I dunno what you mean specifically by "foodie attention", but I was referring to the variety of non-reinhotsgebot ingredients that are at home in a beer (discounting sugars). Coffee, cocoa, nutmeg, cinnamon, (in fact, most spices), etc... I've heard stout referred to as a meal in a glass on more than one occasion (and with people intending either positive or negative connotations by it), that's what I'm getting at - it's the closest beer gets to food, to me.
I like my stout chewy and my IPA clean -- hell it's all down to preference, really.
And to continue the ongoing argument on that front: Beer = art,
and science 
