27 Nov 2009, Posted by admin in L'Epicurien, 0 Comments

supper club #1: the cardinal club

The great thing about New York dining is that great meals often come in unusual and unexpected packages. I am an avid reader of the Urbandaddy email newsletter and when I read their write up of the Cardinal Club–a by reservation only multi-course meal served in the decadent East Village backyard of a chef and his girlfriend, Simon and Paula, I knew that it was a must try. After corresponding with the couple via email I set a date for myself and five friends to dine at the couple’s kitchen turned restaurant. Simon and Paula have been bombarded with email requests for reservations after that small bit of press, and their website even crashed for a short time because of the heavy traffic it received.

Needless to say I felt lucky to be one of the chosen ones. On the day of the dinner the couple texted me the exact address of their apartment, which definitely added to the mysterious nature of the dinner. The spot is BYOB so everyone in our group came armed with a bottle of wine for the special dinner. We rang the nondescript doorbell of an East Village building unsure of what to expect on the other side (though that was undoubtedly part of the fun.) Paula greeted us with a hug and led the way to her apartment where we found Simon hard at work on the meal. She showed us to the table in her backyard garden which was bathed in candlelight, and is definitely one of the those special New York sanctuaries. Simon and Paula both told me that they felt blessed to have such a special backyard and felt inspired to use it in some way. Considering Simon’s background in French cooking (he has worked at restaurants across the US) the Cardinal Club was born. Every meal at the Cardinal Club is different and Simon devises the menu for each group depending on the best local produce and proteins that are available that day. They also accommodate special requests, someone in our group doesn’t eat red meat for instance and we told them before we arrived. Paula acted as the hostess, serving us wine and bringing out and explaining each course of food. We elected to have four courses (which cost $60 dollars per person) the meal started with homemade bread and a spicy salsa dipping sauce. That course was followed by duck, then lobster crepes, then monkfish and the best part–sweet corn biscuits served with homemade basil ice cream! I left feeling like I had gone to dinner at the house of a friend who also doubled as an amazing four star chef. This is truly a place that everyone should experience.

The Cardinal Club

Address: Top Secret (in East Village NYC)

thecardinalclub.com

–Leah Bourne