Nancy Charbonneau, Manager of the Cancer Connection Thrift Store and her fiancee, Mike Case (who happens to be my brother) enjoy a cheese plate at The Foundry in Northampton, MA
From what I can tell, a “beer & cheese walk” is a sedate version of a “beer & cheese crawl.” You walk around town from one participating pub to another, where they have prepared small plates of cheese and accompaniments paired with craft beers. Sometimes you pay for a ticket to travel from bar to bar, but, at the one we attended last weekend, each place had it’s own menu and pricing.
Hilltown Blue from Grace Hill Farm served with pickled fiddleheads, blood orange marmalade and crostini at The Sierra Grille. It was paired with The I.P.A. from Building 8 Brewing in Baystate Village, MA. Price- $9 including 4oz beer
The recent Northampton Beer & Cheese Walk was given a surname- “Fromage A Trois,” which according to their Facebook page is “an arrangement in which local beer, regional cheese and house prepared provisions having romantic gustatory relations with each other occupy a same shared delicious downtown landscape. It is a form of ‘omnigourmand’.” (I don’t know for sure what that is, but it translates from French to “greedy omni (omniscient or omni-competent).” I think that means it’s for foodies who know all about beer, cheese, and little sides.
The Foundry in downtown Northampton, MA at left
This all sounds a little pretentious, but I can assure you, it’s not. It’s great fun in at least 3 ways:
- It’s a chance to enjoy the bar experience even if you don’t drink (or used to drink and surrendered your privileges),
- It’s an opportunity to hang out in a pub you, perhaps, normally can’t afford,
- It’s a great excuse to talk about cheese and/or beer and sound like you know something.
Scene at The Foundry
The one we attended this weekend took place from 3-5pm on a Sunday afternoon in Northampton, MA. There were 4 participating bars and each one was packed with rowdy crowds (although it was hard to tell how much of the rowdiness was from the cheese or the beer, but I suppose we can guess!). Who knew that so many people would want to drink beer and eat cheese on a sunny Sunday afternoon?!
Eating cheese at the bar of the Sierra Grille
There were 4 restaurants participating- The Foundry, Northampton Brewery, The Sierra Grille & The Dirty Truth.
The impressive line-up of beer taps at The Dirty Truth
Three out of four of the pubs featured one cheese with one beer, but The Dirty Truth offered a wide selection of local cheeses:
It was a fun way to spend 2 hours in what happens to be one of the best college towns in the world (in my opinion) – the home of Smith College. But, it would be fun in any area where the people like craft beer and artisan cheese. We have Beer & Cheese Crawls and Beer & Cheese Walks- how about a Beer & Cheese Run where teams compete to see who can hit the most bars in one hour where they drink 4oz beers and eat 2 ounces of cheese at each one? OK, well, I’ll keep working on that one …
