Chef's Club New York - Ben Sukle, Birch

Chef's Club
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If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll notice that I have been dining at “Chef’s Club Studio” a few times recently. Conducted in the private room of a gorgeously decorated restaurant called Chef’s Club, the Studio seats only 16 guests per dinner for chefs that visit every month. These “popups” last 1-2 nights with a menu that hovers around 5 courses.

I keep coming back because it’s essentially a “new” restaurant every time with refreshing menus heralding from Providence, Dallas and Austin, and Portland among others. Each dinner is a unique experience filled with people from all walks of life; food bloggers, sous chefs at Michelin restaurants, culinary magazine editors, or just civilians who aren’t in the industry but enjoy the food and the interactions that come along in sharing a meal with like-minded folks.

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2014: Year in Review

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For 2014, I wanted to keep better track of my eating habits to see how much I was spending. Along the way, my google doc started tracking location, number of Michelin stars, notes on memorable dishes, and patronage frequency. Special thanks to Steven Chang for organizing the data in pivot tables and to Sohee Cha who brought the numbers to life in a visually pleasing infographic. 

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Degustation: Intimate Innovation

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Back in October 2014, my roomie and I met up for dinner at Degustation, where the Iberian, French, and American influenced cuisine is served as “tapas” styled dishes meant for sharing.

This shared intimacy extends to the open kitchen where the chefs bare their soul on a plate that is prepared merely 3 feet away from the counter. Every movement precise and full of purpose and every dish assembled gradually from seemingly disparate components that magically meld together at the last minute like a Christopher Nolan film.

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Marta: Thin Crust Nirvana

MARTA MANHATTAN
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My brother and I were running late for our reservation at Marta, a newly opened Danny Meyer pizza joint in the Martha Washington hotel. Both yellow cabs and Uber near Rockefeller Center were unavailable and the streets were clogged with tourists pressing their noses up against the shiny holiday displays on 5th Avenue.

A pedicab pulled up right in front of us at the curb.

"Where you need to go? I take you there quick. No way you're getting a taxi tonight, mang."

We zig-zagged past throngs of people oblivious to traffic lights and almost hit a few cabs that careened in our lane.

Swallowing hard, I closed my eyes to the chaotic stress while my brother relished every single stressful minute. 

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Lazy Bear: Pop-Up Stardom

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I didn't know much about Lazy Bear (an anagram of Chef Barzelay) except for a few facts: it was a pop-up in SF, it was highly rated on Yelp with a near-perfect score, and it was extremely hard to get into. I was hooked immediately but was thwarted a few times the past year when trying to get a seat through their lottery system. My most recent failed attempt was for their last dinner in June before they moved operations to their brand new brick and mortar space - the endgame of all pop-ups.

Imagine my delight when Anna came through clutch again with a surprise reservation for October 5 at their two-story space with two long communal tables seating a total of 40 guests per service. She was able to pounce on two tickets on their new system that licensed the software of Alinea's system where diners prepay for tickets in full. which cuts down on cancellations. Despite the whole system crashing due to demand and technical glitches, the first two weeks of dinners were sold out within hours. 

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