Butcher & Bee's Hanukkah Beer Dinner Returns

I ate a lot of really good food last year. But the single best meal I ate, if one forced me to pick, was the Butcher & Bee Hanukkah Beer Dinner, which, thanks to that Jewish lunar calendar, fell on Christmas Eve in 2016. 

It was a magical night that at several points brought me near tears of happiness, as it combined nostalgic Hanukkah food of my youth with dishes from one of my favorite Nashville kitchens. When broccoli latkas arrived, a twist on the traditional fried potato pancakes, served with Butcher & Bee's tangy signature whipped feta, I could have eaten the appetizer and gone home happy. Of course I didn't, my friends and I continued to feast: on brisket with a black garlic gravy; crispy rice (another Butcher & Bee staple, this time made with chicken skins, a nod to Hanukkah's practice of eating fried food); and sufganiyot, the traditional Hanukkah jelly doughnut. Courses were paired with craft beers, chosen and presented by Rhizome Productions founder Matt Leff.  

Credit for my happiness goes to Leff, who as a Jew in Nashville, says he realized there wasn't going to be much going on in town when Hanukkah and Christmas Eve collided. Leff approached Butcher & Bee Executive Chef Bryan Lee Weaver, who isn't Jewish, but is always open new culinary challenges, and co-owner Michael Shemtov, who was born in Israel. 

My Hanukkah wish came true as the Butcher & Bee Hanukkah Beer Dinner is back this year, Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. This year Butcher & Bee's Sous Chef Scott Littman (no relation) is taking over the menu from Weaver, to bring his own Jewish traditions into the mix. The whipped feta on the latkas, for example, says Weaver, was a nod to the sour cream that often shows up on potato pancakes. There will likely be a gravlax added to the menu for 2017, and some other Butcher & Bee spins, but the basics continue: a family style dinner with five beer pairings from Rhizome.  

The dinner is served family style, true to Butcher & Bee's mission of being the kind of place where you meet the person seated next to you and share food with your party. "When you just get one plate in front of you, it just feels more stuffy to me," Weaver says. "We want it to be more of a celebration for people. We want people to see that we are a happy place where people can celebrate." 

Beers will include the annual Hanukkah beer from Shmaltz Brewing, which this year is brewed with cocoa nibs (a nod to traditional chocolate gelt), an aged cherry lambic from Oud Beersel and a stout as a dessert beer. "You can drink IPAs all over the place. As with everything Rhizome does, we've tried to give a nice variety of things that are not as popular." 

Tickets for the Butcher & Bee Hanukkah Beer Dinner are $80, including tax and gratuity. The dinner sold out quickly last year, so, unlike that oil that miraculously lasted all eight nights of Hanukkah, this resource is finite. Get your tickets online here.