On Sunday, March 14th, Fair Food Philly will hold its 6th Annual Brewer's Plate at the Penn Museum, showcasing the city's premiere restaurants and craft breweries. Fair Food is Philly's chapter of the national organization Buy Fresh, Buy Local. Each year the Brewer's Plate features fine food and frothy beer - all local, all delicious, and on a mission to change the way we eat. What could be better? The Brewer's Plate is Fair Food's marquee fundraising event and they're anticipating a sell out, but a few tickets remain. We spoke with Christina Dowd of Fair Food to get the lowdown on what to expect on Sunday.

Trevor: What will the guest experience be like at this year's Brewer's Plate?

Christina: This year's event is held in the Penn Museum in the archeology building. We'll be filling up the rotundas with tables of restaurant/brewery pairings. Visitors come, get a glass for the evening, and the restaurants supply the food and the rest of the essentials. The breweries have been great in terms of giving us information on what they're bringing to the event. We only ask for one beer, but some are bringing two or three different types.

What are the participation requirements for the restaurants and breweries?

We ask that all participants are within a 150 mile radius of Greater Philadelphia. The restaurants are all in the city, while a few of the breweries are a little further out. Not all are Fair Food members, but those who are will be highlighted with a sign at their station during the tasting.

Who are current Fair Food members?

We are redoing the website right now and a new list of current members should be posted to the web shortly. We expect a lot of growth in the coming year. This is a big time for us to corral new people, and get a lot of people inquiring about membership.

Has the event always taken place at the Penn Museum?

It's the second year at the Penn Museum, but this is our sixth Brewer's Plate. We started at Reading Terminal Market but quickly outgrew it. We moved to Independence Hall but became too big for that as well. Now we have it at the Penn Museum, and the museum backdrop adds a nice ambiance. We expect a capacity of 1,000 ticketed visitors. Tickets are still available, but we usually sell out. We're very close this year - it usually comes down to the wire.

What's different about this years event?

Aside from some of the new participants, we're also offering a shuttle service from the 30th Street transit station to Penn Museum from 3:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at one dollar per trip. Sometimes people don't realize how the beer samples can add up, and public transit is important in itself.

Will there be any sort of lecture or discussion panel on local food?

This year's event will just be a general tasting. In the future we'll likely bring more attention to our projects and goals, but for now we leave it up to the Fair Foods members to pass along the mission as they interact with guests.

How do you decide on the pairings?

Sometimes the restaurants or brewers have an idea who they'd like to be paired with, otherwise we have in-house experts to help with deciding the best matches. Some are straight forward, while others are more sophisticated like a pairing a dark chocolate treat with a chocolatey stout. We ask for one beer and one dish from each participating organization, but many will end up bringing 2 or 3 beers/dishes to be sampled.

What does "the brewer" have to do with fair food?

To start, brewers are very eager to be involved. We're currently in the works for setting guidelines for local brewers to be members of Fair Food. Since most hops are grown on the West Coast, it's a much more difficult situation than with our restaurants and food purveyors. It's still in the works, but we're hoping to have brewers develop some selection of beers made from local grains or hops.

Fair Food was originally a part of White Dog Enterprises, but no longer?

We were, but I believe White Dog was disbanded and is being reorganized under the umbrella of the Sustainable Business Network, probably under a different name. Fair Food is now in the process of becoming its own non-profit organization. I assume the new incarnation of White Dog will be on the business side of things, while we're more on the side of helping establish those relations.

You've been with the event since it's inception, aside from the event's size how have you seen it change over the years?

It's an event that's just a good idea; people really want to get involved. The growing popularity means we've had to take participants on a first come first serve basis. We started with a cap at 50 – 25 restaurants, 25 breweries – but this year we've upped it and there will probably be 65 merchants involved.

Trevor Dye is a freelance journalist covering all things thrifty, diy, green, and vegetarian. He resides in West Philly and moonlights as a yoga teacher. His work has appeared on Brokelyn.com.

Article photograph from http://www.thebrewersplate.org, "Events" photograph from Marty M.Ito, via Flickr (Creative Commons), "Philly" photograph from camardella, via Flickr (Creative Commons).