IF you love good food and you love beer, and your idea of a fun and exciting night out with friends is munching on delicious savory bites in between sipping your favorite beer and carrying on a nice, light conversation, then you’d love to hang around Draft Gastropub. One of the most “happening-est” places in the metro, Draft is located at The Fort Strip in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, where the night is constantly young for party people, and it recently rolled out new menu items for its second quarter specials, all crafted by its celebrity executive chef, Carlo Miguel.
There are actually five new dishes on the menu—Chicken Pie, Meat Pie, Triple Threat Sandwich, Stracci and Beignet.
Chicken Pie (Php380) is a savory pie filled with delicious happiness, as it combines chicken, mushroom and double-smoked bacon fillet, served Tiger Style with mashed potatoes on top, mashed peas and gravy smothered on from the top. It’s a light meal in itself because if you finish it on your own, it can be quite filling.
Meat Pie (Php380) looks like the twin of the Chicken Pie. Chef Carlo’s version of a pub favorite, Meat Pie is a beef and pepper pie, served Tiger Style, also with mashed potatoes, mashed peas and gravy smothered on top.
Triple Threat Sandwich (Php480) brings the juiciness and exquisite flavor of roast beef into a huge gourmet sandwich, as it brims with the triple combination of generous roast beef slices, Hungarian sausage and slow barbecued pulled pork, topped with caramelized onion and coleslaw in a soft burger bun. It is served with a basket of fries and ketchup.
Then there’s Stracci (Php350) for pasta lovers. The homemade stracci pasta is amazing because it makes use of spent grains from beer brew. Traditionally, spent grains that result from brewing beer are used only as fertilizers, but Draft has found creative culinary uses for them, first incorporating them into freshly baked breads and cookies and, now, into fresh pasta as well. The newly rolled out Stracci on the menu is just that, fresh pasta made with spent grains, cooked with shrimps, chorizo and chili, and tossed in butter, Parmesan cheese and herbs. Perfect combination!
For dessert, Beignet (Php220) is what’s new. A simple dessert, the Beignet is twice-cooked ciabatta-shaped ‘doughnut’ without a hole, tossed in confectioners’ sugar and served with a warm dark chocolate sauce. It is expected to become as much a crowd favorite as Draft’s signature desserts Sticky Date and Toffee Pudding (Php245) served with butterscotch sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, Classic Baked Cheesecake (Php325) with a choice of strawberry or blueberry to go with it, and Draft Banana Split (Php340) which is a platter of caramelized bananas with homemade chocolate chip cookies, chocolate fudge brownie, three scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and walnuts drizzled with Leffe beer salted caramel.
Speaking of beer, Draft offers a number of dishes that have been cooked with beer, including Leffe Dark Beer Bacon and Onion Soup (Php295), which is onion soup with mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses on sourdough toast; Angry Drunk Mussel Pot (Php780), with the mussels steamed with Hoegaarden Beer, bacon, chili, onion and fresh parsley, and served with frites, aioli and sourdough bread; and Beer Barbecue Chicken (Php450), which is lager marinated barbecue chicken, served with frites side salad and Berk’s barbecue sauce.
Running Draft Gastropub is The Distillery Group, which is the pioneer in European-inspired gastropubs in the metro and specializes in high quality comfort food served in a pub setting. It primarily serves premium quality European draft beers, fresh brews and imported booze which are some of the best in the metro.
(Draft Gastropub can be found at Unit C, The Fort Entertainment Center, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City; with telephone number 0917-8195830; G/F, Greenbelt 2, Ayala Center, Makati City; with telephone number 0916-4697436; and Molito Commercial Complex, Madrigal Ave. corner Alabang Capote Road, Muntinlupa City; with telephone number 0917-8087927.)
