Samuel Adams beer company has partnered with 6 talented Toronto chefs to create dishes and artisan products inspired by their iconic Boston Lager. One of these chefs is Chef Craig Harding of Campagnolo, well loved by Toronto restaurant go-ers (and myself!) for his delicious pasta dishes and mouth watering appetizers. I sat down with 3 other bloggers for an intimate meal at Campagnolo to discover how The Boston Lager inspired Chef Harding in the kitchen.

Disclaimer: All food and drinks reviewed below were provided complimentary by Samuel Adams Beer. All opinions expressed below are wholly mine. Photography by Jeffrey Chan courtesy of Samuel Adams

When I think about beer and food, one of the first things that come to mind is BBQ. So I was excited to learn that our main entree was a Smoked Brisket, brined for two days, brushed with sauce, cooked sous vide overnight in Samuel Adams beer, and then smoked for 4 hours. My mouth watered as Chef Harding described the dish and the aroma of brisket wafted up towards me. Each slice had the perfect pink smoke ring and a beautifully rendered fat cap. Fat is flavour. I also loved the deep, earthy flavours from the beer that soaked into the brisket.

What I liked about the Boston Lager, was that while each sip was refreshing and crisp, it was also a touch sweet, complex and complimented the savoury, smokey BBQ. With humble beginnings in Jim Koch’s kitchen, Boston Lager debuted in 1985 and today, each bottle is still made with the original recipe. This was the beer that started America’s obsession with craft beer, one I’m happily on board with.

Underneath all that brisket was another beer inspired dish, house made sauerkraut with chicken stock, mustard and Boston Lager. With this dish, you could taste a hint of the beer in the tanginess. After each bite, I automatically reached for a sip of Boston Lager, whose sweetness paired well with the acidity

In addition to the brisket, I also got to try my beer with three delicious appetizers, steak tartare, octopus carpaccio and fresh burrata cheese with roasted grapes. When paired with the the carpaccio, another tangy dish, the sweet, caramel flavours of the Boston Lager really jumped out. Meanwhile, paired with the steak tartare, a richer, savoury dish, I tasted more hops and earthiness. Paired with the burrata, a mild soft cheese, and grapes, the Boston Lager’s light, bitter undertones balanced the sweetness. Basically after every bite, I was reaching for my beer and was quickly ready for a refill. The Boston Lager proved to be versatile and truly #TheGoToBeer.

Chef Harding’s special Samuel Adams inspired Smoked Brisket and Sauerkraut will be available at Campagnolo only for the month of April.

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Chekplate. All opinions expressed below are wholly mine and not indicative of the opinions or positions held by Chekplate.

The Basics:
Chekplate is a mobile app, currently available only for iPhones, launched in September 2013 that aims to provide users with restaurant reviews from their social network. Users can add friends, write quick reviews and search for restaurants nearby and read existing reviews.

• The app is responsive and quick to load with a clean user interface and easy to read icons, it’s not crowded
• Searching for “Nearby” restaurants provides a list of results within seconds
• There’s a section on each restaurant page for “Deals”, this has great potential
• Simple rating system out of 5 for Food, Service and Price
• As wordy as I can be, I’m a big fan of concise information. I like that the rating is broken out into three factors with a straight forward approach.
• Being able to flip back and forth between list and map view in the restaurant search results

• There are still bugs, right now there’s no way to delete a review so if you accidently click submit twice (which I did), both reviews show up. The developers are working on a way to prevent duplicate reviews.
• This feature is to prevent restaurants from enticing users to remove poor reviews, a great move to maintain the integrity of the app
• Better integration with Facebook and Twitter
• The framework to integrate is built into the “Settings” section of the app, but toggling the “On/Off” didn’t do anything
• More data, like any new app that relies on user input, Chekplate’s restaurant database is just starting to be built up. Right now, there’s a great baseline of restaurants but there’s a lot missing. As a user, It is easy to add a new restaurant if you’re at the location. If you’re not though, you need the exact address, which can be a bit more effort than users are willing to put in for a mobile only app.

TL;DR: With an increase in usership, Chekplate has the potential to provide users with restaurant recommendations on the fly by being a well-thought out and responsive app.