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SideDish Supper Club: Thanks to Our Sponsors

One more big thanks: Check out the new Audi I received after last night’s SideDish Supper Club! (Kidding.) But seriously, thanks to Audi for making the Supper Club happen. Also many thanks to Central Market and The Container Store for the goodies they distributed last night. (My coach has turned back into a pumpkin and reality calls.)

Friday Afternoon Food Porn: SideDish Supper Club at Nonna

From the camera of Jerry McClure

Housemade salumi, sformato of potato and ricotta, tonno del Chianti with bitter greens.

Loads more porn after the jumperoo.

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Does Dallas Need Another $16 Burger?

Smoke's $16 burger

Full disclosure: I’m a Cliffdweller and love/hate that the 75225 crowd have discovered how cool life south of the Trinity can be. (Overheard one night at Bolsa: “Oh my gawd! Look at that taco hut across the street, y’all. Have you ever seen so many in your life?” So many what? You figure it out.) That said, I was stoked that the Bolsa owners and chef/co-owner Tim Byres took over Cliff Cafe — a decent hotel restaurant at The Belmont — and reimagined it as a frou frou smokehouse. So, far I’ve been loving the meats (sweet paprika and fennel seed sausage = savory goodness) and breakfast (my new favorite home for biscuits and gravy) at Smoke. But the EB&D Loaded Up and Truckin’ burger is almost as ridiculous as its name: Burgundy beef (so far, so good) topped with bacon, a farm egg fritter, sharp cheddar, onion, tomato, and lettuce all on a griddled honey bun. Two bites into it, my hands were dripping with meat juices and egg yolk, my jaw hurt, and I admitted defeat. It was simply too much of everything. Dissecting the burger, I appreciated the well seasoned beef patty cooked a perfect medium as well as the lightly fried poached egg. But bacon on a burger needs to be crisp. This was thick cut and, alas, flabby. For $16, it was an orgy of competing tastes and textures my mouth couldn’t appreciate. Nor do I appreciate this burger trend of piling everything between two buns, charging almost $20 for it, and declaring it “gourmet.” No. Gourmet is a burger where I can actually taste and savor the beef. So far, I really like Smoke. But this burger bugged me. Am I alone on this issue, SideDishers?

SideDish Supper Club: The Wine Recap

Andrew Chalk worked hard last night. He drank every wine. Below is his insightful look at Alfonso Cevola’s selections for the evening.

You will have read elsewhere here about the fabulous five-course meal the SideDish Supper Club enjoyed at Nonna. As luck would have it, they also served some wine! In fact, you could choose to drink wine at two quality levels for the duration of the meal. The lower level was called Borghese. I think that must be Italian for trailer park. Italian is such a beautiful language that they had no qualms allowing the opera Aida to be written by a guy named Joe Green. The upper level was termed Alto-Borghese, which I think means Fru-Fru in Italian. I went with the Borghese level, reflecting my social status, and my date went with the Alto-Borghese, thereby allowing us to swap and try all the wines. (more…)

SideDish Supper Club Report: Nonna Rocks My World

Perfect pici pasta at Nonna.

Yow. Zah. What a night the SideDish Supper Club had at Nonna: Two sold-out seatings, five fabulous Tuscan-inspired courses, 12 wines, and absolutely marvelous company. Detailed reports and pictures will follow throughout the day, but I wanted to thank the chef Julian Barsotti and the Nonna staff for putting on a flawless performance. The star dish of the night, IMO, was the pici pasta with wild boar ragu, fennel pollen, and pecorino. It took two people three days to make enough for the Supper Club. And I bet there is not one noodle left in the kitchen.

However, there were a lot of empty wine bottles. Italian Wine Guy, Alfonso Cevola will attest to that. He and I sat down with few satisfied customers last night—my post-Supper Club posse—and drained the last of the 2003 Sassetti Brunello di Montalcino. (Somebody had to do it.)

Anywhoo, thanks to those who attended. I’d love to hear your thoughts. It is wonderful to share fine food with people who love to share fine food. That is always my goal behind the Supper Club. Finché incontriamo di nuovo!

SideDish Supper Club at Nonna: First Look

Zucchini blossoms from Nonna. Last night’s SideDish Supper Club at Nonna was a delicious success. We hope you will chime in with comments if you were there. I’ve got photos after the jump, but this is a picture of the first course, the antipasti. The baked zucchini blossoms (from Tom Spicer, as chef Barsotti explained to us before we ate) stuffed with Paula Lambert’s goat’s milk ricotta were one of my favorite dishes of the night.

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