Wednesday, January 19, 2005.
Eat Club At Clancy's.
Tonight was our broadcast and Eat Club dinner at Clancy's. It started on the wrong foot: I forgot to bring my special, spiffy, retro microphone with the WSMB flag. That's no big deal, except that the engineers had to scramble to find a microphone for me. Then they had a problem getting audio back from the station, so I had to listen to myself and the callers through headphones plugged into a radio. The sound of AM alters one's voice dramatically, and it was funny to listen to myself through allt he filters.
The show did get rolling, though, and I was happy to learn that Chef Steve Manning seems to be here for the long haul, after he closed his place in Harlem. I also got a chance to talk to the man he replaced, Brian Larsen. He is now the general manager of the restaurant, and seems to be happy about that. Meanwhile, Brad Hollingsworth, the owner, walked around smiling, like he always does.
We had an interesting crowd for the dinner. In addition to the usual regulars and first-timers (each usually makes up about a third of the attendance), we also had a number of people who post frequently on my web messageboard. Those folks, as active as they are there, actually show up at the dinners only sporadically. Tonight they had a chance to meet, and since most of them post under fake names, the revelatory nature of the meetings was more strident than usual.
As I moved around, I kept hearing the same two comments. First, the trout with the crawfish stuffing and sauce Nantua was the best dish of the evening. (I agree.) Second, everybody thought one dish was less than appealing--but it was a different dish for everybody. Some thought the blue cheese in the profiteroles was too strong. Some didn't like the cucumbers with the smoked salmon. I thought the dessert--an attack of chocolate--was not my favorite. Every dish except the trout had its detractors. But past that one dish, the praise was universal.
Good wines, too. We started with Veuve Clicquot Demi-Sec, which is not something I've had in a long time, if ever. A nice Premier Cru Rully. A really good red Burgundy.
The dinner kept us up late, but everybody left at the same time. Which is the way I like it.
