pic via GofaG

Last Wednesday I attended   The Hunger: A Pop-Up Restaurant Series.    The Hunger is a series of themed restaurant concepts that kicked off in NYC and and will be popping up in other cities soon. The idea comes from Top Chef alum Camille Becerra and Alan Philips and Josh Shames of SKY Group. The New York edition was hosted at Grotto Azzurra, a New York City landmark dating back to 1908 and one of Manhattan’s oldest and finest wine cellars.  The theme was “Urban Cuisine Bourgeois” described as “a modern and urban influenced interpretation of La Cuisine Bourgeoise,” (a French style of cooking emphasizing seasonal ingredients and prepared family-style.)  Dinner parties, underground supper clubs, and the reinvention of ‘dinner and drinks’ is a trend we’ve been seeing a lot of in the past few years. A traveling underground dinner party thrown by top chefs pretty much hits the nail right on the head.

Prior to the event, I wasn’t sure who would be there.  Walking in a 50-person dinner and not knowing a soul ahead of time but could be a little overwhelming – but hey – I love free food – and meeting new people is part of the whole experience.   I walked in quite frazzled after a long day of work and immediately realized my definition of downtown chic was not how everyone else at the party interpreted it.   I immediately recognized a familiar face – good ole Steve Lewis.   I walked over to say hello and coincidentally he was chatting up a friend of mine from Urban Daddy who I never met in person before.  Working in the ‘blog’ world, I’ve made a lot of digital friends, so I love finally meeting people I talk to via email and through social media in real life.  As I glanced around the room, I felt very honored to be invited and dine amongst such prominent and notable New Yorkers.   Guests included Michael Musto, Kim Stolz (ANTM,) Tom Colicchio (Craft, Gramercy Tavern,) David Rabin (Union Bar, Los Dados), and Todd English; not to mention a slew of writers from Paper, Grub Street, NY Barfly, The New York Post, New York Daily News, and Gothamist.  Needless to say, there was a lot of ‘talking shop’ as we sipped our Dark and Stormy’s and feasted on our 6-course meal.  My favorite dishes were the Crudo of Fluke with Hemp Seeds and Persian Lime as well as the Roasted Leg of Lamb with Pistachios and Petals.

The food was great, the conversation was great, my only gripe was that towards the end of the meal, the flow of food seamed to disappear.  There were a lot of menu items that never came to our side of the table – like the Tamale which I’m still kinda bummed about.  After the dinner wrapped up a few of us headed next door to Goldbar and then later moved on to RDV- pretty much the opposite of a classy dinner party.

Check the website to see if The Hunger is heading to your city next.  The feast will cost you anywhere from $75 to $125 depending on if you want wine pairings or not.