Jenn Garbee - Secret Suppers: Rogue Chefs & Underground Restaurants in Warehouses, Townhouses, Open Fields, and Everywhere in Between

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Table of Contents

For my husband, Kevin; wine; and chocolate (in no particular order).

INTRODUCTION

It all started a few years ago when I attended an underground dinner in San Francisco on assignment for the Los Angeles Times. As I sat on a floor cushion in the volunteer hosts dusty attic, munching sweet potato and Peruvian pepper-slathered plantain chips with thirty other quasi-guests (all paying for the privilege to dine there), it struck me as a decidedly simpleand logicalInternet-age alternative to classic entertaining, a way to meet new people while enjoying (in theory) a good meal. And it forever changed the way I think about home entertaining versus restaurant dining.

So what exactly is an underground restaurant?

Its the first question Im invariably asked and the hardest to answer. The more dinners I attended, the more I (reluctantly) concluded that there isnt a clear definition. Although true that most rely heavily on the Internet to spread the word and filter potential guests to their RSVP-required (but not necessarily invitation-only) events, the similarities end there. My answer typically begins with a description of what an underground restaurant is not: its not a standard dinner party with a few unknown faces around the table; its not a group of friends and acquaintances who split the cost of dinners at rotating homes (otherwise known as a classic supper club); its not a brick-and-mortar, fully licensed restaurant (which is not to say all undergrounds are illegal; catering licenses can come in handy).

The easiest way to understand the underground movement is to talk to the chefs behind these semisecret dining clubs and their guests. So thats exactly what I did.

Finding underground restaurants was relatively easy; choosing which to attend was not. I wanted restaurants that were diverse not only in type (from small, twelve-person events to roving events with more than one hundred guests) but also in geography (big city to small town). Perhaps not surprisingly, finding them in large metropolitan cities was as simple as using an Internet search engine; midsize cities and suburban areas required phone calls to local chefs, chats with food bloggers, and plain old good luck.

Who exactly is behind this underground restaurant movement? The participants are as diverse as their restaurants, from big-city chefs to small-town home cooks and everything in between. Some, like Hal Jasa of Underground, Inc., are former professional chefs fed up with the limitations of the restaurant world where the bottom line often overshadows creative cooking.

Others, such as HUSH chef Anne Horstmann of Washington, D.C., are young chefs who will work as line cooks and sous chefs for years before theyll be able to express their culinary creativity as head chefs... except in the underground world. Still others, including Jim Denevan of Outstanding in the Field, began hosting dinners to educate the public about food choicesfarmers market produce versus grocery store importsand became successful business owners. For these food industry professionals, the underground dining world is an opportunity to own, manage, and cook at their own restaurants without the high dollar investment typically required to open a brick-and-mortar establishment.

Some underground chefs, including James Stolich of San Franciscos CookWithJames, the Whisk & Ladle crew, and Robyn of Cach in Seattle, are avid home cooks who enjoy the challenge and opportunity to be chef-for-the-day: cooking for a limited number of people in a private environment. Talented home cooks turned underground restaurateurs are often encouraged by their dinner guests to go a step furthercatering or private chef work as Robyn has, or trying other food outlets, such as Jamess foray into television cooking programs.

Others get into the underground restaurant game for personal reasons. For Mike Sherwood, Sub Rosa is essentially a creative online home page, a window into his Dundee, Oregon, life. Scott Beattie and Ross Hallett hold their wine country undergrounds so they can taste top wines; Hannah Calvert of Supper Underground in Austin, Texas, read an article about an underground restaurant and thought it sounded like fun and a great way to meet people; and Josh Loeb launched Farmers Market Wednesdays with the goal of opening a real restaurant.

As for who attends and what the ten underground restaurants profiled in Secret Suppers are really like, youll have to read the book. By the time this book is published, however, many of these undergrounds will have changed dramatically. And thats half the fun of attendingits never the same twice.

COOK WITH JAMES

Dear Friends,

I am very pleased to announce an upcoming special supper club dinner Saturday, August 18th, 2007. I have a few seats left so please book quickly!

This summer has been very kind to us in the way of excellent produce. Naturally I never know the menu until the day I hit the market but here are some dishes that have been coming out of my kitchen recently.

See you at the table or maybe the market!

Best, James

CHAPTER 1

James Stolichs wife, Pia, is chatting with guests in the parlor of their San Francisco Victorian, her hands dancing through the air, eyes as big as saucers. Shes swooning in syrupy Italian-soaked English about spring peas. Or maybe she said pecorino cheese. Its hard to understand from the kitchen, where Im watching James carefully drizzle aged balsamico and olio nuovo on roasted baby beets with burrata cheese, the first of six courses.

Il primo, James says, smiling.

Once a month James, a thirty-six-year-old advertising executive, and Pia, an Italian teacher and designer from Naples, Italy, host elaborate Italian dinner parties for a dozen guests in their Cole Valley home. Only theyre not exactly dinner parties. Guests here request reservations via e-mail and pay for the privilege of dining in the Stolich home. And that privilege doesnt come cheap. Recently, James raised the price to $100 per person, not including wine.

Tonights guests, a mix of James and Pias friends and people theyve never met, are perfectly happy to fork over the funds. In fact, many have asked James to host the dinners more often. Hes an excellent cook, a true chef, one guest declares. Better than many of the restaurants in town, adds a friend who has dined here several times, both as a paying customer and as an invited guest at one of James and Pias private dinner parties. Thats quite a statement in San Francisco, a city with a seemingly endless roster of first-rate restaurants.

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