Last night, at Euclid Hall's first anniversary party, executive chef Jorel Pierce wagged a fierce mustache, strutted around in a black tuxedo T-shirt, deftly broke down and butchered a beautiful 230-pound hog from Tender Belly Farm, squeezed out sausages, pulled out the dance moves, came through on his promise to dish out killer food, including duck-gizzard and duck confit nachos with foie gras chile nacho cheese, and then, after all that, managed to lose out to a flipping goldfish, tossing the wiggly-jiggly aggressor in his mouth and getting it halfway down his throat (with the help of a swig of beer), only to spit it back out again. Blame it on the beer, joked Pierce, who had lost the goldfish race (barely) to yours truly.
It was a bash to remember, but for those of you who missed it, you can live vicariously through our photo voyage. Herewith, the night in pictures.
Sausage balloons (naturally)! Pigs in a blanket. Fried catfish pooled in a sweet chile glaze. Oysters on the half shell. Chicken and waffles. Duck-gizzard and duck confit nachos with foie gras chile nacho cheese. Samplings of Euclid Hall's hand-cranked sausages. The whole hog from Tender Belly Farm. Off with his head! Butchery demonstration. Pierce did not have the winning goldfish. And, as a result of having the losing goldfish, Pierce had to eat it, which didn't go quite as planned. Moments later, it lunged from his throat and swam away.
