Sunday Dinner Club Takeout Night

There are many Underground Supper Clubs in Chicago.  Many do not have a concrete location and will change locations from month to month.  Some clubs also vary chefs from month to month.  What they all do is have an ever changing menu.  Some Supper Clubs, like Sous Rising and One Sister have become so popular that they have opened a brick and mortar location (42 Grams and Elizabeth, respectively) and one, Sunday Dinner Club, both opened a brick and mortar location and maintained an enormously popular Dinner Club.  The location of the supper club is in a constant location, on the second floor above their very popular Honey Butter Fried Chicken, which was invented at the supper club.  Sunday Dinner Club is very popular.  In order to go to one of their dinners, you have to get on their mailing list and in order to get on their mailing list, you have to know someone on the mailing list.  I have wanted to get on their mailing list for several years, but this year, I finally found out that I knew someone on the list who was nice enough to add me.  A few dinners were announced where I was already busy or it sold out before I moved, but they recently decided to do a Takeout Night (or as they called it, TriBecca's Cubano Cubano Takeout Night at HBFC).  There were know reservations to this event, if you were interested, you came to the rear of Honey Butter Fried Chicken and bought a dinner (sandwich, side dessert) for a very reasonable price, with alcohol (which was consumed at HBFC) extra.  The menu sounded good, so I decided to show up.  I ordered my meal and decided to order the cocktail special, a Cherry Cuba Libre, while I was waiting.  A Cuba Libre is one of the simplest cocktails ever, consisting of Rum, Coke, and a Lime garnish, so a Cherry Cuba Libre is a Rum and Cherry Coke.  The bartender was very generous with the rum which is nice as far as amount of alcohol per price paid, but when rum is not your favorite liquor, it's not so great.  I did drink it, but I would have preferred a drink a little lighter on the rum.

Dinner was served in a bag, so after I finished my drink, I went on my way.  In the bag, I got Executive Sous Chef Becca's Cubano with Mojo Pork, Neuske's Ham, Swiss Cheese, House Made Pickles, Chipotle Mayo, and Mustard Butter on a Ciabatta Panino.  For a side, I got a container (about 12 oz) of Rice and Sour Orange Black Beans, and a Mini Funfetti Rum Cake for dessert.  The sandwich was excellent.  The pork and ham were tender and flavorful.  The cheese was perfectly melted, the pickles were crisp, and the butter and mayo provided some good spice flavor to the sandwich.  The ciabatta panino had a nice crunchy exterior and a chewy texture and was substantial enough to hold the plentiful meat and cheese that was piled on.  Black Beans and Rice are good in any case, the sour orange flavor added a tart citrus flavor which made them even better.  The rum cake, though small, was dense, and had a lot of sweet rum flavor, in addition to the sweetness from the funfetti.

This meal was my introduction to Sunday Dinner Club (aside from a few trips to Honey Butter Fried Chicken) and I really liked it.  While I didn't see the normal space in which Sunday Dinner Club happens, I was able to experience the excellent quality of their food.  I will definitely return for other dinners.      

5411 Gourmet Empanadas

While the laws regulating food trucks in Chicago are cumbersome, there are several companies that have been successful enough to expand their enterprises into Brick and Mortar stores.  I first encountered 5411 Empanadas as a food truck and I really liked what they were doing.  Empanadas are the Hispanic version of Hand Pies or Pasties.  Crusty and savory pies that are eaten by hand and can be filled with a variety of things.   They are a very popular street food in Argentina.  I had first encountered the 5411 Empanadas truck a few years ago.  Last year, they opened up a brick and mortar store in Lakeview which I did not go to, but when they opened up a spot in Wicker Park, it became a must go to.  The space is a small storefront with a glass front with 5411 painted on one side of the window.  5411 is the dialing code for Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the owners are from.  The (Wicker Park) space is small, with seating for about 14 at tables by the windows and about 6 more seats at the bar.  The space looks like a coffee bar and while it does serve coffee, it also has a small selection of beers and wine.  Ordering is done at the counter with a large chalkboard listing what is available.  The food is brought to you and at the table or bar, there is a listing of what each empanada looks like.  This is very convenient because the empanadas are relatively small (about 4 or 5 bites), so several will generally be ordered.  If they didn't have crust differentiations, it would be a crap shoot for both the diner and the baker both.

I ordered 5 empanadas and one sauce.  The sauce was Chimichurri, the traditional Argentine sauce of  Herbs, Garlic, and Olive Oil.  It reminded me somewhat of a pesto and it served as a nice dipping sauce for the different empanadas.  All of the empanadas had a nicely browned crust that had some flakiness to it, but still held together when a bite was taken out of it and all of the fillings were very good and flavorful.  The empanadas also came out pretty hot.  While I did order multiple empanadas, I did eat them one at a time (from top to bottom and from left to right as they sat on the plate).  I didn't think about it at the time, but I also ate them from most to least vegetarian.  I started out with the Mushroom, Thyme, and Blue Cheese.  I then went to the Ratatouille, the Bacon, Date and Goat Cheese, the Chorizo with Patatas Bravas, and finished off with the Malbec Beef.  While they were all good and I liked them all, I think that I liked the Bacon, Date, and Goat Cheese best.  It was both sweet and savory and had a little gaminess from the goat cheese which added to the overall flavor.

After my empanadas, I decided I wanted some sweetness.  The store carries a few desserts including flan, cheesecake, and housemade Alfajores, a soft sandwich cookie that is covered in glazed sugar, or chocolate, and is very popular in Argentina.  I decided to stick with the Argentinian theme and got a couple of Alfajores, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  One was chocolate and one was glazed and filled with a pistachio filling.  They were light, sweet, and very good.

I already knew when I came to the store that I liked the empanadas from 5411.  I am glad to see that they are able to maintain it in their brick and mortar store.  They make some very good empanadas with a wide variety and I will definitely be back.