Though craft beer has been gaining popularity across the country for years, it’s not quite common in the Fort Wayne market. It can be found in a handful of bars and restaurants, and now, there’s another place to supply diners and drinkers with a larger variety than Bud or Miller: BakerStreet will officially unveil its craft beer menu Monday.
“We felt that with the quality of food in the dining experience that we strive to bring to the guest, that it only made sense for that to be complemented by an excellent, well-crafted, quality craft beer,” says Bartholomew Fish, marketing manager for BakerStreet. “And it’s been a challenge in some ways because although craft beers have definitely seen a surge in popularity, even in Fort Wayne, there’s still a great many people, even including our staff, that don’t know a whole lot about beer outside of the typical Bud Light, Corona and that sort.”
What differentiates craft beer from any other type of beer is its exclusivity. The idea is quality over quantity, Fish says, so any beer that identifies as “craft” cannot produce more than 6 million barrels.
The menu features 17 beers, and the higher-end brews are the three Trappist ales, which some consider to be the finest beers in the world, Fish says. The beer is brewed by monks in one of seven monasteries in the world.
Also new to BakerStreet? A gluten-free menu, which is separate from the traditional menu, offering people with celiac disease or other gluten intolerances more than a single option or two.
The two-page menu offers every category the regular menu does: appetizers, salads, seafood, chicken, side dishes, vegetarian options and more. There’s even a gluten-free option on the craft beer list, Green’s Endeavour.
German buffet
Typically, if you want to get your fill of schnitzel and German potato salad, you need to wait until Germanfest rolls around in the summertime, as German fare in northeast Indiana is not exactly easy to find.
Or, you can just hit up the German buffet Thursday at Ivy Tech Community College. The Special Cuisines class is putting together the buffet, which will feature 16 German favorites, including the timely-to-make sauerbraten (Alton Brown’s recipe on Food Network takes 76 hours and 50 minutes – three days of the prep time is marinating the meat) and späetzle, a German dumpling.
The buffet is $20 a person by check or cash, and reservations need to be made by the end of today. Call 480-2002.
New restaurants
•When I was a teenager with nothing better to do than wile away a Saturday afternoon at the mall, part of the trip always included a platter full of bourbon chicken from my favorite food court restaurant at the mall where I grew up in a Cincinnati suburb.
Today, I eat in a mall food court maybe two or three times a year, and maybe it’s time to venture outside the comfort zone. A new choice opened up at Glenbrook Square last month. West Coast Grill is between Bourbon St. Grill and Burger King in the former Planet Pita. West Coast’s menu includes burritos, burrito bowls and hibachi grills.
•Hibachi Sushi Buffet has been open for about a month in Auburn, says Bernard Hicks, with the DeKalb County Board of Health. The restaurant is primarily a buffet with a small section devoted to making fresh sushi.
