Thanksgiving without the stress
Rio Bravo Brewing hosting four-course ‘Friendsgiving’ dinner
Come one, come all, for a celebration of friendship during the Friendsgiving Beer Dinner.
The four-course dinner with beer pairings will be held on Thursday, Nov. 21, at Rio Bravo Brewing Co.
“Our whole slogan with it is it’s Friendsgiving, all the eating and drinking of Thanksgiving without a side of judgment,” said Jennifer Baker, marketing manager at Rio Bravo Brewing Co. “It’s a four-course dinner inspired by what you would be getting at your regular Thanksgiving but inspired by the flavors of Thanksgiving meals we’re used to.”
Beer pairings for the dinner are Cherry on Brett, which is a sour, barrel-aged cherry wheat and Grab ’Em By The Putin, a nitro stout that won a bronze medal at the 2017 Great British Beer Festival. Rio Bravo also will be rereleasing its Squirrel Nuts, a peanut butter hazelnut brown ale that will be part of the dinner. It’s fourth featured beer was recently tapped at the New Mexico Brewers Guild Beer Premiere held at the end of October. The beer named Tuna is a prickly pear, apple and carrot saison. The bright pink beer gets its name from the prickly pear’s fruit that is referred to as a tuna in some regions.
The first food course will be comprised of turkey and root vegetable gumbo served over a bed of white rice and garnished with fresh parsley. Next up is skewered and grilled chicken served with a green chile cornbread stuffing finished with a Satay sauce. The main course features a seared ribeye steak with a cherry sour bourbon sauce served with butternut squash risotto, grilled endive, asparagus and yellow squash. The dinner concludes with a pecan pumpkin pie.
“It will definitely be a spinoff on (Thanksgiving) but we figured we don’t want them to get too tired of Thanksgiving food before they have to go meet their families,” Baker said. “We also know that there are some people that don’t have a Thanksgiving to go to or they’re traveling through or they’re here on their own even if it’s just a student. That’s why we wanted to make sure it was affordable.”
The event is open to singles, groups of friends, couples and others.
“All the breweries are doing different beer pairing dinners but a lot of times they’re set up where you feel you have to go with a significant other or as date or a couple so what we wanted to do with this one is let people know that they can bring their friends that they don’t have to have an even number of people that it’s just a gathering. This is a fun gathering with beer and food.”