Supper Clubbing

Sometimes your best work comes right after your worst. After I shuttered my chicken stand a mere 4 months after it opened I had the feeling that whatever I do next better be damn near perfect. I didn't feel like laboring over another restaurant, though. I've been having a great time just cooking at home, feeling very inspired by the intimacy of only cooking for people I know and care about. It's great because no one harps on me about the profit margin, and when I am not bound to a budget I can actually source the ingredients that I want to cook with. I'm not talking about white Alba truffles or Iranian caviar (although, the latter of the two I certainly wouldn't mind getting my hands on), I'm talking about ingredients like foraged greens and flowers from A Crack In the Sidewalk, goat cheese from Decimal Place Farms, and pork loins from Riverview Farms. The cost of these products makes them unattainable when trying to design a 4.95 dinner for your walk-up chicken stand. That's why in the end we failed, because I couldn't keep my values and be successful in that venture. I rather die a pauper with my ideals than die a rich man with no soul. Therefor, I'm on to the next venture in my life, the supper club.

The creative energy that has to get poured into a successful supper club is enthralling. When I come up with a theme I find myself becoming totally submerged in the night several weeks before it takes place. I listen to the music playlist incessantly until I know it's perfect. I scour the city looking for the right ingredients, usually running me far and wide like Jacques Cartier looking for new waters to fish out of. My to-do lists have lists that have lists that have lists. It takes well-planned out timing, tons of help from friends, and certain scrappiness that can only be attributed to my years growing up in the Georgia woods. When I want burlap for a table runner I can't go spend $6 a yard on the stuff, so I have to find a place to get it for free. Fortunately, when I needed it was right around the time Home Depot had a ton of it draped over the christmas trees they were shipping. A $5 tip got me all the burlap I could fit in my car! And when I wanted place mats for a Moroccan themed room, fabric samples from a Last Chance thrift store worked perfectly, at about a dollar per 20 pieces!

It takes fluidity, flexibility and inspiration to pull it all together. I can't think of a time I've had more fun. By the time the big night arrives I already feel like I've gotten such a huge reward out of the work that I've done, feeding my guests is just the icing on the cake. Not to say it isn't slightly scary though. It feels just like that moment when you're about to go on stage. The moment where you're in too deep to back down and you wonder why you ever agreed to do this, or even worse, why you ever came up with the idea in the first place. But then you realize that things are going right and you find yourself having a good time. When the last guests have left you forget how scared you were and you find yourself announcing plans to do another party a couple weeks later. Why? Because 3 weeks of planning and fun shouldn't be dwarfed by 20 minutes of self doubt. Next thing I know, the invitation is made, the announcement has been posted, and I'm on the phone with my farmer buddies, figuring out the menu.