Last Tuesday (Oct. 14) was the final night I was in Vegas for the biggest conference of the year (for my day job), and my boss suggested we should have our group dinner at Gordon Biersch. Apparently she had noticed one of the prior nights when I almost climbed out of the cab window as we passed the brewery and restaurant — hey, I thought I was going to be lost for 5 days amid Miller Lite and rum and Coke.

Once we were seated, only 4 of the 9 of us ordered a beer, which is fine by me because I wasn’t out on a beer crusade for anyone but myself. My boss even ordered a hefeweizen, though she had admitted to me that she’s not crazy about beer; I was thrilled that she was just willing to give it a try. Well, make that a 22 oz try. I had suggested the tasty hefe, but forgot to mention the size it would arrive as. I assured her that it was lower in alcohol than what she had assumed, and that we would not be wheeling her out the front door. Luck be a lady, she enjoyed it a lot, and now I need to make her a list of different hefeweizens she will need to try.

I’m not sure what my other 2 co-workers ordered, but I started my evening with Gordon Biersch’s seasonal, which was a festbier. This style is not normally my thing, but this brew was nice and malty, as well as crisp. I ordered the goat cheese ravioli in brown butter sauce with spinach, mushrooms and pine nuts, and the festbier was a nice complement.

My second beer for the evening was Gordon Biersch’s Schwarzbier, which I had tried before at the location in D.C., following Savor. Though I tend to prefer stouts, this was a pleasantly smooth dark beer to end my night with, and made a nice coda for the crazy days I had spent in Vegas, doing things that were not your typical Vegas-crazyness. Phew, it’s good to be home.

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