Belgian Independence Day!

Since I'm gainfully employed again, I have less time to blog. I'm trying my best!

On Tuesday, Ben and I headed to Brasserie Beck to celebrate Belgian Independence Day. For $75, you could drink as many beers and eat as much food (buffet provided) as you wanted.

We were able to have:
St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition
St. Feuillien Saison
Fantome Printemps
Lindemans Cuvee Rene
Antigoon
Troubadour Obscura Stout
Trappiste Rochefort 10
Chimay Grand Reserve
De Glazen Tore Cuvee Angelique
Corsendonk Agnus Dei
Saison Voisin
Hanssens Oud Gueuze
Blanche de Bruxelles
Malheur 10
Floreffe Tripel
Gouden Carolus Grand Cru of the Emperor (2000 Vintage)

Our favorite was definitely the Gouden Carolus, which we made sure to have several tastes of... to make sure it was still good, of course! Apparently this beer retails for about $60 a bottle, so it was great to be able to try it in this circumstance. We recognized a few other "beer geeks" at the event, but overall the crowd didn't seem to be familiar with beer. There were lots of people drinking Hoegaarden, and there's nothing wrong with that, I love a good Hoegaarden every now and then, but you could tell they were not so much a beer crowd. Everyone seemed happy and pleasant, so it had a good vibe. Plus, the plus side of a lack-of-knowledge-about-beer crowd is we never had to wait in line- even for the Gouden Carolus.

Foodwise, there was roast pork loin, green beans, potato gratin (my favorite), bbq pork sandwiches, little sausages and rolls, potato salad and ribs. There were also a few bowls of frites around, but we couldn't figure out how to get any. The dessert table held about 3 different kinds of tarts- my favorite was the lemon. Overall the food was good- the pork loin was hard to eat since there were very few tables, and the silverware was plastic.

Which brings me to the "not so great" parts of the evening.

#1 Poorly organized. When we arrived, we were given bracelets, with no indication of what to do next. For some reason, the hostess decided to tell the people who arrived a few minutes after us what to do, so we followed their lead. It would have been helpful for her to tell us, instead of just having us stand their awkwardly in the entrance.

#2 Not very helpful staff. I would like to preface this by saying that overall the men and women wearing blue (servers) were much more helpful than the men wearing suits (the exception being the beer guru, Thor who was gracious and helpful). We asked a man in a suit why the bartender wouldn't give us any Cuvee Rene. He went to find out... and never came back. Speaking of the bartenders in the front bar, if you had a bracelet, they pretty much waited on everyone else before you. I'm glad we paid $75 each to wait 10 minutes while you served everyone else.

#3 Not enough tables/chairs. My feet started to hurt after we'd been there for an hour and a half or so. There were no chairs to be found. We happened to be standing next to a door which led to the chair room. One of the aforementioned not very helpful "men in suits" walked by, and we asked if we could have a couple chairs. He said they were "working on it." Dude, just give us some chairs and we'll find a space out of the way. Luckily someone eventually stood up and we stole their chairs.

#4 Lack of frites. I'm sorry but frites are way cheaper to serve than roast loin of pork. Why did I have to ask for frites (and then they were not given to me)? Why wasn't there a large pile of frites somewhere for us to just grab? I feel like this is just common sense.

Overall, the beer was good, the food was good, but last year's Belgian Independence Day (half price on all draft beers) was superior.