Beer Cheese Week: 14 Winchester restaurants with specials under $13
If you love beer cheese and are of the mind that a one-day festival isn’t nearly enough to celebrate this illustrious dish, then listen up.
Winchester, which has long been home to the annual Beer Cheese Festival celebrating their signature dish, has been quietly holding a Beer Cheese Food Week.
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I’m not saying they have been keeping the good stuff to themselves, but this is the fifth year and this is the first I’m hearing of it.
“We started this event during the pandemic as a sort of boost for businesses that were hit the hardest,” said Cindy Banks, executive director of the Winchester Chamber of Commerce, which puts together this decadent indulgence, dubbed “The Cheesiest Week of the Year.”
The first year there were a dozen participants; this year there are 14. All the dishes are $12.99 and they will be available May 20-26, ahead of the annual Beer Cheese Festival which is on June 8, which is also a huge separate foodie event with dozens of commercial and amateur beer cheeses to try and vote on.
Why Winchester and why beer cheese? Hall’s on the River, which has been in the area for decades, claims to be the originator of beer cheese, which if you don’t know is beer mixed with, you guessed, beer. The beer is usually a flat stout, which gives the cheese a tang, with spicy hot sauce or peppers or dry mustard for bite. And people in the area take the dish so seriously that they give actual trophies to make it really well.
By the way, Winchester doesn’t have sole claim to Kentucky’s beer cheese glory: Country Boy Brewing also will host its annual beer cheese competition on May 19 at 1 p.m. in the Georgetown Taproom.
Could this beer cheese recipe be the one Hall’s is known for? Make it and decide.
Beer plus cheese equals perfect party snack for Super Bowl or any time
So, naturally Winchester Beer Cheese Food Week is also a competition. The main (only?) requirement is that each restaurant use beer cheese in its entry. Restaurant goers can vote on which is their favorite dish and the winner is crowned Beer Cheese Food Week Champion.
Beer Cheese Food Week: Restaurants with beer cheese specials
The participating restaurants in Winchester include:
Amy’s Asian Kitchen, 68 S. Main St., will have Crispy Crab & JP’s Aged Beer Dip
Bell on Wheels, a food truck, will have Giddy Up Horsey Steak Sliders
DJ’s Steakhouse Bar & Grill, 836 Bypass Rd., will have DJ’s Brat-tomic Bomb
Engine House Pub and Pizza Parlour, 9 W. Lexington Ave., will have Beer Cheese Bangers.
Full Circle Market, 1988 Bypass Rd., will have Cluck Kick’in Chicken Sliders
Hall’s on the River, 1225 Athens Boonesboro Rd., will have Original Snappy Cheese Nachos
Jay K’s Cafe, 4636 Old Boonesboro Rd., will have What’s Up Slaw? Pulled Pork Sandwich
La Trattoria Italian Tavern, 30 N. Main St., will have La Beer Cheese Pizza Pie
Loma’s at the Opera House, 103 S. Main St., will have Brouski’s Brewsky Cheese Twist
Smokin’ Howards, 2480 New Boonesboro Rd., will have This Little Piggy Loves Beer Cheese
South Main Grocery, 385 S. Main St., will have Fiesta Beer Cheese Salad
Tacos Luna y Mas, 1333 Fulton Rd., will have De Queso Con Cerveza Burger
The View at Southwind Golf Course, 175 Clubhouse Dr., will have Yo Home Fry, Try These!
Woody’s Sports Bar and Grill, 923 Bypass Rd., will have (Don’t) Knock on Woody’s Quesadilla
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