The Dinner Club

On November 17, 2012, the Rourke Drive (R.D.) Dinner Club was born.  If you asked me a few years ago to start a neighborhood dinner club, I would’ve probably looked the other way.  But this idea came from our neighbor as a way to help us all get together and share a meal during the winter season when we don’t get to see each other so often.   We decided to start small and rotate from home to home on a monthly basis. I would like to eventually expand it out beyond the selected few so that the other “Rourkies” can have the same dinner club experience.  My street alone has plenty of potential when it comes to food.  From Spanish, Columbian, Brazilian, Italian, Irish to Korean, the R.D. Dinner Club could be the talk of the town.  Besides the food, dinner club will be a time for everyone to get to know their neighbor more intimately and possibly become close friends with someone they may not have known.

Being the “foodie” that I am, I thought I would take to the lead in getting things kicked off.  Not knowing how to run a dinner club, I did some “Googling” to figure out where to start, what to do, and how to present it. My first instinct was to just jump right into it by sending out invites and cooking.  But, what I had learned was that I needed a structure to the dinner party, and a theme. 

So, on October 25, 2012 at 8:13pm, I sent this meal to those selected few:

"What's up Community Family?

Yes, it's about that time! We've been talking about it for a while...The first monthly R.D. Dinner Club is right around the corner. You're probably thinking "R.D.??? What the..."  Yes, I had to give it an official name, "Rourke Drive Dinner Club." How original, huh? But, reason being is that when this gets going, every community is going to be doing it, so we need to remember where it started.

Anyway, the R.D. Dinner Club is Set for this date:

Event: R.D. Dinner Club
Date and Time: Saturday, November 17th, 2012 @ 7 P.M.

Please R.S.V.P. to this email by November 9th, 2012.

Yours truly will be preparing the meal; I just ask if you can bring the beverages, please and thank you, of course!

I'm thinking that the very first meal will be a little bit comforting....Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Southern Comfort Food!!!

Well, I hope all of you can make it because this is going to be EPIC!!

Your Community Food Chef"

A few days after, I finalized my meal. What my guest didn't know was that this menu had a Creole/Cajun twist.

Main Menu

• Southern Fried Chicken w/ Cajun Dust Seasonings (to the right)
• Smoked Mac' & Cheese w/ Crawfish and Bacon
• Braised Kale w/ Cajun Sausage
• Famous Cornbread "So good, makes you want to slap your mamma!"
• Southern Sweet Tea

 Dessert Menu

• Old Fashion Pound Cake w/ Fresh Strawberry Compote & Coconut Rum Whipped Cream

With an ambitious meal planned, I had my hands full.  Thankfully my wife helped me with the dessert, decor and of course, the clean up! Needless to say, everything turned out pretty well, but there were some things that I would've done differiently. 

Lessons Learned

1. Treat a three hour event, as if it was two days - preparation is key here; leave ample time so you won't feel rushed and you can enjoy everything else around you.
2. Even if you have a grocery list defined, don't shop, make preparations and cook all in the same day. Grocery shop one day, prep another and cook the day of the event.  That way if you do forget something you're not scrabbling around at the last minute.
3. If you work full time, try to take time out for yourself to get the aforementioned completed. You will be surprised on how much time you will need to do these things, including cleaning the house for your company and setting the table.

Overall, it was a successful night and my guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. For those of you that hosted dinner parties before, what were your challenges? What would you do differently?  And, what were some of the themes that you came up with? Feel free to leave comments or questions that you may have.

If you would like a recipe to one or more of the items mentioned above, follow me on my blog and vote for what you want! For the most votes, I will be releasing the recipe within the next month.

Your Community Food Chef
Follow me on Twitter: @yourcfchef