The Inaugural Totally Vegetarian Dinner Club Menu - Really, No Bacon

Hey Folks,

Today, we are posting publicly our August 2011 dinner club menu. We plan to share our menus on the blog as we go forward (we've designed and cooked hundreds of menus over the years - we try not to repeat ourselves - but we do love cassoulet in the winter!).

So - the first 100% vegetarian Sunday Dinner Club Menu:

Broccoli and Butterkase Arancini, Roasted Summer Pepper Rouille

Caramelized Tomato Tatin, Olive Tapenade, Heirloom Tomato Salad, Arugula

Baked Farm Egg, Cherry Tomato Confit, Patty Pan Squash, Basil Pesto, Foccacia

Handmade Ravioli, Ricotta, Chili, Sweet Corn, Roasted Chanterelles

Yeast Doughnuts, Candied Eggplant, Fresh Plums, Walnut Cream, Honey

People often ask us (Christine Cikowski and Joshua Kulp) what Sunday Dinner Club is exactly. It’s sort of been hard to for us to define. Most people will refer to us as an underground restaurant. But we really aren’t underground. And we really aren’t a restaurant either. Simply put, we host dinner parties in our homes and the homes of friends and invite people on our mailing list to attend. The mailing list has been cultivated over the last six years by referral only which means that everyone that comes to the dinner club is connected in some way to us or another diner. The dinners are multi-course feasts, featuring the best of what is available from the good local and sustainable Midwest farmers at our fair city's markets. The food that we cook is the food we want to eat – seasonal, simple, clean but also refined and painstakingly handcrafted. In addition, we can be found grilling fresh-ground burgers at Chicago’s Green City Market on Saturdays and catering smallish food-focused events.

Please note that the dinner club mailing list is not open to public sign-up. We've grown our list through word of mouth only. If you are interested in being added to the list - find someone who can get you added (there are a few thousand of them around the city!) or look for Sunday Dinner at the Green City Market on Saturday slinging burgers - we heard a rumor that a sign up sheet just might be on the counter each week:) We'd also be happy to cater a delicious private dinner for you and your friends!