BA Supper Club and my Southern roots
Apparently Bon Appetit magazine does this "Supper Club and Cafe" thing for two weeks in late October. They get famous chefs to put their name behind some menu items, price them moderately towards the higher end of the lunch pricing spectrum, and just let it fly. Midtown Lunch reported of its opening and I had to go check it out today because the daily special today was shrimp and grits. Since I used to live in the South, it seemed like a good excuse to go take lunch and eat grits. (But honestly it wouldn't take much to convince me to go eat grits. It's quite good).
Located at 221 West 57th st between Broadway and 7th Ave, you can find this little jewel of a luncheon destination (at least for the next two weeks). Their menu has sandwiches like Cat Cora's Thai Chicken Salad or Mario Batali's Empanada with Chorizo. There's also salads with names like Michael Psilakis' Greek salad or Tyler Florence's winter greens. Both sandwiches and salads run between $7 and $8 dollars. There's also a host of $3 desserts like Johnny Iuzzini's Pineapple Polenta Cake or Pichet Ong's Chocolate chip blondie (Blondie & Brownie, that has y'all's name written all over it.)
Once you get your food the line moves decently fast. Maybe 5 minutes? And then you onto their dimly lit dining room. It's like high school cafeteria with a few light bulbs blown out. It's actually nice, and the decoration is Autumn themed. Today, Jonathan Lindenauer from Bon Appetit was doing a demo with chicken and some tomatoes. But I was too hungry to stay and listen to him or to see if the dish turned out well.
And onto the grits! The BA Supper Club and cafe has daily specials as well as a set menu. Today the special was John Besh's Slow-cooked Louisiana Shrimp and Andouille over grits. $9 bucks. If you could have a show stopper lunch, this would be it. You would be left kinda hungry but the show would stop.
You get three of those Louisiana shrimps with an order. They're a good size and quite plump. They did a good job of cooking it and it wasn't overcooked. The Andouille was more plentiful and provided a nice kick to the sauce. I don't know much about grits except instant grits so these were definitely better than instant grits. You might ask, if you lived in the South, shouldn't you know more about grits? And all I can tell you is my mom is Chinese (so is I!) and we don't make grits in our house. That's not how we roll. Sorry to disappoint you with my lack of Southern food knowledge/experience. I also don't have an accent, and yes, there are Chinese people in Tennessee. Three of them, but they are there.
Today I feel like a good little blogger, bringing you food news when it's still news. The BA Supper Club and Cafe is open from 11am to 3pm. That's right, if you rush, you can still go get shrimp and grits! By the way, anyone know where I can go to up my Southern food knowledge?
Bon Appetit Pop up Cafe
20 Lincoln Center Plz.
New York, NY 10023
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Haha people always laugh at my pitiful knowledge (or lack) of grits... I don't know why seeing as I'm a NORTHERNER people, isn't it kind of expected my knowledge goes so far as MY COUSIN VINNY's repartee...? Hehehe. That does look mighty good though :D
PS Maybe spend a lot of time reading southern style cookbooks? Put butter in everything and worship Paula Deen?
Yvo
October 23, 2008 2:47 pm
Midtown Lunch and Alicia reported its opening...
Alicia
October 24, 2008 3:02 am
i hadn't read about this yet. thanks for the heads up, and happy friday!
mona
October 24, 2008 12:00 pm
I love me some grits. And as a southerner I like calling them grits. The word is so unpretentious. Not like polenta which sounds so posh. Who does polenta think it is?
Jonathan
October 25, 2008 12:41 pm
Yvo,
I think there's a lot to be discovered if I start worshiping paula deen... might be a little scary though
Alicia,
hahaha ok
mona,
sure thing, hope you had a happy friday!
Jonathan,
Seriously, polenta needs to back that shit up
Danny
October 26, 2008 9:53 pm