If you’re tired of the same old SF restaurant grind—last week Flour + Water, this week Barbacco, next week Frances—you might want to try something a little different and go underground. For upwards of $200 per person, the newly launched Phoenix Supperclub, a “roaming restaurant” created by chef Tommy Halvorson (of Bix ,Gary Danko, Chez Panisse), will whisk you up in a limo, deliver you to a “secret San Francisco location” that might be a modern gallery or rambling mansion, and serve you nine langorous, wine-paired courses. You won’t know where you’re going until you arrive.
On a recent Saturday night, the supperclub hosts instructed me to arrive at Jardiniere’s lounge for a cocktail at 7pm. Soon a limo arrived and drove several Supperclub patrons to a mansion overlooking Alamo Square, where the first floor had been transformed into a speakeasy. A live jazz combo crooned away as we were served course after course of Halvorson’s classic dishes—think olive oil-poached Kobe beef with a morel sformato, pan-seared scallops with grapefruit and braised escarole, and pain perdu for dessert. Dinner takes hours, and you will leave heavily buzzed, if not happily drunk. Luckily you won’t need to drive home; the limo awaits you. The Supperclub happens every Saturday, and is taking reservations now for Valentine’s Day. Given how much the element of surprise tends to help induce romance, I’d recommend it.
