Beer!
Shortly before 11:30AM, we headed to Le Cellier to check in for our 2nd F&W Special Event - Adventures in Signature Dining.
There was a large crowd in the lobby but we shortly made our way to the desk, gave our names & handed a champagne flute of a beer along with a passed appetizer.
While we enjoyed our beer, I was sadden to see one party checking in with a baby. This is one of the higher tier events of the festival & am shocked someone would have the audacity to do that. The baby did scream for a bit but luckily once everyone was seated (and making sure we were sat far away from said kid) I didn't hear it.
Once lead to the main dining room, there weren't assigned seats. My husband and I went towards an 8 top towards the kitchen.
Place Setting
Menu
This is when we discovered this was actually a beer event instead of the wine the Signature Adventures in Dining usually are. My husband was thrilled as he had wanted to do something with Beer again but the beer events didn't fit in our schedules. I'll try anything once. There were 3 ladies at my table that wouldn't drink beer but the manager was more than happy to give them wine pairings for their meals if they passed on drinking the beer.
They had the beer sommelier begin talking about the brand and the history of beer and how beer pairings are way older than wine pairings since beer has been around for a long time and used to be people's drink of choice with their bread. It was also discussed how his beers & belgium beers in general aren't filtered which gives them more depth to their flavor.
They brought out the initial beer & first course.
The beer had a hint of cherry in it. If you remember back in my Wave review, I'm really picky about scallops. Lucky for me, this scallop was perfectly cooked with spices that worked with the beer on the outside. Even my husband enjoyed his & he is more picky than me when it comes to scallops.
Our next course was pork belly with grits paired with the beer. These weren't your every day grits but ones with tons of flavor and texture. The pork belly was rich and cooked just enough to be fork tender.
Our main course was with the devil's brew and wagyu beef short ribs.
The beef was slow cooked with the beer and fell apart in your mouth as they should. In the back was more of the meat that was braised for a long time that melted like butter in your mouth. Lucky for me, one of the ladies that didn't drink beer was accidentally served a glass of the beer for this course & I was able to take her glass once I finished mine.
They brought out some of the bottles of the beers we had that weren't from a keg including the beer was were given in the flute at check in.
Beginning Beer
Entree Beer
Dessert Beer
Talking about beer some more & the pictures they use
Dessert was a play on adult Milk & Cookies
That macaron was one of the best I've had. The beer float was um a little flat. In fact the pretzel ice cream was the only thing in this entire meal I didn't love. It had been frozen in nitrogen and took a while to be edible but it also was extremely salty. When melted into the beer, it tasted fine.
We were given the beer glass that our last beer was in along with the maple leaf napkin ring our menu was placed in & shown those helping with the event.
Main Chef
His Staff
Lovely servers
The event was a great success & well worth the $90. I also loved how the restaurant was 100% focused on this meal as the other half of the restaurant wasn't open to the public so this event was the only thing going on. I also now have found 5 more beers I would easily pick to drink when given the option.
We headed to the front where I picked up my pink Drink Around the World shirt & my husband some vinylmations & we got to deal with the fun nightmare the resort line monorail being down is causing.
They don't have a direct bus from EPCOT to the MK resorts. You are forced to take the regular EPCOT monorail to the TTC.
Then wait on a bus at the TTC to take you around to the resorts. It took almost an hour and 45 minutes to get back. On Thursday & Friday, we may just drive to the parks to not have to deal with that as we also had trouble later on Tuesday as well.
The rest of the afternoon before our next event was spent being lazy in the room. I had wanted to cut my hair off that I've been growing out for 2 years as its getting too long now but the salon at the Contemporary is no more. I think I'll make an appointment for when I get home.