First of all, I had been looking for a good excuse to visit The American and try out new Executive Chef Michael Corvino's craftwork. Corvino is the latest in an impressive list of executive chef's at this storied Kansas City icon that includes James Beard Award winners Debbie Gold, Michael Smith, and Celina Tio. Corvino's menu for this event was a hybrid of items from his new dinner menu as well as a few courses designed specifically for this meal. Seeing items from the standard dinner menu was a nice surprise as it's not unusual for restaurants to simplify menu items when hosting a banquet-style event. A copy of our menu is below. None of the courses disappointed and the Cold Poached Lobster and Slow Roasted Pig were (IMHO) stellar.
![]() |
Food and beverage menu from the dinner. Click to enlarge. |
I was also more than a little intrigued by the concept of Beertails and Winetails - somewhat awkward terms for cocktails made with beer and wine respectively. This is certainly not a new concept (think micheladas or sangria) but cutting edge bartenders are taking the concept to new and exciting levels. That's what I wanted to see (and drink).
![]() |
True Masters: Doug Frost and Adam Seger |
On the beertail side of things we had Adam Seger. Seger is the creator of hum and balsam spirits and runs the cocktail programs for iPic Luxury movie theatres in the US and for WOOBAR at The W Singapore Sentosa Cove in Asia. This guy knows his way around a bar and is at the forefront of the beertail trend. Wondering whether this beertail thing was just a fad or a trend with legs, I put the question to Seger. "Beertails are a sustainable trend that is at the convergence of the craft beer movement and the cocktail renaissance," he explained. "As bartenders and mixologists are looking for new, high quality ingredients, they are now looking more and more at craft beer. Add to this the increasing awareness that beer is the most chemically complex alcoholic beverage in the world and you have a perfect storm. Beer also adds a texture and a light mouthfeel to a cocktail, details that are more and more appreciated as guests seek new experiences." Makes sense to me.
I appreciated all the beertails but asked Seger for the recipe for the Dark & Stoutly, modeled after the Dark & Stormy (dark rum, ginger beer, lime), as it seemed the most approachable for the home mixologist. The recipe is also below.
↙ Try This at Home ⤵
Missouri Mule (reimagined Moscow Mule)
Garnish with dried pineapple and grated fresh nutmeg. | Dark & Stoutly (reimagined Dark & Stormy)
|
_________________________________________
Photos
![]() |
Did I mention there were 12 drinks served per person? That left 96 glasses on the table at the end of the evening. (We refused to let the servers remove our empties) |
![]() |
First Course: Cold Poached Lobster with cantaloupe, whipped avocado, coral vinaigrette, long pepper. This is currently a salad course on The American Restaurant's menu. Get it while you can! |
![]() |
Second Course: Dates & Goat Cheese with fruit leather, pistachio, citrus curd, arugula. The secret here was to get a little of each ingredient onto your fork for a single bite. |
![]() |
Dessert: Cherry Cobbler with fritter, almond cake, tonka bean ice cream. |
It just shows that all of us love eating. Eye-catching food presentations will always appear to be the best for all gatherings especially if a party showcases cocktail food and finger foods together with wine as appetizers.
ReplyDelete