L.A. Beer Week Unintentionally Started a New Afternoon Tradition: Pairing Beer with Desserts.

By Laura Medina

LA Beer Week's Beer & Dessert Pairings at Bow & Truss.

This week only, Los Angeles' one and only craft beer brewery, Golden Road Brewing Company, is happily sponsoring this week's L.A. Beer Week and partnering up with North Hollywood's Spanish bistro, Bow & Truss, http://bowandtruss.com/ for an innovative, limited-edition Beer & Dessert Pairing, only at Bow & Truss, only this week.

The cuisine and concept...and this scribe will admit...and portion-controlled tapas sharing are female-friendly where diners have equal menu options of vegan and meat.

The large platters of each dish is meant to be shared but Bow & Truss wouldn't judge if you hop the whole plate because you love a certain dish so much.

Still, for get-togethers and a "Girls' Night Out," the concept of tapas-sharing isn't a bad idea at all.  It's figure-friendly as it is wallet-friendly.

The dishes themselves are flavorful as they are low-calories.

Dining on the tapas appetizers as the main entrees...to be passed around then shared...got rid of the guilt of feasting on the Beer & Dessert Pairing and leaves enough for the pairing.

Pan de Higo, left. Harissa Grilled Shrimp, middle. Scallops Tostones, right.

The "dinner" started with a breakfast-sque Pan de Higo, a rich, moist, and dense loaf of fig bread paired with blue cheese-like St. Agur Butter and fresh sliced figs with a pot of balsamic vinegar to drizzle all over.

The tapas dinner becomes progressive more "meatier" with the second appetizer course of the Harissa Grilled Shrimp, think of more it as a Moroccan BBQed Shrimp.  The bold spiciness out-weights the shrimps' low-calorie count.

The third and last tapas course was the sweet and crunchy Scallops Tostones.  Instead of traditional Spanish flavoring of European meets North African like the Harissa Grilled Shrimp, the Scallop Tostones incorporated New World mix of mangos and black bean drizzled over crunchy fried plantains chips.

This was enough protein to qualify as dinner yet left enough room for the goal of the dinner...the ultimate Beer & Dessert Pairing.

Golden Road Brewing Company kindly provided the five sampling-sized beers and Bow & Truss kindly conceived and baked dessert uniquely coordinating with the beers.

You mind, the five beers don't come in the usually huge guzzling mugs. 

Nope.

These beers come in figure-friendly sample-sized semi-shot glasses to accompany the equally dainty pastries.  The desserts are more tart than torte and the cherry brownie was truffle-sized than a chunk.

Yes, this girly scribe will admit this.  This singular "Beer & Dessert Pairing" gears more towards the taste of "Sex & the City" take on traditional but staid and boring afternoon tea of little liquid refreshments with petite pastries.  But considering "Sex & the City" is all about progressing stylishly on age-old traditions,  the dainty beer sampling just replace the pot of tea.

Bow & Truss with Golden Road Brewing Company unintentionally invited a new afternoon refreshment, afternoon beer and pastries.

Girls are people too.  They like beer like the next guy and they do relish a nice cool brew just like anyone, especially after a long week; and nope, beer and sweets isn't gross.

In fact, it can be quite refreshing.  Since people are now swimming in craft beers, from home and abroad, Americans are now just discovering "shandy" or beer cocktails to liven up their average brew.

The first beer & dessert pairing is the simplest and the most refreshing, pouring Raspberry Cilantro Syrup/puree in a shot glass of light and crisp Berliner Weiss.  This scribe kept sipping it through-out the whole dessert course.

The second dessert is the Pineapple Rosemary Cake to counter-point the bitter beers and vice versa.   

The third dessert is the Strawberry Tart, dainty slices of a strawberry delicately hatted on a dollop of creme fraiche on flaky cracker of butter crust.

The fourth dessert of Roasted Plum Tart nestled in a baby pie crust is a mouth popper, yum.

The fifth and final dessert, the simply chic Cherry Brownie is a sweet reward for a job well done and a week well-earned.

It'll be nice if Bow & Truss and Golden Road Brewing continue the new tradition of "afternoon beer" for those who needs sweet and quench sweltering under the Summer sun.

It'll be better if you hustle over to Bow & Truss and request this unique "Beer & Dessert Pairing."  Great for Happy Hour and a Girls' Night Out.

Bow & Truss is at 11122 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, CA and http://bowandtruss.com.

Hurry up and sip!