February 2011 Supper Club Review: Paley's Place

We're 2 for 2 so far on Supper club choices.
Our February Supper Club night started out with cocktails at Nathan and Alexis' place. We started a new tradition to kick the night up a a notch. We put all of our names* into the Supper Club box and drew one name out--That person has to take a shot of some sort of liquor from the hosts booze stash. Jeff was the lucky winner and he enjoyed the first official Supper Club shot.

Ready to go, we piled into 1 car, braved the chilly temps and made our way to NW for dinner at Paley's Place. The cheese tray in the doorway was a sign that we were in the right place. Even though it was a slightly older and more 'refined' crowd, the food was excellent (although Jeff wasn't thrilled with his last selection; the beef tartar). The menu is primarily NW inspired dishes with a focus on local, organic ingredients. Paley's Place has been a Portland staple since 1995 and has been featured in the NY Times, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Sunset and O Magazine. It was also good timing because Executive Chef Vitaly Paly is going to be featured in an April episode of Iron Chef America, going head to head against Jose Garces.

Favorite dishes: The vegetarian cassoulet, rabbit ravioli

Budget Spent: $260

Current Dinner Box Budget: $45

Paleys Place

1204 Northwest 21st Avenue
503-243-2403

Paleys Place Website

More Rules

Our 2011 Supper Club rules are a 'work in progress' which means that at any time, we can make up new rules, most likely developed at one members expense. But since we are all official with our own blog and our awesome goth-chic dinner club box, we thought we better right down the rules as they exist today.

• The first rule of Supper Club is that there is no Supper Club. (Todd suggested this one. Shocker.)
• One couple is responsible for Supper Club each month. That months hosts are responsible for a) planning the restaurant and making a reservation if necessary b) hosting drinks and appetizers for the group before dinner
• We always go in the following order (Todd&Kara/Nathan&Alexis/Jeff&Dani)
• The host must keep the location a secret until all members of the club have arrived. At that point, they can reveal the location in any manner they see fit (20 questions/sky writing/a haiku)
• Each year, the members are allowed to invite guests to the club 1x per couple, if approved by the group
• Roles and responsibilities were established January 2011 and are locked in for 1 year terms. At that point, we will revisit the roles. In the meantime, any person can be impeached with a unanimous vote from the rest of the club
• The club must take something from each restaurant to enter into the club box (i.e. matches/business card)
• The club always tips at a rate of 20% unless unanimously decided upon differently
• There is a minimum of 1 dessert per Supper Club
• When your food arrives, if you begin eating, anyone can eat
• You can switch date if the social chair approves
• Once a year, Supper club is out of town
• Once a year, Supper club is changed to Brunch Club.
  

Roles & Responsibilities:
Todd: President
Nathan: VP
Jeff: Social Chair
Danielle: Secretary
Kara: Treasurer
Alexis: Legal Counsel/Bail Coordinator

January 2011 Supper Club Review: Metrovino

Our first ever Supper Club was a success.  We started out at Todd & Karas with cocktails straight from one of our faves, Mint 8/20.   The Bellas flowing and the boys had some Man-drink that I forgot to write down. 

Our first dinner was at Metrovino, a newish restaurant (est. 2009) 

that describes itself as having a "refined yet rustic" style.  Jeff's vertigo was at an all time high at the bistro tables but with an Enomatic win

e system, the wine flights seemed to cure all of our ailments.

Favorite dishes: Oysters, The Burger, Cauliflower Mac &  Cheese, 

Pesto

Budget Spent: $295

Current Dinner Box Budget: $5

Metrovino

NW 11th & Northrup

(503) 517-7778

METROVINO MENU

A Message From Our Inaugural Host

Group,

As we embark upon our first, official dinner club, I wanted to first express my sincere excitement to dine with each of you. I hope our nights will be filled with good conversation, laughter and foie gras.

I have been thinking and want to pose some rules for our future monthly Dinner Clubs. Because I do not want to be labeled as an autocratic in my rule making, I will allow a more democratic approach in the creation of our dinner club guidlines. For now, here is a start:

Rules

1) First and foremost, there is NO Dinner Club.

2) If a member has become boring, uninteresting or lackluster (all meaning the same thing), then we can follow the following format of member removal: secret ballot.

3) Couples must be present at the host's home for appetizers and drinks before the dinner fiesta. Tardiness will be met with 17 lashings from the host, but choice of lashing object may be made by the tardy committer (ie stick, rope or wrench).

4) If the cocktails the hosts decide to serve are mediocre in any sense, then any person may break two of the host's glasses on the kitchet floor. If all the glasses in the house are broken, then we depart to the dinner fiesta.

5) Unveiling of the dinner's location will occur at the host's on the night of the Dinner Club. If any information is "leaked" prior to Dinner Club, then Jeff has to take 5 shots.

6) Lastly, and certainly not least, there is NO Dinner club.

Also, this Thursday kicks off our monthly Dinner Club. Reservations are made at 7:30pm so we recommend arriving at our place around 6pm for some awesome cocktails, appetizers and the unveiling of the dinner's location. Good luck in not breaking any of the rules.

Todd

January 2011 Supper Club

In an effort to follow through with my 2011 resolutions I want to get our dinner club up and running.  My resolution is of course to continue eating at Portland's delicious culinary destinations.  Todd and I would like to host the inaugural supper club in January and I figured we should get something on the calendar.  How does Thursday January 20th sound?  If not the 27th could work as well.  

Kara

 

Let's Eat!

We like food, wine and each other (Most of the time. Sometimes Jeff takes a joke a little too far and Todd gets sleepy.) Anyway, since we like all of these things, we decided to spend more time doing it.

Thus, the Portland Supper Club was born.