Anthony's Fine Food & Wine

Anthony's is fantastic! We were putting together a charcuterie and cheese board for dinner with friends, and lo and behold Anthony himself was behind the counter helping us through his wonderfully curated options. He warmly talked us through tasting several options, listened to our particular needs carefully and helped us narrow down our selection (which is difficult, considering all the goodies they have.) My favorite was the Duck Proscuttio, my wife's the jamon serrano. Both essentially meat candy. We selected a couple cheeses as well, and Anthony artfully arranged it with additional strawberries, quince paste, nuts, and more. What a deal and what a delightful, personal experience. We're hooked.

We love Anthony's. It is a perfect place to relax with friends. The food is delicious with high quality ingredients. They offer a great wine selection, and the ambiance is charming and upscale. The tapas are perfectly portioned so that you can try a variety of foods from the menu. It is our favorite restaurant in this area.

Didn't make it to the brewery in Buellton nor in Santa Barbara, but what was cool is that Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co. came to us at Anthony Fine Foods in La Canada in the foothills of the San Gabriels about 15 miles notheast of downtown Los Angeles.  Anthony's is a general store of all things comestible where you can buy a good selection of Californian & European wines as well as gourmet canned and bottled items with a cold case of wonderful cheeses and charcuterie.  

Jaime & his wife of FMBC were gracious in coming to let us sample 4 of their brews, and Anthony's supplied the food to pair with the beers so that there was an elegant afternoon of "association de bieres et mets".  I don't think that I would be as privileged to have this type of tastiing any old day of the week at the brewery in Buellton.  

1)  First in the line up of beers was Paradise Road Pilsner ABV 5.5%  IBU 23.   Paradise Road Pilsner was served quite chilled in a champagne flute.  The bouquet was delicate with a touch of hoppy freshness.  The flavour profile was lightly sweet, with hints of Mead implying honey and to me a touch of chamomile.  The finish left a clean sensation.  Great sipping beer on a hot summer day.

The Paradise Road was paired with Boucheron, a creamy, soft, rich chevre (goat) topped with a Kumquat Habanero Preserve & Lemon Basil.  Often, the beer becomes a mere palate cleanser, but the Paradise intensified the goaty flavour of the chevre before any palate cleansing was done.

2)  Danish Red Lager ABV 6%  IBU 26.  The aroma was toasty, burnt sugar.  The flavours were light, sweet caramel, touch of dark chocolate, with a bread-like yeasty maltiness, & starchy fullness.  Finish was a feeling of having just eaten a pumpernickel bread sweetened with light honey.  

Danish Red Lager and Euphoria Sheep Milk Gouda drizzled with local honey was a good pairing.  The almost Parmigiana Reggiana mellow, aged, dairy rich flavour and the mellow dark, yeasty bready flavours complemented each other.

3)  Davy Brown Ale ABV 8%  IBU 82.   Hints of sweet brown sugar, slight coffee & chocolate that was slightly funky and had green, light, bitter herbal notes from the hops.  Finish has a mellow, rounded mouth feel.

Macaroni & Cheese (Thank god, not Kraft American!) made from Fiscalini Aged Cheddar and Brown Ale Bechamel.  The chef at Anthony's incorporated the Brown Ale into the Macaroni & Cheese so the pairing resonated with the same Ale in the drink as well as the dish.  

4)  Hurricane Deck Double IPA  ABV 8%  IBU  82.  Of all the beers presented this was the BIG monster.  India Pale Ales tend to be higher in alcohol and especially in hops.  The reason being when the British invaded & controlled India, the beers brought over from England would inevitably spoil having to pass through the equatorial regions twice.  Hops and alcohol are preservatives so someone thought of creating a special ale that could survive the long, hot journey.

Hurricane is a complex, chameleon-like brew that is loaded with hops.  The initial bouquet is herbal green, Retsina-like with pine tar, green bell pepper, grapefruit zest, hint of damask rose, and tangerine.  Counter-intuitively it is refreshing with the above ingredients as well as meaty and heavy with good yeast.  Later as this IPA opens up, it mellows slightly opening up to a more mead-like honey taste and scents of rosemary & basil.  I know some wines "evolve" through time, and Hurricane is equally up to the task. Hurricane is a  beautiful IPA in that the complex layers of flavours complement each other, unlike many lesser IPAs that conflict and fight each other to create a truly undrinkable concoction.

Smoked pork belly, melted Sharffe Maxx Cheese which was mellow and acted like a Gruyere, Caramelized onion rings, very mild tasting Rye toast was a good offset to this big monster brew.  I would think that Jamon Serrano de Bellota, a good Prosciutto di Parma or San Daniele, or Schwarz wald Schinken would also work well with this .

I'm glad to see that microbreweries are flourishing throughout the U.S.  More and more people are becoming more sophisticated in the way they consume so that little by little quality is valued more than quantity.  Figueroa brewing Company is contributing to the betterment of the American palate.  Here, Here.

PS  I had the Carmelas's signature ice cream of salted caramel which melted ever so richly and smoothly in reaction to my body heat.   Jaime was kind to offer us the last of the opened bottles of beer so I paired the salted caramel ice cream with the Davy Brown Ale, and it was amazing.