Daniel Burns talks about beer with the zeal of the recently converted. “There’s such a spectrum of flavour,” he says. “With beer, you can add whatever you think might work, you can play around. Wine is so dependent on terroir.”
丹尼埃尔•伯恩斯(Daniel Burns)最近成了啤酒的粉丝，因此侃起啤酒来头头是道。“啤酒有各种口感，”他说。“有了啤酒，可临时添加自己喜欢的菜肴，还能‘肆意妄为’一番。葡萄酒的口感则完全取决于土质。”

Burns is not a brewer but a chef: co-owner of Luksus in New York, the first beer-only restaurant to win a Michelin star. It’s unlikely to be the last. From the southern Indian restaurant Quilon in London, where beers begin the drinks list, to Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan, where the choices run to eight pages, beer has been invited to join the fine dining club.
伯恩斯并非酿酒师，而是位大厨：他是纽约Luksus餐馆的共同拥有者，这是首家获评米其林星级(Michelin)的啤酒餐厅，尽管“前无古人”，但肯定会有来者。从伦敦南印度风味的奎隆(Quilon)餐厅（其酒水单首当其冲就是各种啤酒）到美国曼哈顿的麦迪逊广场十一号餐厅（Eleven Madison Park，各种品牌的啤酒单多达8页），啤酒已登各大精品餐厅之大雅之堂。
Luksus, a joint venture between Burns and brewer Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergso, is found at the back of their bar Torst, a white-marble beer paradise in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with 21 beers on tap. Though neighbour to takeaway joints and street-corner grocery stores, both Torst and Luksus are designed along clean Scandinavian lines (Luksus means “luxury” in Danish).
Luksus是由伯恩斯与酿酒师Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergso创办的合资餐馆，就设在Torst酒吧后面，Torst这座“啤酒乐园”位于布鲁克林绿点区(Greenpoint, Brooklyn)的一幢由白色大理石建筑内，有21种啤酒随时可供饮用。尽管它们与外卖小店及街拐角杂货店“比邻而居”，但Torst酒吧与 Luksus餐馆的设计均沿用简洁的斯堪的纳维亚风格的造型（Luksus在丹麦语中是“豪华”的意思）。
The 26-seat restaurant serves a delicate tasting menu ($95), which includes dishes such as cured mackerel, pickled radish and dill or parsnip parfait with malt and cranberry. Its beer matches ($45) are extraordinary, too, including Saison Cazeau, a spicy, elderflower-infused Belgian ale and Off Color Brewing’s Scurry, a dark honey ale made using oats. Wine is not on the menu.
定员26座的Luksus餐厅推出定价95美元的精致套餐，包括腌鲭鱼、腌萝卜以及加入麦芽与小红莓的莳萝或防风草冻糕。啤酒赛（费用45美元）也美不胜收，其中就包括了Saison Cazeau（添加拉骨木花后酿制而成的辛辣味比利时啤酒）以及Off Color Brewing酿制的Scurry啤酒（用燕麦酿制的深色蜂蜜啤酒），然而酒水单上并无葡萄酒。
“We do a salted plum purée, which we’ve used with both duck and squab,” says the softly-spoken Burns, a Canadian who has worked at The Fat Duck, Noma and St John. “[To match] there’s a sour beer which has been aged in wine barrels with plums, made by [the Italian brewery] LoverBeer, that works perfectly.”
“我们使用鸭肉乳鸽，精心制作了咸味李子泥，”说话细声细语的伯恩斯说，伯恩斯是加拿大人，曾先后在The Fat Duck、Noma以及St John工作过。“为了搭配这道佳肴，我们选中了陈年酸变啤酒，它与李子一起放在葡萄酒桶里、由意大利知名啤酒厂LoverBeer精酿而成。”
Even in Paris, where wine is king, restaurants have started to incorporate beer into their offering, most notably at hip bar-bistro Bones in the 11th arrondissement, which champions French breweries such as Craig Allan and Deck & Donohue. La Fine Mousse, a beer-matching bar-restaurant, opened last summer in the same neighbourhood. Romain Thieffry, one of the four co-owners, says: “It’s still difficult to make people come [here] . . . They are reluctant to try [beer with food] because they don’t know it.”
即便在贵为“葡萄酒王国”的巴黎，很多高档餐厅已开始让啤酒登堂入室，最知名的当属位于第11大区的时尚酒吧兼餐厅Bones，它大力推广Craig Allan 与Deck & Donohue等法国国产啤酒品牌。去年夏天开业的La Fine Mousse，是一家专门举办啤酒赛的酒吧餐厅。罗曼•蒂埃弗里(Romain Thieffry)是四名合伙人中的一个，他这样说：“现在吸引顾客前来用餐仍有难度……他们不愿用喝着啤酒享用美味佳肴，因为他们不了解内情。”
Cheese is part of Thieffry’s strategy. “In France, we are programmed to think cheese goes with wine,” he says. “But in fact it’s difficult to make a pairing, especially with red wine. For cheese, the range of qualities that meet very well with beer are huge; it’s easy to make at least a correct pairing and it’s easier [than wine] to have a great one.” Such pairings might include Comté with the strong, sweet Brasserie Saint Rieul Grand Cru, or a smoked goat’s cheese with La Tourbée, a peated dark ale made by Brasserie du Mont Salève.
奶酪成为蒂埃弗里餐厅推行啤酒策略的一部分。“在法国，我们习惯于把奶酪与葡萄酒相搭配，”他说。“但实际上，两者很难搭配好，尤其是红葡萄酒。而与啤酒相配的高品质奶酪则非常多，至少很容易配上对，啤酒比葡萄酒更容易与奶酪实现‘珠联璧合’”。完美的结合可能包括了孔泰奶酪(Comté)与浓郁味甘的Brasserie Saint Rieul Grand Cru啤酒、或是烟熏山羊奶酪与La Tourbée啤酒相搭配。这种泥煤味黑啤酒由Brasserie du Mont Salève酒厂酿制。
Suspicion of beer in the food world, Burns says, does not only relate to the diners. “I did this chef congress in New York, and one of the guys asked me: ‘Do you worry about people not coming because there’s no wine?’ It made me think — before you go to the Fat Duck or Hibiscus, do you think about what wine you’re going to drink? I get excited about the food, and the beverage is secondary. If it hinders people, that’s very short-sighted.”
伯恩斯说，餐饮界对啤酒的质疑并不仅仅与用餐者有关。“我曾在纽约开办了这家合资餐厅，其中一位伙计问我：‘您不担心客人由于餐厅没有葡萄酒而不买账吗？’他的话让我沉思良久——自己去Fat Duck与Hibiscus用餐之前，难道预先想好喝啥葡萄酒了吗？自己最在意的是美食，酒水的重要性则退居次席。如果餐厅因为客人望而止步而‘改弦更张’，目光就太短浅了。”
The energy of the brewing revolution may be enough to blow away any remaining doubts. Sriram Aylur, chef at Quilon, certainly thinks so. “When we see new trends, new brewers, we always want to work with them, especially if they’re doing something interesting,” he says. He highlights London breweries such as The Kernel, whose aromatic, low-alcohol Table Beer is on Quilon’s menu. “We’re very open, we’re not boxed in, we can change.”
啤酒业早已今非昔比，或许足以消除任何心中残存的疑惑，奎隆餐厅主厨Sriram Aylur肯定也是这样想的。“我们不断目睹新餐饮时尚涌现，不断有新啤酒品牌问世，就永远希望能与生产商合作，尤其当对方酿制的啤酒不同凡响时。”他这样解释道。他重点提及了The Kernel等伦敦本地啤酒酿造厂，其推出的香气四溢的Table Beer低度啤酒如今已正式荣登奎隆餐厅的酒水单。“我们完全持开放态度，并不会固步自封，愿意因时而变。”