing food and beer called Great Beer Deserves Great Food. The brewery is chronicling food and beverage events around the country and has launched the website www.greatbeerdeservesgreat- food.com, which features pairing suggestions, recipes and interviews with top chefs. Over the past decade or so, consumer understand- ing of the complexity of craft beers has exploded, said Morgan Micucci, Ommegang's publicity coordinator. Today, people are looking beyond the wine list for the Cafe Ommegang 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily 656 County Highway 33 Cooperstown www.ommegang.com right drink to go with their meals. One of the most surprising and delightful pairings she has experienced personally came from chef Teddy Folkman of Washington D.C.'s renowned Granville Moore's Gastropub, which is famous for its farm-to- table approach and superb beer and food pairings. Folkman is working with the Great Beer Deserves Great Food campaign to encourage chefs and din- ers across the country to look more deeply at the beer lists and understand how beers and foods work together. "He served a bleu cheese sirloin tartare on a tortilla chip with Ommegang Belgian Pale Ale," she recalled. "It is the best thing I've ever tasted." Bennett points out that, although many of the most upscale restaurants around the U.S. are cultivating more interesting beer lists, food doesn't have to be elaborate to deserve a good beer pairing. "It doesn't have to be fancy food," Bennett said. "It just has to be good food." And don't be intimidated to try new things, Micucci offered. "Beer and food pairing is a lot like wine and food pairing," she said. "When you have high quality food and beer, there's not a lot that's actually wrong." — Elizabeth Trever Buchinger Aug. 18, 2011 O-Town Scene 13

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