Where Beer and Italian Food Meet--and Play Very Well Together

True confession first.

As much as I enjoy beer, I usually opt for red wine with Italian food. It's not only because red wine, usually Two Buck Chuck at my house (though it may be up to Three now), seems to go better with it, but because the "bready" flavors and texture of that food genre just seem to be "bread overload" when combined with the liquid bread aspect of beer.

But that all changed last night at a Mooresville restaurant called 90 Novanta, a delightful Italian restaurant where we gathered for a family night out before the "big day" of my son's kidney transplant surgery set for June 1.

Run by two brothers transplanted from New York, who also own two other restaurants, the place features authentic Italian cuisine from a variety of locales in Italy. Using special wood-fired ovens that cook unique pizzas in just sixty to ninety seconds, the restaurant puts out some incredibly delicious food. But more importantly, the owner, Vince Caminiti (probably in concert with brother Keith), orders some great beers with rotating taps that are expressly chosen to pair up expertly with the food.

And that they do very well, at least for this palate. I ordered a Wicked Weed Pernicious IPA (7.6% ABV) with my appetizer of four-meat sliders, and the result was nothing short of magical.

Equally remarkable was my entree of Pancheri Rossa, a dish of wide rigatoni covered with pink cream sauce crispy pancetta (bacon) peas and cipolline (mini onion). I augmented that with an amazing IPA from Triple C called "Babymaker," a beer that usually comes in just half-pints due to its 8.5% ABV. Comely server Jessica allowed yours truly a full pint upon presentation of my business card, and the rest was delicious pairing history. Clearly, Caminiti knows his foods as well as his beers.

Whether "Babymaker" actually lives up to its billing, I'm well beyond testing at my life stage, but Shakespeare's warning in Macbeth is likely eternal: "Drink sir, is a great provoker of three things….nose painting, sleep and urine...It provokes the desire, but takes away the performance."

Who needs that?

But 90 Novonta certainly performed well beyond expectations in both the beer and food departments. So well, in fact, that I plan a return visit to celebrate what we hope will be a successful surgery on June 1.

When that happens, we might recreate this scene...

Cheers !

The PubScout