Jared Rouben doesn’t follow the rules of dining order. “I always start with cake,” said the Moody Tongue Brewing founder, and you can too at the Pilsen brewery’s tasting room opening later this month.
Simplicity is a virtue for the culinary-focused brewery, and the highly anticipated tasting room only has two pairing options: German chocolate cake and oysters.
“My favorite pairings are dessert and beer, and by the time we get to that, we’re either too full or too intoxicated or just exhausted,” Rouben said. “So if we’re starting with cake and beer, you’ve got no excuse. And as far as oysters, I feel like I can eat oysters and drink beer all day long.”
With 12 tap handles, the beer offerings are more plentiful, making the possible flavor pairings almost endless (trust me). Moody Tongue’s four year-round beers—Caramelized Chocolate Churro Baltic porter, Sliced Nectarine IPA, Steeped Emperor’s Lemon saison and Applewood gold—are always on offer, and the rest are a rotating selection of barrel-aged beers, including a chocolate barley wine and a sour.
While options may seem limited, approachable complexity is Moody Tongue’s strong suit. The German chocolate cake, made in-house by pastry chef Shannon Morrison, is a towering 12 layers, each carefully curated to complement characteristics of the beers. On the bottom is a crust made from a blend of chocolate cereal, butter, graham crackers and salted pretzels. The rest are alternating layers of chocolate cake, ground espresso-speckled cheesecake, caramel coconut pecan filling and chocolate buttercream covered in a glossy chocolate mirror glaze.
“I want a lot of rubbernecking going on when this cake goes into the room,” Rouben said. “We have the wrong piece of cake if we aren’t hurting necks when it’s being served.”
Rouben encourages guests to explore, but his servers are trained to thoughtfully guide patrons through pairings. While the porter might seem like the obvious pairing for the cake, Rouben, who trained at The Culinary Institute of America, loves the Applewood gold. Think of it like a sweet and smoky pairing at a barbecue. “We take that brisket, we rub it down with brown sugar and then we use fruitwood to smoke it,” he said.
The texture and flavor of the cake also change with each pairing, but lightness on the palate was a priority. Neither the cake nor the oysters should be too filling, which matches the goal for the beers—to make you want to have another.
The type of oyster on offer will rotate, but the presentation is simple—half shells on ice with lemon wedges (squeeze only if you must). The Steeped Emperor’s Lemon saison is the ultimate pairing.
Overall, comfort is key at the Moody Tongue tasting room, and it translates in the design. Rather than walk through the brewery, guests can enter on Peoria Street. Built in a 100-year-old glass factory, the space is open, airy and flooded with natural light from skylights. Clean and refined with mid-century modern accents, the 25-seat white marble bar is the undeniable focal point.
Designed by Jesse and Colleen Neuhaus in collaboration with K2 Studio Architects, the rest of the room is sectioned off into three spaces: a cozy cove with brown leather booth seating, extra-large four-top tables that mimic a traditional beer hall and a lounge area with vintage leather Eames-style chairs around a white-washed brick fireplace tucked between a brewer’s library of books donated from the Siebel Institute. The collection is one of the largest brewing libraries in the country, Rouben said, with books dating back to the 1930s. The handblown Austrian glassware, each nearly weightless vessel molded with a double bend for optimal aeration, is also part of the aesthetic. And even the water is thoughtful—choose from still or sparkling filtered through the brewery’s bright tank.
Moody Tongue’s tasting room is beer pairing made easy. And with only two menu options, there’s no need to worry about what the next table is ordering.
“Everyone’s got a fear of missing out. You get questions like ‘What’s the best thing [on the menu]?’ ” Rouben said. “You’re getting the best thing on the menu. There’s no missing out.”
The Moody Tongue tasting room (2136 S. Peoria St.) opens later this month with the following hours: 5 p.m.–midnight Thursday and Friday, noon–midnight Saturday, noon–11 p.m. Sunday and 5–11 p.m. Monday.
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