Date Night

Colleen and I treated ourselves to a "date night" Friday evening. It being a Friday in Lent, our choices were limited to non-meat dishes. That meant we pretty quickly decided on the Fish & Chips at Park Lane Tavern. The lightly battered white fish filets are quite tasty and one of our favorite menu items there. Of course, we needed some good beers to go along with the food. I prefer a smooth, maltier beer to go with the light flavor of the fish, rather than a strong, bitter hoppy beer. Park Lane's menu offers several apropos selections.

Colleen opted for Fuller's Extra Special Bitters. This English Ale is a dark reddish-brown in color with a mildly bitter, nutty flavor. For my selection, I opted for a Belhaven Scottish Ale. This beer is a available in several ABV ranges, Park Lane serves the 3.9% ABV "session beer." The beer comes to the table looking like a light-colored milkshake, with a cascade of nitrogen induced carbonation. The flavor is mild toffee and caramel, with just a hint of bitterness. As expected, the mouthfeel is creamy and smooth, leaving behind a faint sweetness. It was quite enjoyable, even for this fan of big and bold ales.

We finished our meal with a shared dessert of Irish Whiskey Bread Pudding. The Park Lane version of this classic is served with ice cream. It's tasty, but the whiskey part was not quite noticeable. I prefer the version we serve around here. However, we still enjoyed it very much it while we sipped a couple of mugs of coffee and relished a fun evening out.