What happens when the chefs at Home Grown Café get free rein to go off menu? Mini French toasts with foie gras and apricot jam. Scallop asparagus gratin with lemon lavender hollandaise. Duck “strip steak” with watermelon radish, sake and fermented black beans. Sous vide tenderloin with pickled maitake mushrooms, bone-marrow potatoes and a bordelaise sauce. Savory goat cheesecake with grilled figs. On the last Wednesday of every month, guests of the Home Grown Supper Club gather for an experience that’s available only once a month. Chef-owner Eric Aber and executive chef Seth Harvey work together in the kitchen to produce a multi-course dinner that changes every time the club meets. “We’re not a fine dining restaurant, but we use fine dining techniques in everything we cook,” says Sasha Aber. “Our kitchen can produce phenomenal food. And Supper Club nights give our chefs an opportunity to play with ingredients that don’t appear on our daily menu.”
Courses come paired with libations that match the dish—sometimes cocktails, sometimes wine, sometimes beer. Themes may revolve around specific ingredients, seasons, drinks or all three, such as Birds and Brews in March, which explored the flavors of spring through a study of fowl. The next gathering of the Home Grown Supper Club will take place on April 29. Flutes and Shoots will celebrate the first tendrils of spring with an evening honoring the early harvests of the season—tender sprouts, young greens, baby vegetables—all enhanced by the delicate effervescence of Champagne and other sparkling beverages. Reservations are required. The March super club sold out a few days before the dinner. Call 266-6993. Pricing may vary, but most supper club events cost between $69- and $85, including drinks (but not gratuity). For updates and menus as they become available, send an email to supperclub@homegrowncafe.com.
