A brewery known for pairing beer with fine dining is making a one-night stop in Columbus. Moody Tongue, the Chicago brewing company behind the world's only Michelin-recognized brewery restaurant, is teaming up with FYR Short North inside the Hilton Columbus Downtown for a seven-course beer-and-food pairing dinner on November 5.
The collaboration pairs FYR executive chefs Zach Warn and Todd Goodwin, who are creating the seven-course menu, with Moody Tongue co-founder and brewmaster Jared Rouben, who will handle the beverage pairings, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Tickets run $150 per person, and reservations are available now for the dinner. Moody Tongue was founded in Chicago in 2014 by Rouben and CEO Jeremy Cohn around a concept the brewery calls culinary brewing, with an emphasis on a discerning palate, according to J-1 Connect.
A Michelin Pedigree Behind the Pairings
The Dispatch reports The Dining Room at Moody Tongue has been recognized by the Michelin Guide since 2021. The restaurant became the first wholesale brewery restaurant in the world to earn Michelin recognition, holding two stars in 2021, 2022 and 2023 before dropping to one star in 2024 and 2025, per Wikipedia.
Rouben's resume explains why the brewery leans so heavily on fine-dining technique. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and the Siebel Institute of Technology, and worked in Michelin-starred kitchens including Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York and Martini House in Napa Valley before moving into commercial brewing, according to Charleston Wine + Food. He also developed chef-collaboration beer series at Goose Island Beer Company before co-founding Moody Tongue, the same source notes.
Inside Ohio's Largest Hotel
FYR Short North sits inside the 28-story, $220 million Hilton Columbus Downtown expansion, which opened in October 2022 and made the complex the largest hotel in Ohio with 1,000 rooms, per the Columbus/Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council. The expansion connected two towers across High Street with direct skybridge access to the Greater Columbus Convention Center, the trades council notes. USA Today named FYR to its Restaurants of the Year list in 2024.
The November dinner will include focaccia and butter to start, a salad with roasted root vegetables, goat cheese and mushrooms, heritage pork, dry-aged beef, a honeynut squash dessert and maple taffy, the Dispatch reports. The menu showcases several Ohio producers: Snowville Creamery, Black Radish Creamery and RL Valley Ranch.
Ohio Farms Get the Spotlight
Black Radish Creamery, based in Granville, Ohio, opened a cheese shop at Columbus' North Market; founder John Reese studied cheesemaking after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, according to Cheese Professor. Snowville Creamery, located in Pomeroy, processes grass-grazed, non-GMO milk containing 100% A2/A2 protein sourced from small family dairy farms in Meigs County and Southeastern Ohio, per LocalHarvest.
RL Valley Ranch, a fourth-generation, family-owned cattle operation in Athens, Ohio, supplies the grass-fed, grain-finished beef, dry-aged for a minimum of 21 days, that will appear on the menu, according to RL Valley Ranch. The ranch raises its own cattle feed and uses solar-powered water systems across its pastures, the same source states.
Beer Built for the Table
The beer lineup leans into Moody Tongue's pairing-first approach, with Yuzu Lager, Aperitif Pilsner, Cherry-Raz Berliner Weisse, Orange Blossom Blonde, Smoked Applewood Gold, Framboise and Caramelized Chocolate Churro Porter all on the list, per the Dispatch.
For Columbus diners, the November 5 dinner marks a rare chance to taste the brewery's pairing menu without leaving Central Ohio.
