This beer sommelier reigns where she pours

Los Angeles Times, The Guide, February 2008

CHRISTINA Perozzi carne to Los Angeles to become a musician - "I thought I was going to be Norah Jones or something,  she jokes - but instead of musical fame, she found beer. The 35-year-old beer sommelier at Santa Monlca's Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Seasonal Kitchen says that after working her way up the ranks at the famed beer-centric restaurant Father's Office: she "geeked out on beer." "I was bartending so I was in front of people and talking to them all the time," Perozzi recalls. With her warm personality and husky voice - which frequently comes in the form of a deep belly laugh - Perozzi has away of commanding attention at a table.

"I hate it when beer is dumbed down for Americans and especially when it's dumbed down for women," says the  Illinois native. "This is beer's time to come into the fine-dining world."

And at Rustic Canyon, Josh Loeb's low-key bastion of seasonal, sustainably grown, high-class Mediterranean-style cookIng, the dIm overhead lighting, cream- and-forest-green palette, half-arched ceiling and quaint, private booths provide an intimate setting for Perozzi's inspired pairings.

She might put chef Samir MohBjer's seared diver scallops (with sherry dressing, lemon zest and salty, fried capers) on a dance card wIth De Glazen Toren Salson D'Erpe-Mere, an unfIltered Belgian beer the color of golden straw - the scallops' lemon zest playing flawlessly off the cltrus-y flavor of the beer.

Another Perozzi pairing might bring a cloud-like, flourless chocolate walnut cake together with Quebec- brewed Unibroue Quelque Chose Ale, served warm - the steam rising from the nut-brown beer rich with the aroma of cinnamon and cherries.

It's creative, spot-on combinations like those that explain why, as Loeb puts it, "Christina has a devoted following. When she's at the bar, she has her own crowd." See Perozzi in action on Sunday at Rustic Canyon's WInter Beer Bash, $65 for five courses.