Beer and food are the name of the game this weekend, as the town is taken over by Food-A-Palooza and Br眉topia.
The two events鈥攚hich encourage patrons to try delicious food and beer pairings鈥攁re running in conjunction with one another to get people out on the town for a culinary crawl.
The fun starts May 9, as four restaurants鈥擡vil Dave鈥檚 Grill, Famoso Neapolitan Pizza, Jasper Brewing Company and Papa George鈥檚鈥攐ffer beer and appetizer pairings at a discounted price. Those deals will run through the weekend and are available to anyone who picks up a coupon at the Visitor Information Centre, the Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre or any of the participating restaurants.
According to Tourism Jasper鈥檚 Jodi Hawkins, the idea is to get people to hop from one eatery to the next. That could mean all four restaurants in one evening, or one per night, or anything in between.
And on Saturday evening, it鈥檚 off to the Sawridge Inn for the feature event: Br眉topia鈥擩asper鈥檚 first Craft Beer Festival.
鈥淲e thought, what a great idea, to have everybody come to Jasper and drink beer for the weekend鈥攖hey do anyways, so we might as well all drink great local beer,鈥� said Tony Bielec, general manager of the Sawridge Inn. 鈥淭here will be at least 40 different craft brewed beers from 10 breweries.鈥�
Included in the breweries is the Grizzly Paw Brewery from Canmore, Yukon Brewing from Whitehorse, Wood Buffalo Brewing from Fort McMurray, Yellowhead Brewing Company from Edmonton, Millstreet Breweries from Ottawa and Shock Top Brewery from St. Louis鈥攏ot to mention the Jasper Brewing Company from right here in Jasper.
There will also be half a dozen wine vendors and some liquor and spirit vendors, as well as finger food, including pretzel sliders with carved suckling pig and beer onions; smoked trout on apple walnut salad; pastrami rolls with horseradish and herbs; meatloaf with sweet mustard; and for dessert, Bavarian cream with a variety of toppings.
鈥淥ur chef is German, so we kind of wanted to do a pseudo Bavarian Oktoberfest kind of thing,鈥� said Bielec. 鈥淗e鈥檚 going to have some really cool German-based food.鈥�
This is the first year for the event, but Bielec is already dreaming of the future. In his visions, he can see Br眉topia becoming an outdoor festival, with live music and a huge number of regional breweries and wineries taking part.
鈥淲e see ourselves in the next couple of years taking it outside and having a Maytoberfest.鈥�
But for now, as the event gets on its feet, it will be indoors at the hotel.
To purchase tickets, visit the Sawridge Inn. A portion of the ticket sale will go toward the ultrasound fund, administered by the Jasper Ladies Hospital Auxiliary.
鈥淎 ticket includes taxes, gratuities, a donation to the ultrasound machine and all the beer and food you can handle.鈥�
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
