#summerrestaurantweek2016

This is quite literally the freshest beccammendations post in beccammendations history. Since it is 2016 Summer Restaurant Week here in NYC, I find it only fitting to present you all with my insanely delicious dining experience last night at Chef’s Club NY. Nestled in the hip NoLiTa/SoHo neighborhood on Mulberry Street - just South of Houston, the food paired with the ambiance allowed for a truly unique escapade.

A little background on Chef’s Club, “Chefs Club by Food & Wine is a restaurant in New York City’s NoLiTa where guests can experience the spectacular signature dishes of greatest chefs from around the country and the world paired with fabulous wines. The seasonal, innovative menu is a one-of-a-kind blend of recipes by select winners of the prestigious Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs Award as well as other brilliant chefs, including Chefs Club’s very own Culinary Director Didier Elena, Executive Chef Matthew Aita and Executive Pastry Chef Jared Sexton. The dishes are all prepared by the talented Chefs Club team in the open kitchen, which is ringed by counter seating so diners can get an up-close view of the action. The kitchen also provides a dramatic focus of the spacious  Rockwell-designed brick-walled dining room.” I knew right away this was the restaurant I was going to for restaurant week.

One of my good friends who has turned into somewhat of a beccammendations “PIC”, Jenn, accompanied me during this endeavor. We both started with the Calamari A La Plancha - served with hummus toast, the calamari tossed with dill, mint, giardiniera, and smoked paprika. I’m not even sure how to describe the flavors that were coming together in this dish. The spicy, crunch of the chopped giardiniera vegetables combined with the freshly and perfectly cooked calamari was unlike anything I had ever tasted before. When I put the calamari on the hummus toast it was just amazing. As Jenn and I said last night, the word of the night was “wow” because that was what we said after every first, second, and third bite of all three courses. Incredible.

For my main course I ordered the Spicy Beef Ribs, created be Chef Bryant NG. They were made with a chili glaze, basil, and cilantro and accompanied by large lettuce leaves with mint. Meant to be eaten like a lettuce wrap. I asked for my ribs extra spicy, as I tend to be a heat seeker and love a good spicy beef. Chef’s Club delivered on the spicy. It was PERFECT. Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, literally fell off the bone, and shredded into a delicious lettuce wrap, my plate was cleaned. I should also note that this was an exceptionally large portion. Some restaurants skimp on portion sizes during restaurant week, but not Chef’s Club! For Jenn’s main course, she ordered the Crispy Florida Grouper - yuzu slaw and shiso emulsion. A great size cut of grouper paired with a refreshing and zesty slaw, gently swimming in the shiso emulsion. This dish had some tangy-ness to it and was nothing short of amazing.

For the third and final course, dessert, I ordered the Panna Cotta, a delicious gelatin, sweet cream mold with raspberry sorbet on top and angel-food-cake-like cubes surrounding it accompanied by fresh rasperries and sugar coated blueberries. This was just out of this world. It was so different, the combination of flavors hitting my tastebuds was overwhelming. Again, “wow”. Jenn ordered the Chocolate Pretzel Whoopie Pie which was pretzel ice cream, peanut, whipped cream, and stout-caramel sauce wrapped up in two chocolate whoopie pie pieces. This was intense. The pretzel ice cream tasted like salted vanilla, with the crushed peanuts, the sauce, and the chocolate pie pieces it was also a “wow” moment. So many flavors, brought together in 1 bite that made up some new, never before-like experience.