These photos are from last night at the 1st Annual Sausage Fest, held at FIG Restaurant in the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. Our friends at Smog City Brewing are celebrating their first year in business and are pouring their fine brews at many events this October. When asked if I would not mind covering the event, I was honored and more than happy to do so. Over the years I have attended many events that might be described as a sausage fest, but this was the first one I attended that actually served sausage. In fact, if it were not for the sausage, there was no resemblance to any sausage fest I have photographed before.
Hosted by FIG’s Chef Ray Garcia, additional chefs included Vartan Abgaryan of Public Kitchen; Greg Daniels of Haven Gastropub; Daniel Mattern of Cooks County; Bernhard Mairinger of Bier Beisl and Kris Morningstar of Ray’s and Stark Bar. Participating breweries, besides Smog City Brewing, included Eagle Rock Brewing Company, Hopf Wheat Brewery, Noble Ale Works, Brouwerij West and several others. FIG’s Chef Garcia is a homebrewer and provided four brews that he made; they were all very good. Some of the chefs offered pairings with beers provided by homebrewers that they were friends with. It was a very fun event and everyone seemed to have a great time. I know I did and I am looking forward to the 2nd Annual Sausage Fest. Thanks again to Smog City Brewing for the hookup.
