How much do I loooove Cinco de Mayo? Every Fifth of May I bathe in salsa and ride a burro around Tacoma’s Proctor District handing out chimichangas and parasitic water. But even though Cinco de Mayo is dominated by idiots mainlining margaritas, it is, in fact, an actual holiday. Apparently, on May 5, 1862, a French army landed in Mexico to collect outstanding debts from the newly elected government of democratic president Benito Juarez. Well, there would be no dinero for those greedy dudes as 4,000 scrappy Mexicans beat the pommes frites out of the French army and protected their homeland. O-freaking-le!

Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, any excuse to eat Mexican food is a good one. But the celebration of Cinco de Mayo — usually observed over a period of days, not just on the 5th — provides us with even more ammunition for gorging on chile peppers, mole, pozole, menudo and burritos, while of course washing it all down with cervezas.

The Bayview School of Cooking in Olympia will host a five-course Mexican-themed beer dinner with Hop Valley Brewing Company out of Eugene, Oregon. The menu will feature margarita shrimp bites with hoppy guacamole paired with Hop Valley’s Alphadelic IPA, Mexican meatball soup paired with Proxima IPA, fiesta salad with orange and ale vinaigrette paired with Citrus Mistress, sausage and rice stuffed pablanos with roasted garlic and walnut cream sauce paired with Alpha Centuri IPA, and a mango-lime tart paired with Double D Blonde.

Gentle giant Hop Valley Sales Director Karl Biedritzky will be in the house, talking suds and giving hugs.

Bonus: A taste of chocolate paired with a sip of Hop Valley VIP Vanilla-Infused Porter just because.

DOS DE MAYO WITH HOP VALLEY BREWING, 6:30-9 p.m., Saturday, May 2, Bayview School of Cooking, 516 W. Fourth Ave., Olympia, $75, RSVP 360.754.1448