Striped Bass closing?

[brescd01]

Is this true? Have I been in a cave?

[philadining]

yes and yes.

Well, that's not exactly true on either count, you wouldn't have to live in a cave to have missed the story, it wasn't especially loudly announced. Plus, it's not really closing for good. It will reopen in the fall as more of a steakhouse, because of course what we need most is another steakhouse.

Food and Drinq blurb here>>

Striped Bass hasn't gotten much attention for the last few years, but I had a truly excellent meal there back in November. Oh well...

[brescd01]

That's it, I'm going back to sleep!

I have a bunch of questions: what is a supper club? I think I know (I lived for one year in Minnesota and they are a more recent phenomenon there than here). Why the transformation? The obvious answer is to make more money. But Striped Bass wasn't successful enough? He put 1 million into renovating it, is that lost?

WHat is the prognosis for Parc?

Edited July 3, 2008 by brescd01 (log)

[Carole]

That's it, I'm going back to sleep!

I have a bunch of questions: what is a supper club? I think I know (I lived for one year in Minnesota and they are a more recent phenomenon there than here).

←

I think you meant to say that they are a more recent phenomenon here than there.

I grew up in Minnesota (many, many) decades ago and they were very popular then. That was (maybe still is?) the place to go for the very best dinner around.

It's sort of an all-in-one restaurant. Usually only open for the evening meal (what Minnesotans call supper). With a lounge and music. They do a big business in weddings and special events. And of course they have liquor available. Many of them started up as private clubs. Back in the day, you could get either red or white wine but I know today they are much more sophisticated.

As I said, the food was usually the best around. Lots of local ingredients – like walleye pike and wild rice.

[wkl]

That's it, I'm going back to sleep!

I have a bunch of questions: what is a supper club? I think I know (I lived for one year in Minnesota and they are a more recent phenomenon there than here).

←

I think you meant to say that they are a more recent phenomenon here than there.

I grew up in Minnesota (many, many) decades ago and they were very popular then. That was (maybe still is?) the place to go for the very best dinner around.

It's sort of an all-in-one restaurant. Usually only open for the evening meal (what Minnesotans call supper). With a lounge and music. They do a big business in weddings and special events. And of course they have liquor available. Many of them started up as private clubs. Back in the day, you could get either red or white wine but I know today they are much more sophisticated.

As I said, the food was usually the best around. Lots of local ingredients – like walleye pike and wild rice.

←

unless i misunderstand, which is entirely possible, dinner clubs have a long history on the east coast. i believe the club in philadelphia, whose name escapes me now (union league?) is one of, if not the oldest ,in the country.

[Carole]

unless i misunderstand, which is entirely possible, dinner clubs have a long history on the east coast. i believe the club in philadelphia, whose name escapes me now (union league?) is one of, if not the oldest ,in the country.

←

I could easily stand corrected on this. As old a history that Philadelphia has compared to Minnesota, it certainly could have started in this area. It just that I never hear about them around here. Maybe the concept is not quite the same in both areas of the country (dinner club vs. supper club). I also don't remember that any of the supper clubs being private in Minnesota. For example, I would never call the Union League a supper club. Dinner club, for sure, but not Supper Club.

You have me interested, I'm going to do some digging ...

[brescd01]

No, I meant what I wrote. Let me write what I think, and more knowledgeable people can add or correct me.

A supper club and dinner club are the same thing. They are private, that was the whole point, members would pay a membership fee whose purpose was not to exclude anyone (these were for the middle class, not upper crust) but to establish that the restaurants were clubs and therefore immune from liquor laws. Which laws they were trying to escape is not clear to me. Since the purpose of the clubs was dinner and dancing with liquor, they served staples like steaks and chops.

I think they became extinct more recently in the Midwest than the East Coast. But they are extinct, and any restaurant claiming to be a supper club or claiming to offer supper club-like fare are not supper clubs, they are trying to be supper club-like. Again, I cannot remember what aspect of the alcohol laws the supper clubs were trying to escape but those rules either don't exist anymore or liquor licenses are easier to get. I would appreciate someone's helping me out here.

[wkl]

i don't know if this helps you but, i am a member of a dinner club. i can buy wine at whole sale plus 10%. it is a remarkable deal. but you do have to pay a memebership fee.

our membership provides reciprocal arrangements at otehr clubs throughout the country and in europe.

again, i may be speaking of something else, but dinner clubs are not extinct.

the one i belong to owns the property and it is an old victorian house.

it really isn't a restaurant masquerading as club.

[rlibkind]

Slightly off topic, but . . .

There are "supper clubs" and then there are "supper clubs". In the Upper Midwest, at least, the term "supper club" refers to an over-decorated, plush establishment serving dinner, usually heavy on the steaks and chops, and cocktails. The chairs will usually be leather, and there's sure to be a chandelier or two. Places like Ray Rattigan's in Kenosha, WI, or The Hob Nob in nearby Racine. A midwest "supper club" is what the locals consider the epitome of swank. Those I've dined in always offer better-than-average grilled meats. And there's something about the unbiquitous "relish tray", with iced celery and carrots, radishes and olives, that's appealing, refreshing and reassuring.

[MarketStEl]

When I hear the term "supper club," I don't think of anything remotely like the Union League or a country club minus the golf course.

I'd understood a "supper club" to be a nightclub that also served food. You would go to a supper club to catch the performer and dine while watching the performance. Zanzibar Blue was an example.

The "dinner theater" -- examples of which sprouted in Kansas City in the mid-1970s, but which I don't think ever took root in the Northeast -- is a related establishment.

[Carole]

Slightly off topic, but . . .

There are "supper clubs" and then there are "supper clubs". In the Upper Midwest, at least, the term "supper club" refers to an over-decorated, plush establishment serving  dinner, usually heavy on the steaks and chops, and cocktails. The chairs will usually be leather, and there's sure to be a chandelier or two. Places like Ray Rattigan's in Kenosha, WI, or The Hob Nob in nearby Racine.  A midwest "supper club" is what the locals consider the epitome of swank. Those I've dined in always offer better-than-average grilled meats. And there's something about the unbiquitous "relish tray", with iced celery and carrots, radishes and olives, that's appealing, refreshing and reassuring.

←

Yes, exactly. You've described it perfectly.

[hathor]

I'm picturing perfectly made and chilled cocktails, Myrna Loy, cigarette holders, ladies in gorgeous slinky gowns and a torch singer with a back up orchestra.

Maybe some steak and a lobster, already out of its shell......

And it's all in black and white.....

[Holly Moore]

In Wisconsin at least, those perfectly prepared cocktails will start with brandy - as in brandy and ginger, brandy old fashioned, brandy manhattan. At one point, and now too since things don't really change there, Wisconsin consumed more brandy than any other state in the US.

My favorite supper club, back when I was stranded in Wisconsin for two years, was in Manitowoc - great rib eye steaks and free steak tartar at the bar. Ambiance right out of Twin Peaks.

[hathor]

In Wisconsin at least, those perfectly prepared cocktails will start with brandy - as in brandy and ginger, brandy old fashioned, brandy manhattan.  At one point, and now too since things don't really change there, Wisconsin consumed more brandy than any other state in the US.

My favorite supper club, back when I was stranded in Wisconsin for two years, was in Manitowoc - great rib eye steaks and free steak tartar at the bar.  Ambiance right out of Twin Peaks.

←

You make the brandy manhattan....and I'll be there with bells on!

[Carole]

In Wisconsin at least, those perfectly prepared cocktails will start with brandy - as in brandy and ginger, brandy old fashioned, brandy manhattan.  At one point, and now too since things don't really change there, Wisconsin consumed more brandy than any other state in the US.

My favorite supper club, back when I was stranded in Wisconsin for two years, was in Manitowoc - great rib eye steaks and free steak tartar at the bar.  Ambiance right out of Twin Peaks.

←

And don't forget the Brandy Alexander, made with vanilla ice cream, for an after-dinner drink.

[brescd01]

We are almost there. I think that these supper clubs really did require membership at one point. However, I don't think they had nothing to do with dinner theater. And the dinner club that is a wine society, this sounds new-fangled.