Beer Diary #20 - Mike - Goose the Market's Enoteca

We've been fans and friends of the folks at Goose the Market for a while now - even being lucky enough to have them walk us through six courses of beer and cheese a while back. It was with great interest that we followed the developments that lead to their latest addition - the Enoteca.


What's the Entoeca? From their blog:

In Italy, the neighborhood enoteca is where wine is stored, bought, and consumed. In Indy, the Goose's new Enoteca is a casual place to drink wine.

Order a glass or quartino from the rotating menu of about a dozen wines or choose your own bottle from the cellar shelves. The cooler is stocked with a changing selection of six craft beers, and some small plates--perfect for sampling and sharing--will calm those hunger pangs between sips.

A casual place to drink wine, eh? Well we couldn't help but notice those beer options. So we stopped in.


After our host, Gabriele, walked us through our food options, we chose the Charcuterie plate ($12), which featured green krauts, mustard, culatello (ham), duck and pistachio terrine, and elk and blueberry salami.

Gabriele explained that with that much variety of food, our beer options were limited only by the six selections in the cooler. I chose Augustiner Bräu Maximator ($4) - a German Dopplebock I had never had before. Initial nips at the glass revealed a sweetness in nose, cinammon-like flavors without the spicy bite or heat, notes of toffee, maltiness, sweetness in finish, and a chewy mouthfeel.


Experiments with pairing follow.

Culatello (a lean and chewy sort of ham) + beer - This was the always promising combination of sweet + salty, very easy to like. The combination of krauts wrapped in the Culatello brought out an almost strawberry-like sweetness, which worked well with the raisiny sweetness of the dopplebock.

Elk and Blueberry Salami + beer - The light gaminess and spiciness in the elk was balanced out by the small bits of blueberry sweetness. These flavors worked well and carried over into the sweet maltiness in the beer. The elk featured the rich flavors you might find in deer sausage, but lighter, less gamy, and with a little more complexity of flavor.


Duck and Pistachio Terrine + beer - There's a flavorful, almost warming burst of spiciness lives right in the middle of the terrine, but the beer also brings out a peppery bite in the finish. The sweetness from the duck fat was met and then followed through with the beer.

The meal was an experience in richness of flavor, but also an experiment in texture and balance when experienced with beer. Augustiner Bräu Maximator is a richly flavored beer that stood up to the cornucopia of flavor spread across the board - not an easy task.


We look forward to the sort of food and beer events that are sure to follow in this new space at the Goose - keep your ears open as we hope to put an event together in the space in the near future.

Goose the Market's Enoteca is located in the basement of the current Goose the Market space, 2503 N. Delaware, Indianapolis.