Eat Cetera: Aquavit Herring Festival, Peak Organic Beer Dinner, What Happens When's Prohibition-Era Party
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<strong>AQUAVIT HERRING FESTIVAL: </strong>Those with a hankering for herring need not plan a trip to Scandinavia. The "prolific fish" has found its way here. Though we mourn the end of the <a href="http://gothamist.com/2010/06/01/eat_cetera_10.php#photo-1">Holland Herring Festival</a>, it's early summer, which means <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/06/08/new_catch_holland_herring_have_arri.php">the fish are biting</a> and we'll be biting back at Aquavit's annual Herring Festival, held from June 13-17 and continuing through June 20-24th. <br/><br/>Executive Chef Marcus Jenmark will be plating herring preparations you never even thought could exist: everything from Rhubarb-Chervil Herring to Black Currant Herring and Pickled Ramp Herring to more recognizable Matjes Herring preparations. All of this to venerate Midsommer (probably Midsummer in English), a holiday to celebrate the longest day of the year, enjoy the outdoors with friends and family, and put all this <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/02/02/why_this_ice_storm_is_not_shatterin.php">nasty winter business</a> behind us (for now). And what a summer it will be once infused with a little brined and cured herring. <br/><br/>Still, for the less herring-obsessed, there will be traditional Swedish bistro fare like Swedish Meatballs, Scandinavian Cheeses and Breads, Gravlax, and a dish titled Janssons Temptation (oh yes). The whole smorgasbord will be paired with aquavit and a good ol' brewsky for $28 per person for lunch and $38 per person for dinner. <br/><br/><em>66 East 55th Street; (212) 307-7311</em>
<strong>ORGANIC BEER DINNER: </strong>Save some room in that there stomach, for it's about to be occupied by a whole lot of food and beer. Next Tuesday, June 21st at 7:30 p.m., Brooklyn's <a href="http://gothamist.com/2009/10/22/new_restaurants_on_the_radar_the_va.php#photo-1">The Vanderbilt</a> restaurant is teaming up with Portland, Maine's excellent Peak Organic Brewing Company to host a "beer dinner." Emphasizing the requisite local and sustainable ingredients, there will be a Lone Acre Farms Vegetable Salad paired with a Weiss Principal to start; followed by Country Fried Veal Sweetbreads with King Crimson Beer; Fleischer's Pork Loin and Crisp Belly with Peak Organic IPA; and a finish of Buttermilk Panna Cotta and an Espresso Amber. Four courses and four beers for each person for a price of $50. <br/><br/><em>570 Vanderbilt Ave #1, Brooklyn; (718) 623-0570</em>
<strong>WHAT HAPPENS WHEN EMBRACES NO BOOZE: </strong>Our fetish with the NY golden era, the 1920s (sigh), lives on in the form of an homage to Prohibition. Old, gritty New York before it <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/nyregion/in-the-east-village-where-have-all-the-crusties-gone.html">lost all its crusties and whatnot</a> was populated only by "dames and gents" who gave into "crime, corruption, moonshine, and bootlegging" despite the ban on "intoxicating liquors." <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/01/27/new_restaurant_and_bar_radar_35.php#photo-3">What Happens When</a>, the nine-month restaurant installation from Chef John Fraser (Dovetail) <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/06/01/what_happens_whenyour_pop-up_restau.php">that recently ran afoul of the SLA</a>, is drying itself out and serving up a Jazz Age dinner with accompanying mocktails. For the remainder of the restaurant's existence, Chef John Fraser will prepare Americana favorites like Shellfish with beausoleil oyster, shrimp cocktail, and baked clam, Veal Scallopini, some Fried Chicken (just to remember the South in all of this) and a Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Mocktails like the Antipholus (You Dirty Rat) made with bathtub gin (still non-alcoholic!) , cucumber puree, celery bitters, and roquefort olives will be available. <br/><br/>It wouldn't be a Prohibition-era dinner without the speakeasy pub crawl as dessert. What Happens When has teamed up with neighborhood spots Mexican Radio and Morini among others (a map and codewords to tell the barkeep are provided) to serve the real liquor, including The Hemingway Special and The Ward Eight.<br/><br/><em>25 Cleveland Place, 212-925-8310</em>