Sometimes People Just Connect

The beauty of supper clubs is that people connect. There is nothing much more fun than socializing and connecting with people over a meal.

Sometimes in life you meet people and have an automatic connection. That happened to me a few years ago at a friend’s son’s wedding in Quebec City. I met Jean Avard, an uncle of the groom, at the rehearsal party and we just talked. For two hours straight. At some point our wives simultaneously asked each other: Does someone need to be rescued? They quickly came to the conclusion that we were just two peas in a pod.

We mostly talked about family. I knew Jean’s middle son Doomie from his golfing trips to Memphis. The first year I retired it just happened that Doomie and I were alone together on the golf course for three days straight. You get to learn a lot about a person playing an empty golf course in March. Doomie is a great guy and we just had fun. Jean got to tell me about his other two boys Charles and Philippe. How they were all different and unique. Most of all he made it clear how proud he was of all three.

I got to tell him about my undergraduate thesis in Canadian studies. My thesis was that the separatist movement in Quebec would go the way of other radical movements in North America and that over time it would be assimilated. From 1976 to 2015 I couldn’t have been more wrong. Montreal, in particular, is more French today than it was in my college days. Jean and I agreed that while I was wrong to that point, I have time on my side.

After the wedding Nancy and Jean hosted a brunch at their wonderful lake house outside of Quebec City. Jean got to show everyone the trophy 24 inch trout that he had caught. Truth was he wasn’t much of a fisherman, but he caught the trophy. I got to tell everyone about trophy deer bust that was hung at my grandfather’s lake house. My dad, not much of a hunter, had shot it. My cousin was convinced it was haunted. She would walk past it at night explaining: “Don’t be mad at me Uncle Eddy shot you”. Jean and I were just two peas in a pod.

Tragically, we lost Jean a few months after the wedding in a bicycle accident. Jean is gone, but his stories live on. Doomie and Estelle are expecting a new baby in a few months. My guess is that the baby will remind us of Jean and  grow up to be a wonderful storyteller.

If a supper club can be a venue for people connecting, that is a good thing.

Living in Tennessee  we don’t see a lot of Quebec license plates, but when I do  I think of Jean: “Je me souviens” (I remember).

If you enjoy this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and be on the look out for my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Morgan James Publishing published the Kindle-Version on September 5, 2017 and the hard copy coming out January 30, 2018.

Kindle Version Of Impromptu Friday Nights is Now For Sale

Impromptu Friday Nights – A Guide to Supper Clubs is now available on Amazon. It has been over five years in the making and the Kindle version is now available from Morgan James Publishing. Subscribe to the IFN blog and you will get a free e-copy of the book.

The Kindle version of “Impromptu Friday Nights – A Guide to Supper Clubs” was published September 5th. So now do me a big favor and go to Amazon and write a nice review. The way it works is that the publisher uses reviews of the Kindle version to be printed on the hard copy that comes out in January. So the reviews you write may become part of Supper Club Immortality when the hard copy of the book comes out.

So what you need to do is:

– Go to www. Amazon.com

– Search Impromptu Friday Nights

– Click on Kindle Edition

– Scroll down to Write a Customer Review

Thanks

If you enjoy this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and be on the look out for my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Morgan James Publishing published the E-Version on September 5, 2017 and the hard copy coming out January 30, 2018

Things Are Different When You Go Back

Lots of my supper club roots go back to my upbringing in a very Italian community in NY. It was a great place to grow up. It was a great place to eat. But things change.

Many of the scenes of my youth evolved around an Italian restaurant and bar Casserella’s. Susan and I went there last night and it is now an upscale Italian restaurant called Lago’s.

It was a bit of a tell when the waiter introduced himself as Juan. My dad used to say that every waiter in a French restaurant in New York was really Italian. Today everyone working in an Italian restaurant in New York is Hispanic. This is actually a good thing it is just different.

Juan was great. He was well schooled on the menu. He even spoke New York Italian very well. On one my many trips to Italy I realized that Italian of my youth (or as Cousin Vinny would say: “my yutes”) was very different than real Italian. With New York Italian, when you were cool, you cut off the vowels. Prosciutto becomes prosciut. Mozzarella becomes mozarell. Juan’s Italian was very cool and it was music to my ears.

I explained that I had grown up in there. He told me he had a guy about 90 years old come in and tell him that beers used to cost 10 cents. I explained that I wasn’t nearly that old. In my day the beers cost 33 cents each. You got 3 beers for a dollar and the bartender Eddy would give you a fourth for free. So at a memory of a 25 cent beer, I am really old.

The food at Lago’s was actually pretty good. While memories usually make the food of your youth seem better, to be honest the food at Cassarella’s was inconsistent at best. My buddy John Nangle was once working in the kitchen making salads when Cassarella’s got reviewed by the local newspaper the Reporter Dispatch (affectionately referred to as the “Distorted Repatch”). The reviewer cited John’s work that night by stating he had been served a very “Undistinguished Salad”. John explained: “What should you expect, no-one had ever told me that there was a difference between cucumber and zucchini”.

Speaking of inconsistent, growing up we knew who the cook was each night. If Gracie was cooking you were in for a treat. If another cook was working we just drank beer. Actually we drank beer every night, we just ate better when Gracie was cooking. I have been trying to replicate Gracie’s veal chop Milanese for years. No amount of beer could dull that memory.

You can expect to see a recipe for Gracie’s Veal Chop Milanese on an upcoming supper club menu. Distance may make the heart grow fonder, but memories are usually that things tasted better. Well maybe…

If you enjoy this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and be on the look out for my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Morgan James Publishing published the E-Version on September 5, 2017 and the hard copy coming out January 30, 2018.