The brewery actually has a huge restaurant and bar with one glass wall providing a peak of the gigantic steel brewers. The outside though is undoubtedly the best part. Set up on a hill among a cozy garden and surrounded by what else but all natural stone there is another bar and several bistro style tables set up next to a koi fish pond. The nightly sky, dim lightning create the most romantic yet natural embiance, making even the rowdy bar crowd a mere background noise.
We found two seats at an encircled stone table topped with a fire pit, and ordered a beer flight and a few appetizers. Mau and I are both suckers for soup so we were eager to try their Garlic Cheddar & Stone Ruination IPA and we also got the Spicy Curried Mussels. The soup was bitter as the menu promised but also tasty, the mussels however blew us both away. They were sweet and tangy prepared with thai curry sauce, coconut milk and Thai chilies, which the waiter warned us to avoid. (Mau ate all of them without flinching)
On the car ride home we both decided the Thai mussels were the best mussels we ever had. I was determined to re-create them and started to google for recipes, but I have not dared to re-create them just yet.
First baby step was this amazing Brazilian Fish Stew from a recipe my mom emailed last week. It also used coconut milk and immediately reminded me of our romantic beer garden experience. I made the dish tonight. The recipe which is posted here, was remarkably simple, it took approximately 45 minutes to prepare and it's just delicious. The chunks of swordfish simply fall apart and the broth is just begging for a bread dip!
