The Chowder Dinner at Beacon Remembered

[Fat Guy]

Waldy Malouf's Chowder Dinner at Beacon, held early each August, is the aquatic doppleganger of the Beacon Beefsteak, the late-winter meat extravaganza. Back in 2003, I posted about our experience at the Beefsteak. At the Chowder, instead of beef, the victims are from the sea.

As soon as you enter the restaurant and check in, you're given a tall beer glass that you keep with you for the evening. You can have it filled all night long with as much as you like of beer from Brooklyn Brewery or Beacon's own recipe spiked pink lemonade. That's included in the price of admission ($95 per person, plus tax and gratuity) -- you may of course purchase wine and other beverages separately.

The Chowder begins with a selection of chowders, served as hors d'oeuvres. You're free to enjoy unlimited quantities of Waldy Malouf's interpretations of New England clam chowder, Manhattan clam chowder, wood-grilled corn and potato chowder, and mixed seafood chowder. All are of exceptional quality, with the corn-and-potato being my favorite.

Once you're at your table, you're served flights of mollusks in many forms: raw clams, raw oysters, steamed clams, fried clams, steamed mussels and, best of all, Beacon's signature wood-roasted oysters with shallots, verjus and herbs.

Here's Waldy welcoming the crowd:

Then there's beer-batter fried fish, Waldy's renowned hush puppies and fried chicken.

Finally, heirloom tomato salad, grilled lobster and corn on the cob. This will be one of the few times in your life that you're so full you can barely eat lobster.

There are slight variations in the menu from year to year, so you might not get the exact meal pictured. The above photos are from the 2006 event. Here, as well, are a few from the 2004 event:

The Chowder is one of my favorite culinary events of the year. Ellen and I had the pleasure of being the restaurant's guests in both 2004 and 2006, and the next one is coming up on 7 August 2007 -- we'll probably be there as well (I just checked, and seats are still available). There's more information about the Chowder on the Beacon website. General discussion of Beacon the restaurant is here.

All photos by Ellen R. Shapiro, as usual.

[KatieLoeb]

Wow - those pictures bring new meaning to the phrase "tie one on", as in the de rigeur bibs. Looks like an awesome event.

I had the pleasure of meeting Waldy at a Book and the Cook event at the late lamented Smoked Joint restaurant in Philadelphia in 2006. He was kind enough to sign a copy of his book for me. He's the real deal, as chefs go. If I could make it to the Chowder, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

[Fat Guy]

The bibs, while they keep with the spirit of the event, are a bit of an affectation because the lobsters are served with the tails split and the claws thoroughly cracked. Then again, I can make a mess on my shirt while eating bread, so an extra layer of protection is not to be dismissed.

[Mayur]

FYI:

I went to this event this evening (largely on the prompting of FG's photos) and ended up, completely coincidentally, being seated at his table! Loads of fun and a good time had by all!

As to the actual event: Those who didn't come were MISSING. OUT. Big time. The food, all the way from the coffee cups of chowder to the wonderful fresh-picked stone fruit at the end (a touch that was largely ignored by the crowd, given the *enormous* amount of food preceding) was pretty darn stellar, and abundant. I ran through probably four or five soups, three or four fried clam-strip rolls, a dozen each raw and wood-roasted oysters (and a bunch of clams and mussels), some seriously tasty fried chicken and flounder, sides, salads (including an excellent plate of heirloom tomatoes), and two lobsters (OK, so I eat like a bloody vacuum when given the chance!), and I can't complain about a single thing.

I'd definitely recommend hitting this in 2008, if you are a rustic seafood fan. Well worth it; I just wish Waldy did this every week!

[Fat Guy]

This was definitely the best Chowder I've been to. All the food was spot on -- it can't be easy to do 270 lobsters without overcooking them -- and the formula has been refined each time I've been such that it's now just right.

One thing I particularly love about the Chowder is that you always get more than has been promised in the pre-event literature. Tonight some of the unadvertised extras were wonderful little fried-clam sandwiches served as hors d'oeuvres (I ate so many of them that I could have left before the meal and still been feeling stuffed now at 1:30am), a stellar warm fingerling potato salad with a variety of different types (including purple), the fruit platter of tree-ripened locally picked stone fruits (especially these great little yellow plums), and the new Chowder dress code for the hostesses (bikini tops and red skirts -- the hostesses at Beacon are all great beauties, and one of them is actually the current Miss New York).

We were in the press group, but I think at the market rate the Chowder is an excellent value. It seems to me that there are subsidies in place from some of the restaurant's suppliers, who are thanked on the menu. It's hard for me to imagine getting a meal like this, with all that food at that quality level and with unlimited beer and spiked lemonade, for that price without some externalities lowering the tariff.

[edited to add some details]

[Mayur]

One thing I particularly love about the Chowder is ...the new Chowder dress code for the hostesses (bikini tops and red skirts -- the hostesses at Beacon are all great beauties, and one of them is actually the current Miss New York).

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Oh, you just had to go mentioning that, didn't you?

Yeah, I'm wondering why I even cared about the food in the first place...

[Nathan]

this sounds amazing...too bad they don't start it at a more civilized time....

[Fat Guy]

I wish they did it at 5:30. In any event, they kind of have to accommodate people who are coming after work at Midtown offices. So the 6:30-7:30 hors d'oeuvres hour works well with that schedule. You don't really start eating dinner until almost 8pm, and it goes until about 10:30pm.

Two other great little extras I forgot to mention: the spiced coleslaw and the cheddar-cheese biscuits.

[Nathan]

yeah...I think we're thinking in opposite directions in our view of "civilized"!

6:30-7 is pretty much impossible for me on a weeknight...an 8:30-9 start is as early as I can do it.

now if they'd do it on a Saturday....but I imagine that would be too great a revenue loss....but maybe not on a Sunday?

a lot of people work late in this town.

[Robin Meredith]

I've always enjoyed Beacon's event program in the past, but I have to say I was distinctly underwhelmed by last night's Chowder. I was concerned going in that the less forgiving nature of seafood cookery might create some problems given the kind of volume they are doing at these events, and those concerns turned out to be justified for the most part.

At our table the roasted clams and mussels were literally incinerated (and I mean that literally - if you pried open one of the mussel shells all you would find inside is the dried out husk of what used to be a mussel). The wood roasted oysters were much better but still highly variable - many shells contained shallots and sauce but no discernable oysters. Fried fish was overcooked, and the lobsters were inconsistent (my wife's was quite good, while mine was rubbery and overcooked).

The one unqualified success of the night was the watermelon "margarita" dessert, an ingenious idea that involved hollowing out half a watermelon, filling it with watermelon chunks, blueberries, and mint, and then pouring good blanco tequila and Cointreau over the whole thing. Everyone at our table was literally ooohhing and aaahhing over this and going for seconds despite how stuffed we all were - a great finish to the meal.

I love the Kitchen Counter and will definitely be back for the Beefsteak, but this will probably be my last Chowder.

[Fat Guy]

There must have been variation from table to table. We didn't have any problems with the roasted mollusk items but our hush puppies were burnt. I too thought the fried fish was not great (not to mention utterly superfluous), but I thought the fried chicken (also superfluous) was outstanding, as were the potato salad, cole slaw and biscuits. My favorite items of the evening were the first and last: the little fried clam sandwiches that accompanied the four chowders (my favorite this year was the seafood chowder) and the watermelon dessert (the cookies and brownies were also good, as were the little red plums).

One thing that made the watermelon dessert even better was the fact that a gorgeous woman in a bikini top and sarong bottom poured the liquor for us (though the best looking server at the event was a shirtless African-American waiter with a body even better than mine). Actually the whole event felt kind of like the afterlife should be: you get a bottomless glass of spiked pink lemonade and every time you take two sips a woman in a bikini comes and refills it.

I was so full by the time the lobster came that I only ate one half of one tail. I mostly just ate the tomatoes, though I got a second wind for dessert.

There are imperfections at the Beefsteak too: I've heard a few people complain of overcooked beef. I guess the question is, given the price tag (not that I paid; I was a guest of Waldy, and I also took home the inflatable crab near the front door) and the unlimited booze, is it worth it despite some of the inconsistency that the banquet format engenders? I'd say the Beefsteak and Chowder are more like awesome food-centered parties than they are like meals at a restaurant. Also they'll give you more of anything you want, pretty much, it seems. One guy at our table had two entire lobsters. (The next table over had seconds on the wood-roasted oysters.)