Bourbon and BBQ has been a heady combo driving scores of fans to Char 4, a stylish, booze-centric dining room along Brooklyn’s busy Smith Street in Cobble Hill. The menu features hundreds of bottles of whiskey, as well as comfort food with Southern touches that embraces smoke, pork, and spice at every turn. Now, chef Matt Greco—a Texan who honed his skills at posh spots like Café Boulud, Café Gray, and A Voce—is doing an exclusive Bourbon and Beer Menu, hand-picked for BBE members only, that pairs starters like arugula salad with roasted beets or French onion soup, with a sexy bourbon cocktail. Entrées like chile-marinated shrimp; mole pork sausage with chicharrones dusted with cumin; or potato dumplings with squash get paired with their own beer from one of three artisan brewers. And for dessert, what could go better with housemade savory ice cream than a little Jim Beam?

appetizer (choose one)
Wild arugula salad
roasted beets, radish, ricotta, and citrus-coriander vinaigrette

French onion soup
vidalia onions, bacon-chicken broth, and cheese crouton

Chicken liver mousse
fig-bourbon mostarda and grilled sourdough
choice of any house bourbon cocktail

entrée (choose one)
Chile-marinated shrimp
sweet corn-hominy grits, scallions, and baby cilantro
Lagunitas Pils

Mole pork sausage
cumin-spiced chicharrones, corn, queso fresco, peanuts, and lime
Full Sail Session Black lager

Farmer cheese potato dumplings
squash, preserved tomatoes, lemon thyme, and opal basil
Blue Point Toasted Lager

dessert
Homemade salted caramel ice cream
Jim Beam Devil’s Cut Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

The booths offer maximum space in the narrow dining room, but the bar affords access to the friendly bartenders.

The name refers to the practice of heating the oak staves used to make bourbon barrels. There are four degrees of char, No. 4 being the most intense.

lunch: Fri. 12 noon–3:30 PM
dinner: Sun.–Thurs. 6 PM–12 midnight; Fri.–Sat. 6 PM–1 AM
brunch: Sat.–Sun. 10 AM-3:30 PM

$15 (shrimp and grits) to $25 (grilled flatiron steak)

$2 (one-ounce taste of Kentucky Gentleman) to $200 (two-ounce glass of Martin Mills 24-year-old Japanese Market)