Vineyard Table Secret Supper Club

"Dining partners, regardless of gender, social standing, or the years they've lived, should be chosen for their ability to eat - and drink! - with the right mixture of abandon and restraint. They should enjoy food, and look upon its preparation and its degustation as one of the human arts."-MFK Fisher

A cheerful bunch sitting around the original Vineyard Table Oct. 25th 2010 -Photo by Kevin Fry

 If you asked me what I love doing more than anything else, it's eating really good food and drinking great wine with fantastic company. I think most of us find those opportunities on the top of our list as "some of the best times we have ever had." Even if you handed me a box of 2010 chablis from Safeway Select and paired it with some horrific Kraft singles, I could find joy in it depending on the company I was dining with. 

Of course if you handed me a slice of homemade pie from your great, great grandmother's recipe that she smuggled out of an Armenian bakery's secret recipe box in her brassier, I might find more satisfaction in that slice of pie.  At the end of the day, it's the overall experience, each component coming together: the music, the wine, the lighting, food and of course your dining partners all help make an unforgettable meal. 

On the contrary, I've had just as unforgettable dining moments when music, lighting and other components were truly out of my hands and thankfully so! All I would gladly replicate if given the chance; a simple meal of clams dug out of the sand on a beach in Thailand, a bottle of wine, a hunk of cheese and a baguette while overlooking the vineyards in San Gimignano, Italy, or eating elk and venison sausage, freshly-cold smoked over applewood in the snow, courtesy of my cousins who hunt.

Therefore, when the opportunity to throw a couple special secret suppers at The Vineyard Table during its last remaining weeks before it got packed up into storage came up, I didn't want to offer just any old dinner party. On Monday, October 25th and again on November 21st, we hosted 22 people at the Vineyard Table for a plated Secret Supper Club.  Below are some images, courtesy of photographer Kevin Fry from the first supper club on October 25th.

The Vineyard Table from above

Me prepping sliced pears

Gorgeous golden beets

Jason Driscoll slicing into the slow roasted beef shank

Caramelizing onions

Some of the lovely guests, Sarah, Lucas and Meagan enjoying proscecco with appetizers before dinner

Plating the main course with Hilary and Jason

The Vineyard Table Secret Supper Club Menu

October 25^th 2010

 

Blue Cheese On Apple Slices

Avocado Toast with Sardines and Sherry Vinaigrette  

Prosecco

Amuse Bouche

Apricots with Vanilla and Star Anise Simple Syrup, Burrata Mozzarella and Smoked Sea Salt

Sweet Corn Soup with Dungeness Crab and Tarragon Oil

Bread with Butter and Sea Salt

Flying Dreams Sauvignon Blanc

Red and Golden Roasted Beets with Mache and Herbed Goat Cheese and Pistachio Vinaigrette

Flying Dreams Sauvignon Blanc

Intermezzo

Elsom Cellars 2010 Malbec and Cab Granita

Braised Beef Shanks with Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Chorizo, Caramelized Fennel and Onion Confit in a Sun Dried Tomato Fennel Broth

Elsom Cellars 2007 Cabernet

Dessert with Coffee

Red and Golden Roasted Beets with Mache and Herbed Goat Cheese and Pistachio Vinaigrette

Braised Beef Shanks with Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Chorizo, Caramelized Fennel and Onion Confit in a Sun Dried Tomato Fennel Broth

Kevin Fry caught a nice pic of me smiling in my element- cooking away

I'm looking forward to many more secret supper clubs. Even though the next dinner will be at a new location, it only makes it that much more exciting. I started a blog on the Vineyard Table website to document my search, but I haven't gotten too far on the blog itself. My time these days is spent physically searching and calling on new spaces, organizing Elsom Cellar details, catering and just recently, packing up the Vineyard Table. I know we will do a couple supper clubs at Elsom Cellars winery in the interim: can't you just see it the Vineyard Table lit by candles with wine barrels stained with dripping juice as a backdrop? Yes, I think it's going to be a delicious experiment.

Want to be a part of it? Stay tuned for details! Or email me!

All Photos by Kevin Fry: www.kevinfry.com

A little inspiration

There is something so incredibly mysterious and gritty about this image. I instantly think it must belong in a hidden kitchen in Japan, accessed only after crossing several bridges and winding through narrow, shadowed alleys...no reason this image should conjure up scenes from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but why does my mind go there?

From the book Japanese Kitchen Knives

It seems almost redundant to say that I have learned a tremendous amount about myself this year. I've lived through a mini life crisis at 32, okay who am I kidding, it's been a major life crisis and it's not over yet.  Death happens, cancer happens, jobs come and go and life goes on. And so should I. Being unemployed and searching for several months can be a great thing- at least that is what I hear. I on the other hand make a horrible unemployed person, just ask my husband, my family or any of my very close friends. I'm the kind of person who likes having multiple jobs. "I relax in other ways," I tell people when they ask why I can't sit still. I love being busy.

Thank goodness for change and opportunity. Recently, as in four months ago, I reconnected with Jody Elsom of Elsom Cellars and the Vineyard Table. Jody is an amazing woman winemaker who specializes in small-batch, handcrafted red wines. Her specialties are cab and malbec. She recently got an 89 for her peppery, leathery 2007 malbec! It is completely deserved and I can only imagine what that feels like!

So, a while back, Jody informed me that the Vineyard Table has to be relocated by December because of the viaduct tunnel project, and would I want to take the project on. Not just finding the new space, but helping to re-build it. Oy! So, I am taking the plunge! I am taking over all the events at the Vineyard Table and Elsom Cellars Tasting room private events and the new Vineyard Table- where ever that will be. The hunt for the new space is proving to be an entire job in itself. (an entire post on that is in draft form to be posted soon). Let's just say, I'm learning the commercial broker game, the costs of this kind of project and am now able to tell you how much per square foot every Seattle neighborhood commercial space is going for.
                     
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I recently went to Marjorie for dinner with a really good friend of mine, chef Kristen Shumacher and immediately fell in love with the use of kitchen space. It was open, homey and so inspiring. The cozy and unpretentious feel is exactly to how I would want the new Vineyard Table kitchen to be like. I also love the feel of the kitchen at the new Sitka and Spruce,  Walrus and the Carpenter, this number or even this sexy new place that I can't wait to visit:  the Book Bindery ... The exact opposite of granite counters and glitzy chandeliers.

Photo taken by Allecia of All-Consuming Blog

Obviously, there is a lot  that needs to happen between now and official.  Jody and I have decided to move the Vineyard Table into storage while we find the right "place." Wouldn't a garden be lovely? Should we move Eastside or Westside? oh the decisions. All I know is that life is short. Someone recently asked me what I really love in life? And I thought for a moment, and said, "I love giving people original experiences through good food." At the end of the day do I want to be exhausted because of excel spread sheets or because I made too many appetizers?

I want to be tired from this:

Photo: Peter Frank Edwards

Jubilee Farm Dinner with Kristen Schumacher

Several weeks ago,  Kristen Schumacher asked if I would like to help her cater a dinner that eight guests had won at a Children's Hospital auction. Jubilee Farms would supply the produce and Kristen would offer her chef skills and talent in the kitchen. I love working with Kristen so of course I jumped at the chance to join her at the farm and in the kitchen. Below are photos from the farm and the dinner. Her gorgeous photos and post about the dinner can be found here.

Jubilee Farm, located in Carnation, WA

One of several different varieties of heirloom peppers

Kristen hunting for strawberries

Feeling nostalgic picking strawberries

Inspired by celeriac root! I had forgotten about this vegetable until I saw it busting through the soil.

The potato room

St. Jude albacore tuna, avocado aioli, grilled pineapple salsa on rice crackers

Jubilee Farm Asian greens, soft-boiled duck egg, fennel salted crouton, shaved pecorino, sherry vinaigrette

Sweet corn soup, Dungeness crab, tarragon oil

Watermelon granita, mint borage flowers

Crispy pork belly

Kristen of Heirloom adds the finishing sauce to the pork belly

Crispy pork belly, farro risotto, Jubilee farms roasted beets and sauteed chard

Jubilee Farm's strawberry, blackberry and hazelnut crisp with cinnamon scented marscapone