Seacoast foodies and drink connossieurs always scramble to get tickets and seats for our big wine dinners, tastings and samplings as well as for
those charity events featuring great local restaurants and wine from all over the globe, but now, we’re opening the door wide and embracing the beer lovers too. Enter Passport: A Craft Beer and Culinary World Tour on Thursday, Aug. 22 at Strawbery Banke where all the great tastes from local restaurants come side by side and perfectly paired with fantastic lagers, ales and stouts from local breweries. And it’s a benefit to boot, with proceeds going to NH Public TV and Strawbery Banke Museum. Smuttynose Star Island Single with spicy samosas, Pumpkin Ale with squash ravioli from The Dunaway Restaurant, Allagash Four with pork belly confit, Moat Mountain Merken with buffalo sausage, even stout paired with Lindt chocolate — wander through Strawbery Banke and sample it all while meeting the chefs and brewers who made the food and beer. WHEN Saturday, Aug. 22, VIP early admission starts at 5:30 p.m. and General Admission starts at 7 p.m.- 10 p.m. WHERE Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth COST Tickets are $110 for VIP ($35 for designated driver) and $65 for General Admission ($25 for designated driver). CONTACT 868-1100, www.nhptv.org/passport for information on restaurants, beers and tickets Ken Zuckerman is the organizer and co-creator of the event, and he’s been working with Smuttynose Brewery owner Peter Egelston to bring Passport to Portsmouth.
“I have a background in my family in the wine industry, but beer is much more versatile than wine. If you look at what Peter brews, they go so well with food and we worked to make this about the food as much as about the beer,” says Zuckerman. ” I said to him ‘The Big Beer series could be great for public broadcasting — our viewers are wine savvy and most are beer savvy and their great for bringing into the high end craft beer world.”