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.
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