Plus it's a chance to spend time together and even if the experience is a bit of a bust we'll at least have a funny story to share just the two of us.
I took to the internet to find the perfect Valentines gift for the Hubs and quickly remembered a series of dinners being offered just down the street from us at The Depanneur.
The Depanneur's website states simply that they are "a place where interesting food things happen."
The name dépanneur comes from the French verb dépanner, meaning "to help out of difficulty" or "troubleshoot" and is the name for convenience store in the province of Quebec. It's usually shortened to "Dep" and it's worth mentioning that unlike here in Ontario the Quebec convenience stores can sell beer and wine. During University we'd road trip to visit friends attending McGill University in Montreal and it was such a novelty to be able to go to the local "Dep" and feel badass buying French Canadian beers like La Fin Du Monde (end of the world) and Maudite (damned) partly for their names and partly for the pictures on their labels.
The Depanneur was once a ratty neighbourhood convenience store so the name is a nice play and no doubt provides nostalgia for folks like me and Montreal ex-pats. A cafe, brunch spot and upscale mini grocer featuring things like local organic veggies and handcrafted marshmallows by day The Dep is also the home of the Rusholme Park Supper Club by night. From their facebook page:
Dinners are served at meetings of the Rusholme Park Supper Club. To attend a meeting, you first become a member -- RPSC memberships cost $40 and include the cost of the meal. Memberships are valid for one day -- you renew your membership each time you wish to attend. No alcohol is bought, sold or served at meetings of the RPSC, but members are free to bring their own beverage of choice.
I just loved the underground nature of the Supper Club and when I saw the description of the next meeting it was a match made in heaven. Porknography - because nothing says love to your man like an all pork meal cooked up by the award-winning competitive BBQ team Pork Ninjas!
When we arrived the store was transformed with a long table stretching down the space that seated 20. We got there a tad late but that meant we got to sit right down at the end by our chefs and had a great view of everything they were doing.
It was all pretty fantastic.
Our First Course was pork cheek 3 ways:
Apple braised pork cheek over delicious creamy grits (seriously we saw them adding heavy whipping cream to finish them) and chive oil
Guanciale* Carbonara on an edible parmesan spoon
Guanciale Brushetta on brioche
*Guanciale is an unsmoked Italian bacon made from a pig's cheek or jowls.
I still can't decide if the pasta or the pork cheek and grits were my favourite. The Carbonara was creamier than any I've ever made at home but those braised cheeks were excellent. Tender, sweet and with an amazing edge of the nicest snow white fat. These cheeks came from happy pigs alright and I sure was a happy pig eating them!
Here is Jason Rees of the Pork Ninjas putting together the main course - a trio of their pulled pork sandwiches - their competition style sweet sauced pork, a vinegary North Carolina version and my favourite a South Carolina style with a mustard based sauce. Hubs and I just love mustard. I will seriously dream of this sauce. If the Pork Ninjas sold it I'd buy it and pour it on everything!
The pulled pork sliders were served with amazing coleslaw that had a nice spicy kick from Sriracha sauce and some smoked mac and cheese.
At this point I was fading. I did perhaps the smartest thing I'd done all evening and started discarding the top buns from my sliders because I had to leave room for dessert!
Because I had spied these adorable bad boys sitting off to the side waiting for us.
Chocolate Piggy Cupcakes made with rendered bacon grease instead of oil, dark chocolate cranberry stout with some candied bacon scattered throughout the batter.
Here is my cupcake served along side homemade candied bacon cheesecake ice cream and then off to the side a square of chocolate and peanut butter that was wrapped in bacon and roasted off. My father is a big fan of bacon and peanut butter sandwiches and it is a great, if pretty salty pairing.
Another of the guests was even nice enough to share with us some of the same chocolate cranberry stout from Muskoka Brewery that was in the cupcakes. What a great label design eh?
When dinner was over we literally had to stagger out of there. In hindsight jeggings were likely the wrong choice of what to wear. But what a great night. We had interesting conversations with our table mates, ate great food and learned about the competitive BBQ circuit.
We can't wait to renew our memberships for the Rusholme Park Supper Club and see what future meetings have in store. However this might be a pretty hard act to follow!
Do you have any underground supper clubs or similar in your city? I'd love to hear about them in the comments area below.
It was super great and they do all sorts of dinners - the one on Valentines Day proper was apparently a vegan feast so there is really something for everyone!