Hell and Damnation!
Are you going to give some sort of talk/mention of the beer before each course?
I’d love to, but it’s a regular restaurant and not everybody will be ordering my specific menu and not everybody will be ordering the beer pairings. We’ll just include something on the menu, printed, I think.
So it won’t be like a party then. Your friends will show up at their leisure and have dinner.
I read the recipe for the chicken. Will it be pan-fried or does the restaurant have a deep fryer?
Nah, but I know my friends will like the food. What interests me more is seeing what the ‘average jacques’ reaction is.
I bet they have a deep fryer, but who knows what’s going on with their oil. We’ll play it by ear, but otherwise it’ll be pan-fried.
Pan-fried is traditional. At least in western NC where my wife’s family is from. Her mom (and my wife as well) used to make awsome fried chicken with mashed potatoes and pan gravy. Probably why I can’t eat it anymore. 
Pan-fried and deep-fried are quite different. Pan-fried is denser crustier crunch and more homestyle. What really can make badass fried chicken is a pressure-fryer, and do it in 15 minutes rather than 30. Keller’s recipe looks like it lends itself to pan frying.
Well that wins it then… I prefer crunch!
Well, hmpf. Turns out that because this was going to be on a Sunday, the “brunch” that the restaurant offers means that my menu would only be served for the evening. A fact which was unmentioned to me until I called to confirm it with the restaurant. So all of the people that I told to reserve for lunch, would have arrived expecting to try my menu but instead been told that it wasn’t available. Adding insult to injury, when my wife called to see about a reservation, she was told that the menu isn’t available for lunch, but would be there for dinner, however, a friend called to reserve for lunch, and was told the opposite - that the menu would be available for lunch but not dinner.
So I cancelled the whole thing. Not all is lost, however, because the guy who owns the bar that I sometimes cook for (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/19965) said he’d be happy to have me cook whatever it was I was going to cook for them, for lunch. And in seeing opportunity where some might see defeat, now we’re trying to work out a monthly pop-up brewpub concept, that would be an ongoing thing. Pretty neat!
I’m still amazed this is even possible.
Which part?
Getting to design a menu for a restaurant sounded really cool and something I’ve never heard of. The ‘pop-up brewpub’ concept blew my mind.
Ah, nice 
Thanks! We’ll see how it goes.
Facebook event:
I am jealous of your proximity to Paris…
I’d say yes, but it’s a long drive (and wet).
meh
Ah but I see proximity has jaded you!
Lunch went SUPER well. Had 21 people in total, not a lot, but enough to recuperate costs. Next month, Garrett Oliver is coming to Paris, and we’re going to try to get him to be at the beer lunch then. On the menu: Jambalaya?
Bien!
Or Gumbo!
Sounds like a fun challenge phil. I think your pairings sound decent enough unless you want to go out on a limb and take some chances. However, your pairings seem like they’ll work fine.
Best of luck to you!