Meeting Lucy or A Night of Great Beer and Food

I'm a touch late blogging about last weekend, but definitely want to write about the amazing experience I had. The 10+ hours of flying became an afterthought, the fellowship, atmosphere, beer and food were that sublime. I got to the Cathedral Hill hotel about 2:30, checked in and then met my mentor, Lucy Saunders, for the first time.
Lucy has a incredible wealth of food and beer knowledge and I love how understated she is. So many brewers, foodies, etc. are so "in your face" about all they know and who they've met. I was more impressed by her unassuming manner and could listen to her talk all day.
We met with Chef Bruce (I think that leaving out the chef part is like calling your doctor Jim or whatnot) and went over the menu and found out what beers were going to be there.
The Beer List
21st Amendment - Watermelon Wheat*
Bear Republic - Black Bear Stout*
Black Diamond - Wild Rice Ale
Drakes - Denoginizer
Half Moon Bay - Devils Slide Summer Ale
Lagunitas - Maximizer*
Moonlight - Reality Czech Pils (my favorite)
Russian River - Damnation
Triple Rock - Titanium Pale

*Did not try

The event was not billed as a dinner but rather as a selection of appetizers. I figured out that if you were hungry, you needed to arrive on time and be ready to grab food while it was available. If not, you probably wouldn't get to try everything. Luckily, I was sitting in just the right place and had the proper eager-and-desperate-for-food look on my face.

I could go on and on about the food...All of it was delicious.

GRILLING WITH BEER MENU
Cured, Skewered and Seared Salmon with Sweet Dill Mustard Sauce - my favorite
Porter Lime Marinated Grilled Baby Lamb Chops
Lagunitas Imperial Stout Marinated Kurobuta Pork Skewers w/Bear Republic Brown Ale BBQ Sauce
Grilled Marinated Steak Skewers with Point Reyes Blue Cheese Aioli & Grilled Yellow Pepper Catsup
Damnation Brined Grilled Eggplant
Display of Artisanal Cheeses (and Fruit)
Cream of Grilled Wild Mushroom Soup in Asian Spoons (a spoonful just wasn't enough!)
Grilled Heirloom Green Zebra Tomato Gazpacho with Dungeness Crab - possibly my lease fave, was just served too cold
Butter-Poached Gulf Prawns with Grilled Heirloom Tomato Cocktail Sauce

Lucy gave me a book called Recipes Into Type, which tells you how to write cookbooks so that they are put together correctly and easy for the reader to follow. I'm enjoying it and will be testing at least one of her recipes this weekend.
As soon as I get my photos developed/on the computer, I will post them.
An awesome weekend, thanks so much Lucy!