Gino’s Steakhouse Features Upland Brewing Co. For ‘Beer Dinner’

Gino’s Steakhouse teamed up with Indiana Beverage to host Beer Dinner on Thursday night in Dyer; as part of Progressive Dining Group's, parent company to Gino's, event series featuring great food paired with unique activities. Those in attendance were treated to a delicious dinner featuring five courses from the menu at Gino’s as well as six outstanding beers from Bloomington, Indiana craft brewer Upland Brewing Company.

“Upland Brewing Co. has been around since 1998,” said Jenna Hayes, Craft Distributor for Lake County from Indiana Beverage. “They started brewing beer and did very well. They recently expanded in 2012 and went from 10,000 barrel capacity to 40,000 barrel. Right now they sell locally in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana.”

“They have an amazing sour program and a separate brewing facility that does their sours,” Hayes continued. “It’s rated one of the top sour programs in the country. Their bottles are only sold through a lottery system and they’ll do 40 different flavors throughout the year including kiwi, strawberry and all kinds of fresh fruits.”

“Today we have some of Uplands flagship beers here as well as Upland’s new Side Trail Series draft beers,” Hayes said. “These are speciality ales that aren’t available in packaged bottles. The one we have today is ‘Beard of Paradise’. It is a coconut aged pale ale created by an employee of Upland’s named Bender who used to work for NASA. He is currently their machinist. They still hand package their products at Upland so he built a machine that actually loads all the bottles on to a conveyor belt.”

“While Upland’s been around for quite some time, they’ve recently re-branded their styles,” said Hayes. “They’re really changing with the times. They still have they’re oldie but goodies but some new varieties as well. They just have great liquids that speak for themselves and they’re continuing to grow.”

Mary Vasquez, General Manager from Gino’s Steakhouse, coordinates Beer Dinner and has been working closely with Jenna and Indiana Beverage to bring new and exciting craft beers to the table.

“We try to do 1-2 Beer Dinners a year and the same with Wine Dinner, which we have coming up at the end of October,” Vasquez said. “We just pick one of our craft beers makers and feature some of their varieties along with some of the dishes we offer here at Gino’s.”

“Jenna has done quite a few Beer Dinners for me and she’s just a great person,” said Vasquez. “She’s taught me so much about craft beer. There’s so much that goes through the door now and there are so many different breweries. I met her two years ago and we’ve become a team since then.”

“There’s all these new breweries out there,” Vasquez continued. “I feel like Upland is kind of being forgotten about so I wanted bring them back into the restaurants and get people interested in them again because they really do have some great beers.”

To find out more about Gino’s Steakhouse and the great events they hold visit: http://www.ginossteakhouse.com/ and go to http://progressivedininggroup.com/ to see some of the other great restaurants from Progressive Dining Group.