Rustico in Alexandria, VA is offering a rather exclusive beer and food pairing at their chef's table every Thursday night. Only four seats are available and each one costs $115. That will buy you a 6 course meal with accompanying beer pairings from their select of domestic and imported craft beers.

Their website implores hop heads and food geeks to indulge. Between the chef's enthusiasm for locally grown foods, and the beer expert Greg Engert behind the beverage selection, you probably can't go wrong with this dinner.

Rustico is rather well known for their extensive beer list, they have over 300 bottled beers and a rather sizable list of drafts. According to their website they have taps pulling Algäuer Cambonator (Doppelbock), Allagash Tripel, Bear Republic Big Bear Black Stout, BBC Jefferson's Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout, Bell's Two Hearted Ale, Brigand (Belgian Strong Pale Ale), Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn Brooklyner Weisse, De Glazen Toren Ondineke (Triple), Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu, Eggenberg Hopfenkönig Pils, Gouden Carolus Noël (Belgian Strong Dark Ale), Guinness Draught Stout, Grimbergen Dubbel (Dubbel), Harpoon Hibernian Ale (Irish Red Ale), Humboldt Red Nectar (Amber), Köstritzer (Schwarzbier), Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout, Lagunitas Dogtown Pale Ale, Meantime India Pale Ale, North Coast Scrimshaw Pilsner, Redhook Winterhook Winter Ale, Rogue Imperial Red, St. Louis Framboise, Smuttynose Barleywine Style Ale, Spaten Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse, Victory Hop Wallop, Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel, Witkap Pater Singel-Stimulo, and Wolaver's Brown Ale. For those of you not living in DC, this seems like the place to be, but you might want to call a cab after drinking half of those drafts.

Reservations must be made 24 hours in advance and will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis by calling 703.224.5051.See more info on their website. Rusticorestaurant.com

Yesterday, Feb. 4th, tickets went on sale for SAVOR--the American craft beer and food event that is being hosted here in Washington, DC. There will be 3 different sessions over the weekend of May 16th and 17th. Each session will be limited to 700 people to ensure maximum contact between attendees and the brewers! Tickets are $85 each--netting you small dishes and appetizers meant to match up with craft beers, a commemorative tasting glass, souvenir program, Craft Beer Taster’s Journal, and lots of 2-ounce samples of specially selected craft beers.

Not only do you get to pair food and beer during the sessions, you can also attend some great educational salons. Garret Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery and author of the Brewmaster's Table will be speaking about beer and cheese. Jim Koch of Boston Beer will be joining Randy Mosher (Radical Brewing and Seibel Institute) for a seminar on beer and food. To top it off, Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione will be going head-to-head with the assistant dean of the French Culinary Institute on Beer vs. Wine.

There is an awesome list of participating breweries at this event: 21st Amendment, Abita Brewing Company, Allagash Brewing Company, Avery Brewing Company, Blackfoot River Brewing Company, LLC, Boscos Brewing Company, Boston Beer Company, The Brooklyn Brewery, Clipper City Brewing Company, Deschutes Brewery, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Florida Beer Company, Flying Dog Brewery, Flying Fish Brewing Company, Foothills Brewing, Four Peaks Brewing Company, Free State Brewing Company, Full Sail Brewing Company, FX Matt Brewing Company, Great Divide Brewing Company, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Harpoon Brewery, Heiner Brau Microbrewery, Hoppy Brewing Company, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Legacy Brewing Co., Montana Brewing Company, New Albanian Brewing Company, New Belgium Brewing Company, New Holland Brewing Company, Otter Creek Brewing, Pelican Pub & Brewery, Port Brewing Company, Rock Art Brewery, Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, Rogue Ales, Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing, Smuttynose Brewing Company , Sprecher Brewing Company, Starr Hill Brewing Company, Stone Brewing Co., Stoudts Brewing Company, The Saint Louis Brewery, Inc, Tröegs Brewing Company, Two Brothers Brewing Company, and Williamsburg AleWerks.

Lots of allstars on that list. As happy as we are to see all these great breweries coming to town, it is a sad realization to see that DC doesn't have a hometown brewery to represent.

SAVOR will be hosted at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium located at 1301 Constitution Avenue, N.W. in Washington D.C.

For more information check out http://www.beertown.org/events/SAVOR/ or stay tuned here for more info as we get it.

The Wine Specialist (believe it or not) on M Street has been hosting a number of beer tastings lately. Despite the word Wine in their name, we can no longer ignore that they are doing this. Frankly we'd like to see more local beer sellers offering tastings like this! Thursday January 31, they are featuring the Petrus line of beers from Bavik, a Belgian brewery. They will be serving samples of the Petrus Dubbel Bruin Ale, the Petrus Gouden Tripel Ale, Petrus Winterbeer, and Petrus Blond Ale. On top of the free samples, they will be giving 10 percent off purchases for the tasting. The Wine Specialist is right around the intersection of M St and New Hampshire Ave NW mid way between Dupont and Foggy Bottom metros.