Wednesday, July 11, 7:00 P.M.
Members $85, guests $110

New York in the summer is hardly the most temperate place in the world, so we understand if you find your appetite for fancy sauces and foie gras–based foodstuffs is somewhat…in abeyance. We know what you really want to eat on a hot night in July: you’re craving the kind of homegrown fare that goes best with that ultimate summer thirst-quencher, beer. Of course, we’re not just talking backyard barbecue burgers and dogs and a bottle of Bud here (this is The James Beard Foundation, after all). No, what we’ve got on tap is much, much better: we’re offering up the unbeatable American cuisine of Tribeca Grill’s Don Pintabona, and we’re pairing it with nothing less than the finest suds from the Brooklyn Brewery, poured by brewmaster extraordinaire Garrett Oliver. We humbly suggest that summer in the city doesn’t get much better than this.

Pintabona has been at Tribeca Grill since the very beginning, feeding flocks of celebrities, downtownistas, and fabulous foodie folk with the "bold flavors" of his "eclectic and inventive" fare, as Andy Birsh of Gourmet put it, for over a decade. A CIA graduate, Pintabona cooked across Europe, putting in time in the kitchen at Georges Blanc. Then he headed to Japan, where he served as sous-chef at Gentille Alouette in Osaka. In New York, he’s worked the stoves for Charlie Palmer at the River Cafe and Aureole, and for Daniel Boulud at Le Régence. At Tribeca Grill, his cookery is "trim, unfussy and built for speed, like a Porsche," Bryan Miller wrote in The New York Times.

Oliver started out as a home brewer, trying to re-create the flavors of the beers he’d loved when he lived abroad in England. Then he fell in love with his new hobby. In short order, he’d launched the New York City Homebrewers Guild, left his job as a lawyer, and become the assistant brewmaster at the Manhattan Brewing Company. When the company changed hands, he became brewmaster. In 1994, Oliver signed on at the Brooklyn Brewery as brewmaster and partner. He’s made a name for himself with a series of irresistibly delicious handcrafted beers. Writing in The New York Times, Florence Fabricant called Oliver "one of the country’s foremost experts on beer."

Feeling hot and bothered? Come hoist a cool one with us at this unbeatable summertime feast.