Tria’s holy trinity: wine, cheese and beer
By Suzi Nash
PGN Contributor
© Suzi Nash

TRIA, 1137 SPRUCE ST. Photo: Suzi Nash

One of the best weddings I ever attended was one where the bride decided to forego the usual entrée of baked chicken and overdone carrots and instead offered tables laden with hors d’oeuvres. It was nirvana.

Tria is a similar kind of heaven. Kind of like tapas, but with a twist.

Tria stands for the merger of wine, cheese and beer. Each is treated with reverence and paired in quirky combinations. Their newly opened second location at 1137 Spruce St. is not your typical noisy beer bar. Tastefully decorated with soothing earth tones and funky fixtures, it is the kind of atmosphere where you want to speak in quiet tones. Though lively conversations were being held at all the tables around us, they never escalated to the point where we had to shout to be heard. Nor is Tria a snobby winery. The wines on the menu are cleverly arranged in user-friendly categories such as Bubbly, Zippy and Sociable. Even the cheese is listed in categories from Clean and Stoic to Racy and Stinky.

The wait staff is also user-friendly. Dressed casually but tastefully in hip summer dresses or tank tops and designer jeans, they worked as a team. Everyone seemed to know his or her stuff. There was no scrambling for a piece of paper with the day’s specials scribbled on the back if asked a question. Each staff member was fully versed in the intricacies of the menu items.

We started off with an item from the popular Sunday School menu. Each Sunday, Tria offers a wine, cheese and beer selection with a little lesson on each of the offerings for half-price.

We sampled the Piave cheese from Italy ($3 on the Sunday menu). Listed as the younger brother of Parmigiano-Reggiano, it had a similar consistency but was slightly sweeter and nuttier. I will definitely add this to my repertoire of “cheese to serve that everyone will enjoy” cocktail party list.

It’s worth mentioning that Tria does its best to buy all locally grown produce and products. The cheeses are artisanal and the business tries to support local and small providers whenever possible (although there is a sizable international component). There is no mass-market beer here; it’s all microbrews and imports. It you’re looking for a cold Pabst, you won’t find it here. Neither will you find a Coke or a Pepsi. Trying to support the little guy, Tria buys from smaller specialty companies: You can get a tasty Virgil’s root beer, Reed’s Raspberry Ginger Brew or a delicious Passionberry iced tea.

From the snacks portion of the menu, I ordered the crab-stuffed piquillo peppers ($6.50). Having just returned from the Martha’s Vineyard and all the seafood I could eat, I was cautious about this order, but it was wonderfully refreshing. The mild pepper was stuffed with subtly flavored jumbo lump crabmeat with spring onion aioli. It was a good sharing dish.

My dining partner tried a Tria favorite, the truffled egg toast ($5), thickly cut bread with fontina cheese melted over the top with an organic egg cracked over the center. He seemed to enjoy it, but it looked like too much bread to me: I wanted to save room for more cheese.

For our salad, we tried the mixed greens with mission figs, Gorgonzola and pine nuts ($8.50). The figs were the best I’ve had with the exception of figs eaten straight off a tree in Greece. Hearty and flavorful, they were a good match for the strength of the blue cheese.

From the sandwich menu we tried the Spanish tuna with black-olive tapenade ($8.50). Served with an arugula salad on thickly cut bread, the tuna was fresh but a bit overpowered by the tapenade.

For the wet portion of our Tria experience, we decided to try the mead ($7.50). Not quite a beer and not quite a wine, mead is a fermented honey beverage. I was told that Tria is the only place in town to get a true mead, and they import theirs from South Africa. Spiced with apples, hibiscus, rosehips and cinnamon, it has an interesting floral aroma and flavor. It was a big hit at our table.

On recommendation, I also tried the Albarino wine from Spain ($8). A smooth white wine with a hint of honeysuckle, it was a perfect accompaniment to the various cheeses and appetizers. All the wines at Tria are offered both by the bottle and the glass to encourage experimentation.

Back to the cheese (you must try several): We next ordered the Nevat ($6.50) from the “Luscious” category on the menu. The Nevat was served with a fresh honeycomb from a local beekeeper. The honey was good enough to stand on its own, but paired with the buttery cheese it was a real treat.

Down to the “Approachable” section, we selected the petit Ardi Gasna ($7), a smooth but intense cheese from France served with a raspberry guava jam, and the Ewephoria ($6), a sweet crunchy cheese from the Netherlands found in the Stoic section of the menu and served with mango chutney. Both were great picks.

Throughout the meal, I munched on the spiced almonds ($2.50), a snack I thought I didn’t really care for until I realized that I’d eaten them all.

We wound down with the warm blackberry and white chocolate bread pudding ($6.50) from the sweets menu. Made fresh on the premises, this was a luscious dessert topped with a caramel citrus sauce and fresh blackberries.

The bread pudding was joined by the chocolate panna cotta ($6.50), a rich chocolate custard drizzled with an orange curd and served with candied orange peel. The combination of chocolate and orange made it feel like Christmas in July (well, August).

To wash it down, we had the Liefmans Frambozen beer ($9), a lovely raspberry-tinged brew that went down smoothly. We even ordered a few to go.

For those who want to expand their knowledge of the hops and the grapes beyond the Sunday School offerings, Tria has a fermentation school where you can take classes from winemakers, cheese makers, brew masters and other experts from all over the world. Check them out early as classes fill up rapidly.