Charlotte Elite Event: Tenth & Blake Beer Dinner at BlackFinn

I have to say out of the few Elite events I have attended this one blew me away the most. My work’s own corporate Christmas parties have not been this nice so to get a random four course meal and delicious beer offerings for free downtown on a random weekday I was more than overwhelmed with delight.
My wife and I had never been to the Black Finn before so all the food was new to us, I fell in love with the Margherita pizza we had for an appetizer. I will be going back to this place specifically to enjoy the flavorings of that pizza and thanks to the knowledge obtained at this event will also be pairing that with a Peroni beer!
We learned about the brewing process from our gracious hosts and even got to sip each beer out of their own unique pint class, two of which I was happily allowed to take home after politely asking the coordinator.
The highlight of the night and perhaps my career of beer drinking was the special batch of peanut butter beer Blue Moon brought. The smell, the taste, everything about that beer was amazing. My only let down of the night was that I may never be able to buy this beer on the market. We enjoyed every glass we could find and when paired with the chocolate soufflé with a peanut butter filling it was the greatest combination of flavorings I have ever experienced no lie. Afterwards we stayed around for a couple more glasses of the peanut butter beer and had the bartender prepare us a mix of Frangelico and Chambord liqueurs then poured that into the peanut butter beer and created a drink that literally tasted like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
We loved this event!

Yeah buddy. Beer and Pizza. Beer and Salad. Beer and cheese. Beer and beef. Beer and sexy waitresses. Beer and peanut butta, whoda thunk?! Beer and education. Um, okay that one doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
Beer and Unilocal and another fantastic event. Gracias Tenth and Blake!

It’s not hyperbole to say that this was the most excellent elite event, ever.
I felt bad because, despite my best efforts, I was ten minutes late, having come directly from work. Fortunately, there was still space to be had, and I got to settle in for a magnificent beer and food tasting. Perhaps «tasting» isn’t the right word, however. It was a full-​blown meal, and a delicious one at that. I’d never been to BlackFinn before, but I’ll be back, especially for those mindbogglingly good french fries.
Great beer, excellent food, a chance to donate to charity… what else could you ask for?

If I was able to add another star, I would. This event absolutely took the a-​mazing award. If I had to pay for a meal like that and all of those beers, well — I couldn’t ;) The food at Blackfinn just blew me away. Even the fries gave me something to talk about. Our table asked for a few extra :) They were just that good! The salad, steak and grits were heaven. And, just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to fit anything else, the chocolate peanut butter and vanilla ice cream insanity came out. Oh, I was able to fit something else.
In addition to the great food, I honestly learned a lot about beer. The guys from Miller did a great job informing everyone. I thought it was super cool that one of them made sure to go to every table to make sure we could all pour correctly.
As always, brava to Poprock Photography!
This was my favorite elite event for 2011. Thanks Nicole for putting this wonderful dinner together.

Well this was by far one of the best events as we not only got to stuff our faces, but we learned how to pair beers, pour beers, and distinguish the different hints of flavor hidden in a beer and here I thought beer was only for Beer Pong!!!
I really loved all aspects of the event and how well organized it was. The food was amazing, the chef really out did himself (and it was a great touch them introducing us to him-​very chic).
I’m not a beer drinker per say, more of a Martini person, but really enjoyed all the beers and the stories associated with each… And, of course, all the side banter from us Unilocaler’s — opps did we really just get scolded? Yep we sure did.
Also, what I loved about this and Unilocal is all the fabulous places we get to go too and the entire group of Unilocaler’s. I will def plan on going back and trying more of their food… Oh and too rate their Dirty Martinis!

This was my first Unilocal event and I can’t wait for the next one…
Unfortunately, I don’t have anything new to say as my fellow Unilocalers have given accurate reviews to how amazing and informative the evening was.
Good company, great beer and delicious food how could you not have enjoyed every second of it?
But, now to the serious part… that AMAZING peanut butter beer! Are we formulating a plan to get more? because that was sorta a cruel joke that we were able to taste it and experience it’s magical deliciousness and now we can’t get it anywhere… really? We can’t get it anywhere? My beer taste buds are in morning… I think I even dreamed about it last night. We HAVE to figure out how to get our hand on some more of the scrumptious beer!
A big thank you to Nicole the lovely host. BlackFinn — I will be back! And of course the great folks of Tenth & Blake!

Super amazing… Black Finn had us set up with some incredibly delicious food (calamari, margherita flat bread, goat cheese and fruit salad, shrimp and grits, and pumpkin and chocolate cake). They even made a huge veggie platter to accomodate my dietary restrictions. Tenth and Blake made sure we had a delicious beer for each course that paired beautifully. I had not fully appreciated how well beer can compliment food until this dinner and am looking forward to applying my new found knowledge.
A fun, delicious, and memorable night. Thanks Unilocal,Black Finn, and Tenth and Blake!!!

YUM!!! What a great event! My favorite things — beer and food!!! This event was so well organized from the set up to the beer-​ducation. Seriously… i was listening i swear. I now know the proper way to pour a beer. AND I have a new favorite beer — the Pilsner Urqell! Who knew? What a light and delicious beer — where have you been all my life?
The food was outstanding! I have always loved bfinn food but they really outdid themselves for the event! My favorite was the pizza and the grits. Loved seeing everyone again and having so much fun! Thanks Nicole!!! You rock! :-D

Another great Elite event in the books. Very well organized, informative and entertaining… oh…and the food… yes, food was superb! I for one, have never been to a beer dinner and pairing. I loved getting educated on the proper poor, the AATMF?, and how to really appreciate good beer for what it is. Four courses, all of which were great I think my favorite was the flat bread pizza. Something about pizza and beer just make for rainbows in my mouth. I’m sorry, yes the other courses, the salad, the steak, the chocolate suffle… all great, but the pizza did it for me. I honestly didn’t know Blackfinn had such an extensive menu and I look forward to going back to discover more sometime soon :)

Let me tell you all about this event. First we need to start with the important stuff. I won this super awesome beer cooler! I mean it is seriously cool. It’s made of wood with an aluminum interior and is just all around nifty. Okay now that that’s out of the way I can start talking about the dinner.
Walking into the cozy 2^nd floor of this place, it was warm and inviting. Since I arrived a bit early I decided to sit at the bar. The bartender was nice and walked up and asked me if she could get me anything to drink. How nice of her! Got myself a Peroni to pass the time and got to mingling. Our dinner started shortly afterwards and started with some crispy margherita flatbread and flash fried calamari/​peppers paired with the crisp light Peroni.
Then came one of my favorite parts of the meal, the salad. Yes you heard me, the salad! Light and complex, with tons of textures from the mild creamy goat cheese to the juicy strawberries providing some acid to balance, this salad was just soooo good! Paired with the fruity blue moon Belgian white it really shone through in the flavor category for me.
Next came the steak frites and shrimp and grits. Well the shrimp sure took me for a surprise when I found out about the spiciness beneath the salt! They made sure to leave the sausage out of my grits when the server found out I didn’t eat pork. Thanks for that! Fries were delish dipped in the dreamy aioli. I normally never eat steak but this was a special occasion and I never usually drink beer either so why not? It was nicely cooked and tender, thank god they did not serve us the 12 oz. stated on the menu! Still I was kind of full by this time so I couldn’t stuff much more than a couple bites of each into my mouth.
Well that changed pretty fast when dessert arrived! I am a lover of all things sweet. So I made room for this anyways. I just have a teeny tiny issue with calling it a soufflé when it is much too dense and more similar to a chocolate lava cake with peanut butter than anything else. Regardless the cake was still extravagantly rich and chocolatey, I ate almost the whole thing paired with the wonderful blue moon peanut butter made just for us elites! I feel so cool being among the first people to ever taste this on the east coast!
The whole tasting was expertly led by the wonderful beer suppliers (most notably and perhaps loudest Mr. Worm), and our attentive waiters from Black Finn. Thanks for all their hard work and Nicole for making this all happen!

Sooooo that’s how you pour a beer. I have been edumacated in the arts of paring beer with foods as well as correctly pouring brew into my glass. What a cool event! The food was simply spectacular and left me wishing that I could take another bite. Which I could not. Perfect timing and training for the Thanksgiving feast next week!
Favorite part if I had to pick just one. The shrimp and grits. Oh man!!! Smooth creamy grits contrasted with a spicy Cajun style shrimp… Thank you for that memory and the rare PB beer… And thanks for a wonderful event.
Ian M.

Super fortunate to attend another great event… I’d better get some napkins while I write this review because my mouth has already started watering just thinking about the tasty menu and beer parings from last night.
In all honesty, I did not know what to expect and how the evening would go, but it was probably one of my favorite elite events to date as far as food, learning, and great company (as always).
Words do not do the food and beer that we tasted last night justice. My favorite beer would probably have been the very first beer we tasted last night: Peroni. I had already been familiar with this beer from studying abroad in Florence, but to place it with food was a great thing! To think I was drinking Peroni and downing it with pasta this whole time… [head down]shame on me. My favorite food course would hands down be the shrimp and grits… just the right amount of heat and creaminess to complement the Pilsner Urquell. I will be dreaming about you tonight shrimp and grits… [it’s a date (wink)].
It was great meeting the folks from Tenth and Blake. Their enthusiasm for beer was infectious. And if I didn’t have enough of a love for drinking beer… now I have more — and now armed with some knowledge (watch out!). My goal is to one day achieve «the perfect pour»…I will just need to practice, practice, practice… pass out… then get over my hangover and practice some more.
THANK YOU Tenth & Blake Beer, BlackFinn, and Nicole for such a wonderful evening!

Dear Unilocal,
You do not have enough stars to adequately describe this Unilocal event! Nicole, the Unilocal crew, vendors, Worm and staff have outdone themselves and I truly cannot imagine how anything will top this event! Let’s break this personal fantasy down… all the delicious beer one could possibly handle? Check. Beer that no one else in our area gets to try? Check. More food then you know what to do with– but tastes so good you gobble it down any way? Check. Amazing service from smiling happy people who genuinely seem like they want to help you? Check. An awesome fellow Unilocaler with fabulous pink hair snapping pics? Check. You see what I mean now Unilocal– do you see the conundrum I am up against? Unless you add several stars right away I suppose all I can do is thank everyone for an exceptionally good time, feel pretty darn lucky that I could attend, and grab a Peroni to celebrate!
Cheers!
Shauna H.

We all know that wines pair well with certain foods, but what about beer? Horsefeathers you say, but that was exactly what this night was all about.
The folks from Tenth & Blake (a company owned by but independent of MillerCoors) brought in their reps and their craft beers to pair with the kitchen of Blackfinn so this «elite crowd» could experience something with a little more substance than the silver bullet or Miller Time. 4 courses, 4 beers and an emcee with a passion for the correctly-​poured beer made sure that everyone left with both a full belly and head full of new beer knowledge.
With the exception of the «festival only» peanut butter beer from Blue Moon, you likely already know and love the beers we went thru– Peroni, Blue Moon and Pilsner Urquell. Each was pared with a food course that had elements which both contrasted and complemented the beer at hand. Each has a backstory worthy of making it the craft brew it is today.
Lesson for the night: AATMF for beer tasting– Appearance, Aroma, Taste, Mouthfeel and Finish. And you thought wine tasting was a lost art??? These folks take it seriously and it showed.
For advanced learners, we also covered such novelties as how big the head of a beer should be, what the foam lacing within the glass means and why that’s desirable, and the proper temperature for beer to show its best. Sadly, picking up a 12-​pack before the party and crushing them straight out of the fridge is not proper beer apprecation my American friends. We’ve been doing it wrong, all along!
Luckily our hosts were quick to make corrections, but not overbearing. The company was warm and friendly and our hosts made sure to come around and visit with the crowd for more personal interaction.
Blackfinn was gracious as usual with the service and the food and the room was buzzing all night with conversation and applause for the speakers.
I feel really lucky to have been able to attend this event and it was a highlight amongst our other recent elite events, which are exceedingly hard to top. The folks at Tenth and Blake pulled out the red carpet and made for a really great night that combined fun, education and good eats amongst great company– what more could anyone ask for?

Just when I think these Unilocal Elite events can’t get any better, I had the good fortune to attend yet another super-​awesome Elite Event that totally exceeded all expectations! Thanks to Nicole, BlackFinn, and Tenth & Blake for a most awesome Beer Dinner!
Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa-​Claus — and somewhere, his elves are making delicious Peanut Butter Ale! (No wonder we never see these guys, they’re sitting up at the north pole hogging all the good stuff!) But seriously — that was a super delious treat that came at the end of our meal.
Backing up a bit to the beginning, we started with an appetizer course. That consisted of Margarita flat bread — it had a seriously crunchy almost cracker-​like crust, but was topped with a slice of tomato, mozzerella, and basil — beautiful simplicity (reminded me of having a simple margarita pizza in Italy, while enjoying a Peroni at an outdoor café — ahhh-​the good life!). The Calamari was pretty good too — and I found not only a breaded and fried pepper but also a mushroom or two. Nice touch! The Peroni paired nicely with both apps.
Next was one of the best salads ever served with Blue Moon (always a refreshing choice especially with a big fat slice of a naval orange). For the salad, they started with mixed greens, added a couple of sliced fresh strawberries, added various dried fruits with a little medallion of goat cheese (that if I remember correctly was encrusted with sesame seeds). On the salad they also served 2 slices of crostini with charred brie and a fruit mixture. They also had some sort of fruity (I am thinking perhaps strawberry) vinegarette which was slightly creamy. The citrus in the beer definiltey offered a nice balance to the salad.
Our main course was my least favorite in terms of food since I don’t eat red meat or pork. I gave David my steak, but kept my fries. They were pretty good. I liked the little tomato filled with cheese and roasted in a bed of spinach — too bad I couldn’t have more of that! I normally don’t eat anything cooked with pork, but I did want to taste the shrimp & grits, so I just pulled the andoille sausage out and tried to pretend the tasso sauce had been prepared without it. The one piece of shrimp that came on top of the shrimp & grits was blackened and seasoned nicely. This course was served with Pilsner Urquell — which I learned was one of the olded lagers. (I previously thought that honor went to Czechvar –aka Budvar in Bohemia but Pilsner Urquell beat them by almost 50 years! Anyway, I am always happy to learn new things!)
Now for my favorite course — the delious chocolate-​peanut butter– ice cream –whipped cream concoction that paired nicely with the special Blue Moon Peanut Butter Ale. Wow. That was perfect! It was so good but I was so full that I actually couldn’t finish another round when Worm came around and offered a refill (too bad I couldn’t have taken a «to-​go» glass of it for later!!)
So, I learned that I suck at pouring a proper beer. Will won top honors at our table for that and David was the runner up. But hey, we were all winners since we got to enjoy such a wonderful treat! I also learned that «lacing» is a good thing, and now I’ll be on the lookout for it whenever I am enjoying a good beer!
I was happy to hear that we raised some cash for the Second Harvest Food bank — especially since we are getting so close to the holidays and there are more people than ever who need assistance in having a holiday meal.
Thanks again to everyone who made this evening possible!

Okay, so most of us could use a lesson in properly pouring beer, but is there anyone that does not know that a little head is a good thing? Oh, we were talking about the beer. Right, sorry.
For those of you concerned about the lack of food at some elite events, this was your chance to make up for lost time, so I hope you made it. If not, we ate your food. All of it. The margherita pizza, the calamari and peppers, the salad, steak, shrimp and grits and even that insane chocolate and peanut butter soufflé. We drank your beer too.
The worst part? Trying to take a sip of beer in between each bite. So we learned that beer can be used to cleanse your palette and bring out flavors in the dish, and not just for a descent into oblivion. But to take a bite of that food begs to take another bite, and trying to put down the fork for an instant was almost impossible. Or maybe I was worried that the others at my table would eat mine if I gave them a chance.
Awesome. Thanks for having us, Black Finn, and to Nicole, our mistress of such ceremonies!
Alternate version here:

I wish I could do 5+ stars for this event. This was BY FAR my favorite Elite Event. Educational, phenomenal pairings, lovely atmosphere, helpful staff, and great company. I was fashionably late (by 15 minutes) but I didn’t miss much (squid and cheesy flatbread– things I can’t eat anyhow!).
I got to learn the Correct Way to pour a beer (my college beer-​snob friends and I have had arguments over this in the past) and experience Beer and Food Pairing (I’ve done a slew of Wine and Food Pairings in classes and on my own). I debated with Worm (one of the beer guys) for a while over the benefits of Wine and Food pairing and Beer and Food pairing; definitely learned a lot.
The food was awesome. They prepared a cheese-​free salad for the second course (which tasted great with the Blue Moon despite missing the creaminess of the cheese). The manager coordinated a vegan plate in place of the steak– it had sauteed garlic and spinach, maple glazed carrots, asparagus and broccoli. It was top notch– and went quite well with the Pilsner. And lastly, and my favorite part of the meal, the Blue Moon Peanut Butter with a few bites of chocolate and peanut butter soufflé (yep, the vegan cheated. But it was too good to pass up). I felt pretty privileged to try Blue Moon’s small batch of the Peanut Butter beer. It was pretty exquisite– the balance of honey and salted peanuts worked so well together. I’ll be thinking about that beer for weeks to come.
Nicole! Thank you so, so, so, so, so much for this event. I left the event with a broad smile on my face and a happy tummy. Boston is going to have a tough time filling the Elite Expectations I’ve come to have since being in the Unilocal Community here.

Head is a good thing, and I’m writing this in my fat pants.
What an awesome dinner and event all the way around! I’m an amateur beer drinker and was interested to hear about the brewing process and how to pair beer with food. The staff gave us insightful information about all of the above– I thought I knew how to pour a beer, but came in a solid second place out of 3 at our table beer-​pouring competition.
All the beers were excellent, but the food it was paired with was the star of the show. The margherita flatbread barely made it with 5 of us grabbing at it (we shared with the table next to us.) The salad, steak frites, and fries were all delicious, but the warm peanut butter-​chocolate cake and Blue Moon Peanut Butter Ale definitely stole the show. Who do we have to bribe to get that sold commercially, anyway?
Excellent to hear that we raised over $ 300 for Second Harvest! Great times, great food, and no, seriously, who are we bribing for this peanut butter beer? I need names.

Oh snap. I unbuttoned the top of my jeans for this one, I had to finish the chocolate peanut butter soufflé. And, seriously, to echo Jane F, who do I need to bribe for that Blue Moon Peanut Butter? I took one bite of the soufflé and felt like time had slowed down and it was just the soufflé and I, dancing a beautiful, delicious dance.
And I don’t mean to overlook the other dishes, everything was SO GOOD. I loved the salad and little crostini thing topped with brie and some sort of chutney as well as the shrimp and grits. The margherita flat bread was a perfect blend of surprisingly not break-​my-​teeth-​crunchy bread, mozzarella, and basil.
Everything was paired with a beer for a super legit nomfest. I haven’t had that much Peroni since my silly study abroad time in Italy and the Pilsner Urquell brought me right back to the cavernous brewery that is the center of Plzen, Czech Repub.
Have I told you, lately, how much I love Unilocal and especially Nicole, ruler of Unilocal-​verse? And, of course, thanks Miller Coors and BlackFinn!

I think this is probably the first Charlotte Elite event where I learned something seriously useful in my day to day life. How to pour a beer. Start at a 45 degree angle and slowly pour until halfway done, then more or less dump the rest of the beer into the glass. Head, as we were told, is a good thing. This… this is useful info!
As to the rest of it, I might be a little too tipsy to remember much. Not unlike our other Elite events where the alcohol flows freely (or at least cheaply) this event had booze. But it also had a strict drinking schedule to adhere to. The first course, margerita flatbread pizza with calimari, carefully matched to Peroni’s Nastro Assuro (we learned that means «blue ribbon» in Italian). The second course, goat cheese, strawberry and pecan salad with blackened brie. Matched with Blue Moon (orange served separately). Third course… (I’m starting to get stuffed) truffle fries with grilled ribeye steak and amazing shrimp and grits. Matched with Pilsner Urquell beer. (We learned that pilsner is quite a watershed beer as one of the first clear beers it ushered in glassware where previous drinking happened in opaque ceramic mugs).
And finally, dessert. If it wasn’t so amazingly awesome, I’d have said no. But how do you say no to a small serving of batch crafted Blue Moon Peanut Butter Beer? Especially when it’s served with a chocolate and peanut butter soufflé that was topped with vanilla ice cream. OMG, I hate you for forcing this yumminess on us! Yes, beer made with Jiffy peanut butter. Great aroma and lovely finish, I had no idea there was a «dessert beer!»
And if the food wasn’t enough, what a great venue. The seating helped to make it quite an intimate setting where the four of us had a chance to really socialize and talk. (Maybe too much. We were shushed because we were too loud during the beer lessons. I won’t say who was the loud one, but it rhymes with «Travis».)
Lots of fun, lots of interesting food. And a great time. Nicole, I don’t know how you manage to keep hitting them out of the park like this. You are an awesome CM and I think I can speak for the QC Unilocalers when I say that we’re lucky to have you!