Q & A by Tom Maicon with a little help from Mike Stock:

1. “If it’s a brew house then it can’t have good food.” How difficult has it been to overcome this stigma?
Answer: 5 Seasons Brewing Company is, unfortunately, quite unique. For a number of reasons (alcohol prohibition, commercial agriculture, processed foods, to name a few) America has been plagued by some pretty poor incarnations of restaurant / brewery combinations. Due to the high cost of brewing equipment and the resources required to run a brewery and restaurant simultaneously, larger companies often own these operations. Consequently, most people in the States have come to assume: if you make your own beer then probably the food will be poor quality "pub fare," and sometimes the beer will be second rate, too.

When Dennis Lange and I planned “The 5,” our vision was to have a non-pretentious restaurant / brewery offering hand-crafted foods and brews based upon using only the finest seasonal ingredients. In our world, handcrafted beer and food based on using natural ingredients picked at the peak of their flavor and prepared carefully made perfect sense.

At first, more people were skeptical about that concept than we expected. My partner and I were able to change their minds by having them sit at our tables and at our bar – to experience the difference for themselves. Fortunately, our early guests returned frequently – and most are still regular customers. They were instrumental in helping us promote our vision by bringing their friends who also loved enjoying fresh food and high quality, hand-crafted beer – served in an atmosphere where they felt comfortable. Despite the challenges, word-of-mouth has spread and 5 Seasons has steadily grown.


2. Speaking of challenges, how challenging do you find it as an organic-inspired chef to create a menu based around beer?
Answer: That is the easy part. When you source the quality ingredients – often grown here in Georgia – it is fairly simple to pair them with our seasonal beers. It has been said that there are roughly 300 discernable flavors in a glass of wine as opposed to more than 2000 in a handcrafted beer. As a result, the successful pairing of beer and food is nowhere near as difficult as great food and wine combinations. Don't get me wrong – if you are not careful, you still can have flavors that either conflict or overwhelm but the odds are in your favor when pairing any food with one or more of the many styles of beer.


3. Who was, or is, the greatest influence on you as a chef?
Answer: I have gained so much from so many sources it is difficult for me to pinpoint my single greatest influence. To pick a few, I would have to say: my father, John Larkworthy, along with Thomas Keller and Julia Child. My dad was one of the pioneer chefs supporting organic principles long before they became fashionable. I learned, as I worked, beside him in our small family restaurant.


4. How involved are you with the local organic farming community? And, how important is that relationship?
Answer: I have always believed in supporting local farmers. For example, a wonderful byproduct of brewing is “spent grain” which we supply to some organic farms in the Atlanta area for use as composting or as feed for organically raised animals. The local organic farmers appreciate our contribution and have reciprocated by strongly backing our kitchen on the supply side – creating a cycle. This, and the fact that many farmers love a good beer, has made our mutually supportive relationship, along with our regulars, become a growing and strengthening community. Everyone benefits: the farmers, the regular families, and 5 Seasons. It’s a unique and exciting, good thing.


5. If you could build a super 5 Seasons, where would it be and what would you change?
Answer: Today we are pleased to be one-of-its-kind in the Southeast. However if we were to do a “Super 5” I think we would have to locate it in New York or Napa Valley. Both regions enjoy ready access to ingredients as well as the type of people who appreciate our approach. As for changes, I would want more abundant natural light in our kitchen and dining rooms, a larger garden than we have now, and an expanded cellar area to store our bottle-conditioned beers.


6. Do you think the “small plates” craze is over? And what will/could replace it?
Answer: To be sure, the small plate fad of the last few years will be eclipsed by the next trend but I feel strongly that having a choice of a variety of smaller portions of more intensely focused flavors will have an increasingly important place in the food world.


7. Any chance we’ll see 5 Seasons offering any of their beer bottled for sale in Georgia?
Answer: At this time, the laws in Georgia prevent us from having a restaurant where we serve food and sell bottles off premises. We are trying to change things, because obviously, it is very silly law.


8. One more before I let you go, what can we expect from 5 Seasons Brewing in the near future?
Answer: On the food front: we will soon position Georgia organic Black Pig (or "Kurobuta" pork) on the menu. Our farmer friends, Wes and Charlotte Swancy from Riverview Farms, have promised us the first available in Georgia – and we are extremely excited about it. We are hoping to have one by Father’s Day. In beer land: we have a Barley Wine aging for the holiday season and our Double, Triple and Brune are all coming on tap in the next quarter. With Crawford Moran from Atlanta’s Dogwood Brewing Company, we recently brewed "Quintessence," which will be cask-conditioned for the next 3 or 4 months. It has 5 malts, 5 hops, aged 5 months ... well, you get the idea, and it should be delicious – we can hardly wait for it to come of age.


Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule for us, Dave. It's been a pleasure.