{"id":606,"date":"2011-03-14T09:49:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T16:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=606"},"modified":"2012-05-09T13:43:56","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T20:43:56","slug":"classy-collegiate-cuisine-la-gran-terraza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2011\/03\/14\/classy-collegiate-cuisine-la-gran-terraza\/","title":{"rendered":"Classy Collegiate Cuisine @ La Gran Terraza"},"content":{"rendered":"

I attended La Gran Ter<\/a>raza’s<\/a> recent beer pairing dinner with AleSmith<\/a> last Friday, March 11th. This budding craft beer venue sits in the middle<\/a> of the USD campus, just up the road from Home Brew Mart<\/a> in Linda Vista. While the clientele is primarily students and faculty, the doors are open to all (even heathens).<\/p>\n

The meal began with Peter Zien giving a short introduction of the history of AleSmith Brewing Company. As the\u00a0muted blues of a sunset over Tecolote Canyon decorated the windows, the first of four courses arrived: Asian pear salad w\/ baby greens and citrus vanilla vinaigrette paired with AleSmith’s X. The crisp carbonation and smooth hoppiness went well with the citrus.<\/p>\n

The 2nd course was fried calamari with cornmeal dusting and spicy romesco ailoi. The ailoi carried a bit of heat, and the more aggressively hopped IPA united the flavors of the calamari nicely.<\/p>\n

3rd Course: espresso rubbed beef tenderloin with parsnip puree and braised carrots. For this pairing, the\u00a0formidable\u00a0Speedway Stout made an appearance (in my humble opinion, the finest of AleSmith beers). The meat, expertly and delicately cooked, nearly dissolved in my mouth. The subtle espresso rub worked well with Speedway. The chef, Anthony, used Ryan Brothers<\/a> espresso for the rub (the same coffee found in Speedway Stout).<\/p>\n

The final course was the best of the lot: Saint-Domingue chocolate mochaccino with prune Armagnac ice cream. The chocolate creation was light while being rich, and it neighbored a small heap of boozy and fruity ‘cream. This pairing brought out fruit flavors in AleSmith’s Grand Cru I’d never tasted before.<\/p>\n

Things weren’t perfect. The Grand Dining room was double booked, and the poor\u00a0collegiate\u00a0wait-staff was overwhelmed with two different events (they performed admirably, however). Also, if you’re looking to fill your belly, look elsewhere. The focus was on the flavors, not the portions.<\/p>\n

Bonus points for pairing Speedway Stout with the main meat dish rather than desert.<\/p>\n

Conclusion? At La Gran Terraza, you’ll\u00a0receive high end cuisine\u00a0thoughtfully paired with San Diego Craft Beer for around $30 in an elegant dining environment.<\/p>\n

Keep an eye on our calendar <\/a>for the next event, or check out their website.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I attended La Gran Terraza’s recent beer pairing dinner with AleSmith last Friday, March 11th. This budding craft beer venue sits in the middle of the USD campus, just up the road from Home Brew Mart in Linda Vista. While the clientele is primarily students and faculty, the doors are open to all (even heathens). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[581,304,38],"class_list":{"0":"post-606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","7":"tag-alesmith-brewing-company","8":"tag-la-gran-terraza","9":"tag-peter-zien","10":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-9M","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}