Given that I, and several other beer writers, dubbed last year as “The Year of the Beer Dinner,” it’s nice to see the food world catch up. The food and restaurant trade publication Flavor & Menu released their top ten trends in the food business. Unsurprisingly, at least to those of us in the beer world, their number one pick for culinary trend is food paired with beer.

From the press release:

Top Culinary Trend – Tapping Beer’s Potential: Now that beer is the new wine, thanks to a flood of new craft beer products and imports, chefs are creating menus that match beer lists in their complexity and casual-yet-sophisticated approach to pub food. Beyond the usual pretzels and peanuts, these post-modern pub menus present hearty food that’s designed to pair with beer.

Nice. This is one trend that really can’t go too mainstream, in my opinion.