Attention local food & brew lovers: we hope you made it to the one-of-a-kind the Brewer’s Plate this year!

The Brewer’s Plate had a perfect balance of local noms, brewskies, liquors and dessert. Each exhibitor was enthusiastic about their tasty creation, and the pours were generous.

As Ann Karlen, Executive Director, Fair Food stated, “The event benefitting Fair Food was a huge success in bringing together brewers, restaurants and consumers as a way to celebrate local foods and artisans – a very big part of our mission. We tried something new this year, as we featured Aimee Olexy in our VIP area where she led a guided tasting of cheese paired with beer. Everyone really found it interesting and enjoyed it“.

Let’s take our tastebuds and revisit the Brewer’s Plate 2013:

Our friends at Victory set up camp in the VIP section, complete with White Monkey, beer ice cream & wraps for the tasting:

It seemed like the local foods and beer selection was endless. My absolute favorite part was gorging myself with local, delicious cheeses. This one from Yellow Springs ‘goat cheese’ farm, is located in Chester Springs, PA. Not only is this delicious operation local, but also recently had some solar panels installed to supply half of the electricity for a sustainable operation. Oh yeah. Did we mention they have a CHEESE CSA? How awesome is that?

Walking around from table to table, I couldn’t help but notice these very festive centerpieces.

It was definitely a star-studded event. We even ran into this fabulous Philadelphian, who mentioned Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy… Or not. Regardless, I was happy to get a quick pic with good ol’ Ben.

Beyond the beer and endless food, there was also a “Speakeasy’ at the National Constitution Center (also coinciding with its Prohibition exhibit.)

The Speakeasy (was slightly dark so my photos didn’t turn out), but had some local distillery boozes like vodka, gin and absinthe. I also sampled a “beer” float dessert-style, cupcakes and more sweets for my tastebuds.

Kudos to Fair Food Philly, for presenting such a smooth, lovely event. We can’t wait for the next event – Philly’s Farm & Food Fest on April 14th! The debut of Philly Farm & Food Fest last year was definitely a success.

Readers, did you make it over to the Brewer’s Plate? Any observations or favorite foods/beers?

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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher