re: Great Raft Dinner at Cotton's in Monroe - Wednesday Night (Review/pics on pg2)

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$75/ticket 6 courses, plus 2 5oz pours of each beer with each course

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That's pretty fair.

Should be a nice event.

I'll be there. Riding in style with a limo to Monroe. Ain't no way I'm driving my drunk arse home to Shreveport after all that good beer. Getting pumped.

Please send a report.

The dinner was last night and it was just a phenomenal night overall. Congrats to Monroe, you have a fantastic restaurant. It made the group I was with wondering why we cannot have that level of a restaurant in Shreveport. The restaurant itself was also quite beautiful. Just an awesome space. There might have been several bribes to Chef Cory for him to open his next restaurant in Shreveport.

*sorry for the quality of my pics

On to the food:

Course 1



Grilled watermelon, radish, petite mustards, lime, pink pepper
Make Believer – A delicate hoppy session ale with loads of Citra and Galaxy hops. 4.5% ABV

This might have been my favorite pairing of the evening. The sweet, fruitiness of the watermelon, the slight bitterness of the radish, and the spiciness of the pink pepper complimented the session IPA perfectly. The watermelon was compressed, which made it quite dense and intensified the flavor. Some from the group commented that it needed more salt and/or pink pepper. The sweetness might have been too much for some. I loved it though.

Course 2



Ipswich scallop, turnip, vanilla, grapefruit, salsa verde
Commotion – This pale ale has a slightly fruity aroma, with an upfront hop bitterness of grapefruit and citrus. This complex but balanced dry-hopped ale is faintly sweet, but soft from the generous amounts of wheat.

Scallops are always "eh" with me, so you have to really bring flavor elsewhere for the dish to work, and the star of this dish was the salsa verde. Just awesome. Several comments about licking the plate were made to get ever ounce. And once again, the fruitiness of the grapefruit, and the spiciness of the salsa verde paired nicely with Commotion.

Course 3



Pecan smoked local pork belly, pickled chioggia beets, sweet potato puree, root beer syrup
Disaster Proof – A session Rye lager with generous amount of New Zealand Wakatu hops. The Rye provides a spicy backdrop for the floral Wakatu hops. 4.5% (Collaboration beer with Bluejacket)

This was the star of the night. The combination of the pork belly, the pickled beets, the sweet potato puree, then rub all of that in the root beer syrup made for a perfect bite of food. Just perfect. We all wanted more. Nobody really cared about the pairing because the food was the star of this course.

Course 4



Venison schnitzel, stewed white beans, fried carrots, bacon-beer mustard jus
Nobody’s Darlin – A bigger version of the German Schwarzbier at 7% ABV. Rich dark malts and?dark Midnight Wheat makes for a dangerously drinkable and smooth lager. (Collaboration beer with Bluejacket)

Another great dish. The venison schnitzel was excellent, however the beans really didn't do much for me. This was a heavy dish with the heaviest beer of the night. Kinda heavy on heavy. I liked the dish but I think the pairings would have worked better if he switched this beer with the rye lager from course 3.

Course 5



Braised rabbit, english peas, gnocchi, smoked mushrooms, parmesan
Southern Drawl – A hop forward lager with complex, citrusy aromas derived from German hops and wheat phenols. We use our house German lager strain to provide a fresh backdrop for this perfect

This dish was good, not great. My wife commented how she was a bit disappointed with it. It was described as a take on traditional BBQ with light lager, and it worked. The smokiness of the dish definitely worked with the Southern Drawl. I just wanted more from it, however, Lindsay (owner of GR) is a pescetarian, so they substituted this dish with a blue crab gnocchi that was phenomenal. Everyone that tried it agreed that it blew the rabbit dish away.

Course 6



Strawberry gelato, cured strawberries, torn lemon cake, buttermilk crumbs, basil seeds, dill
Reasonably Corrupt – A black lager with dark and roasty malt sweetness. Don’t let the darkness fool you – this is a sweeter, fuller-bodied version of the premium lager you know and love. It has a smooth, crisp finish, with depth of color and taste.

The dessert was again good, not great. The buttermilk crumbs added a nice texture to the dish. The basil seeds visually reminded me of tadpoles in a roadside ditch I did like his approach to the pairing though, as the easy pairing would have been a coffee/chocolate dessert to pair with the roastiness of the beer. This was more of a contrast, which I thought was nice. Lots of freshness.

Again, congrats to Monroe for a great restaurant. All the Shreveportians that were there left quite jealous.

Course 3 has my mouth watering! Great job on the review

I like how you roll

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I like a little grill mark on the melon and a heavy hand of salt.

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Yeah I don't think the watermelon was actually grilled at all. Might have just changed it from the menu at the last minute. Compressing the melon really made it great though.

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Can't tell from the pic but does the scallop have much of a sear? Plus, what was the vanilla? Sorbet? Looks like a potential ratio problem.

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Yes, the scallops was seared nicely. The vanilla was in the foam sauce. It was very mild.

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Looks like a hard crust on the venison, maybe too hard. Do you think a puree of the white bean would have worked better?

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The crust was not hard. It added a nice texture. A puree of the beans would have probably worked better, but I think he was going for more of the classic home cooked meal presentation.

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Do you remember what the white sauce was? Was that some parmesan sauce? What about the gnocchi? Looks like a standard potato gnocchi, which can be tough to cook correctly.

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Honestly no, I don't really remember much about this dish other than the smoked mushroom and the rabbit. It was just lacking something.

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Salmon

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Looks like a fantastic meal at a fair price.

I've been impressed on all of my visits to Cotton.

Great review.