As we get closer to March 12 — the date of Nashville’s Nuit Belge event at Marathon Music Works — there’s a whole lot to look forward to.
Launched in Nashville but now spreading out to multiple cities (including Atlanta and New Orleans), Nuit Belge is a celebration of the varied styles of Belgian beer, paired for maximum enjoyment with small plates from some of the city’s best chefs and best restaurants.
You’ll get to know Belgian Strong Pale Ales and Lambics and Dubbels and Tripels, and try new dishes from chefs you love and/or get acquainted with Nashville culinary talents you haven’t met yet. All in all a pretty fine night for food/drink lovers.
Some of the things you’ll get to taste at the 2016 Nashville Nuit Belge:
— Husk Nashville will be pairing black cocoa pudding with a New Belgium wood-aged sour brown ale
— Germantown‘s City House has pork cracklins going alongside a Brooklyn Brewery Belgian ale
— East Nashville‘s Butcher & Bee is working a mackerel crudo with a Cidre Bouche (a sparkling cider)
— Melrose’s Sinema will serve coq au vin with sour brown ale aged in Burgundy wine barrels
and those are just a few snippets. (Check out the full menu on the Nuit Belge website.)
General admission tickets ($99) include unlimited samplings, plus a tulip tasting glass to take home and a menu book.
But maybe the coolest aspect of the whole event: Attending allows you to sample what they’re making and serving at Blackberry Farm, a renowned luxury hotel/resort estate on a 9,200-acre property in the Great Smoky Mountains that’s been endlessly praised and awarded for its culinary offerings. (Among that praise: James Beard Awards for three years running, with Outstanding Service in 2015, Outstanding Wine Program in 2014 and Best Chef, Southeast for executive chef Joseph Lenn in 2013.)
Staying at the Walland, Tennessee property (about 30 minutes from Knoxville) isn’t an easy option for everyone — lodging runs anywhere from just under a grand to just under $6000 a night. Part of the draw — besides the breathtaking surroundings, pictured above — is access to the food grown and prepared there, which takes the rural essence of the region and their farm-grown ingredients and marries it with haute cuisine.
A lot of us may never get the chance to sample Blackberry Farm’s menu at the farm itself, but Nuit Belge brings the culinary/brewing team to Nashville to serve 50 VIP guests on the night of the main event, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Those guests will sample Blackberry Farm food and beer, and have access to the general event right afterward, from 7 to 10 p.m.
Blackberry Farm VIP tickets run $139 (and as of this posting, spots were still available).
Intrigued and looking to dig a little deeper? Get more info at the Nuit Belge Nashville website, and at Blackberry Farm’s website.
If you attend and snap some photos, we’d love to see them — tag ACREstate on Instagram and/or Twitter!