Dogfish Head's Calagione wins Beard Award
Seven proved to be Sam Calagione's lucky number.
The founder and CEO of Milton's Dogfish Head Craft Brewery finally received a James Beard Award as the country's most Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional after being nominated for seven consecutive years.
The Beard medal was presented to Calagione at the "food prom," a culinary celebrity-heavy black-tie awards ceremony held Monday night at the Lyric Opera in Chicago.
"Thank you so much, I didn't expect this," Calagione said as he accepted the award from TV star Valerie Bertinelli, who mentioned she was born in Delaware. Bertinelli's co-presenter, Food Network star Jeff Mauro, mispronounced Calagione's name.
Calagione said the Beard Award was "mostly" in recognition of his 250 coworkers in coastal Delaware who believed in his experimental beers.
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"People thought we were insane in the mid-1990s," he said, grinning about the brewery that's long been known for its "off-centered" beers. But Calagione got teary-eyed when he credited and thanked his business partner, best friend and "high school sweetheart" Mariah, his wife, who in 1995 helped him create the popular Sussex County business that has become a tourist destination in Delaware.
The Lewes couple also own two Rehoboth Beach restaurants and a Lewes hotel.
The Calagiones spent part of the day on Monday brewing at Eataly Chicago, an artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace run with several partners including celebrity chefs/restaurateurs Mario Batali and Joe and Lidia Bastianich. Dogfish Head helps brew beers for Birreria Chicago, the third Eataly beer-themed restaurant and brewery. It also is involved with other Eataly Birreria restaurants in New York City and Rome.
Calagione is the only Delaware restaurateur to receive a Beard Award since the late Matt Haley, who ran the SoDel Concepts Restaurant Group in Sussex County, won in 2014. Haley received the Beard organization's Humanitarian of the Year Award for his philanthropy both in Delaware and Nepal. Haley died in a motorcycle accident a few months after receiving the award.
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Often called the "Oscars" of the culinary world, the Beard Awards ceremony is attended by some of the nation's most well-known and respected chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook authors and food journalists. James Beard awards are highly coveted by those in the American hospitality industry. This year's ceremony was hosted by "Modern Family" actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
Calagione, who has been nominated for a James Beard Award every year since 2010 but hasn't won, has often joked he is "Susan Lucci."
But being a repeat nominee, and being compared to the former soap opera actress, who finally received an Emmy Award after 18 tries, is a Beard tradition. New York chef Wylie Dufresne won a 2013 James Beard award for Best Chef – New York after being nominated 10 times, including for Rising Star Chef.
California winemaker Merry Edwards also had been nominated six times for the Outstanding Wine, Beer or Spirits Professional award. When she received the medal in 2013, Edwards joked that she felt like the Susan Lucci of the ceremony.
Still, Beard has seemed somewhat reluctant to recognize beermakers. Only two brewers, Fritz Maytag, the former owner of Anchor Brewing Co. in San Francisco, and Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver have received Beard medals since the awards were established in 1990.
The only other Delaware residents who have won Beard Awards are Hockessin residents Kathy Brennan, a food writer and cookbook author, and her husband Michael Steinberger, a wine writer. Both were honored in journalism categories.
In 2012, St. Mark's High School graduate Tom Douglas, who grew up in Newark and now lives in Seattle, won the James Beard Award as the country's Best Restaurateur.
The Calagiones are currently building a $4 million, 9,400-square-foot brewpub in downtown Rehoboth that will replace their aging, flagship Dogfish Head site at 320 Rehoboth Ave. The new location has been erected in the site's former parking lot. The opening is set for mid- to late May.
The original pub will remain open throughout the summer for guests to purchase merchandise and to fill growlers and crowlers to-go. The old building eventually will be razed and replaced with a beer patio that will connect the site to the Calagiones' seafood restaurant Chesapeake & Maine at 316 Rehoboth Ave., which they opened in March 2016.
Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico