Calhoun Beach Club dreams, 5-8 Club memories, great Taste! at W, and a Zoo salute to “Fish First”
DREAMS COME TRUE AT CALHOUN BEACH CLUB…Wedding dreams, that is, thanks to the talented D’Amico team now dishing up the catering for fun and feasting at the Calhoun Beach Club, headed up by Executive Chef Josh Brown. I peeked in at the updated club this summer for a few events and had a chance to see D’Amico Catering in action and recall their snappy small plates and colorful presentations. And that magnificent terrace, ooh la la! I had a refreshing watermelon mojito, made to order before my eyes, out on the terrace overlooking Lake Calhoun. It’s easy to see this would be a romantic setting for any bride looking for something extra special inside and out—and they have been coming left and right since July. Chef Josh says he’s been prepping up to five weddings each week, sometimes three wedding parties per weekend evening—but the chef and his team are ready.
In fact, they were the chosen venue and menu planner for a recent biggie—the $100,000 Dream Wedding Party in September for the winning couple, Bridget Mary Murphy and Lawrence Michael Storey. Josh says they pulled out all the stops, with multi-course dinner, late night supper and their unique and wedding cake: banana cake with chocolate ganache,
caramel mousse, and butter cream exterior—yummy! This cake is “really delicious,” according to Chef Josh, 31, and he should know because he began his career as a pastry chef after school and his culinary arts degree. At age 19 he started his career in the D’Amico pastry department, and later moved to the “hot” side of the kitchen. For the next 11 years he held various chef positions within the D’Amico organization, working at Campiello, Masa and finally D’Amico Catering when they took over the Calhoun Beach venue this year.
When I asked if any thing else was unique on weddings in general or the Dream Wedding menu, he said it was fun to see the grooms are now often sitting in for a menu tastings with the brides, voicing their preferences and favorites. “Larry, the groom in the Dream wedding, told me he was vegetarian,” Josh explained, “and he wondered if we could make something special in addition to the roasted sea bass and beef short ribs the bride selected.”
After a short discussion of vegetarian options, Josh created a real winner for him—gnocchi with oven roasted tomatoes, artichokes, wild mushrooms, grilled asparagus, and fresh basil and Brussels sprouts. He loved it.
CHEERS TO THE GREAT TASTE OF MSP…I mean the two-day Taste! for the “Ultimate Wine & Dine” event hosted last month by Mpls./St.Paul magazine at the new W Hotel in the historic Foshay Tower. The fabulous setting was half the fun for this two-day ode to all tastes, which featured nearly 300 wines, cuisine from 20 restaurants, plus guest appearances by Tom Colicchio, chef/owner of Craft Restaurants in New York City and others, and a judge on Bravo TV’s Top Chef. Colicchio also discussed his new book, “Think Like a Chef.” What a treat. Colicchio’s Craft received the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant nationwide in 2002, and he says it has since spawned many imitators for his unique concept of using the finest ingredients with haute cuisine and family-style service. This top chef was a blue-eyed charming guy who told us stories about cooking while he chopped and sauteed up one of his favorite mushroom recipes.
The program also featured our own Mpls/St.Paul man, Andrew Zimmern, host of the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods, who brought us up to date on his world adventures—Paris is coming soon—and showed video about his unusual series.
Besides fun, food and wine, the Friday Benefit Party kick-off brought in thousands of dollars for the Red Cross—including a $10,000 check handed over by Johnson Brothers.
Best of all, after we watched and listened, we all got a chance to go to the top of the W to the new Prohibition Bar for cocktails and a book signing with Colicchio, and a chance to get in some of our Craft questions as well. A great afternoon all around, and a terrific toast to Taste!
ZOO SALUTES SEAFOOD…Another great taste came my way with the Second Annual Minnesota Zoo “Fish First” event, designed to raise consumer awareness about the importance of buying seafood from sustainable sources. I went last year and knew the setting is half the fun for this event—you sip and sample among the huge fish tanks with dolphins and sharks swimming around you at the Zoo’s Discovery Bay. This event included tastings from a half-dozen top Twin Cities chefs serving seafood from sources—either fished or farmed—that can exist over the long-term without compromising species’ survival or the health of the surrounding ecosystem. The fish and seafood was also paired with suggested wines for sipping, courtesy of the Kowalski’s Wine Market.
Participating chefs included McCormick & Schmick’s George Snyder; Mark Awada from Kincaid’s Fish, Chop & Steakhouse in St. Paul; and Rick Kimmes, chef and partner at the Oceanaire Seafood Room. He told me that he was delighted with the new Mexican Cobia fish he has discovered from the Caribbean and was sharing with us in a ginger soy sauce. Paul Lynch from FireLake Grill House & Cocktail Bar also was proud of his new discovery, a truly Minnesota walleye harvested by the residents of the Red Lake Indian reservation. Chef Jorge Guzman from Tejas and Brian McCorkell, chef for Lancer Catering (which operates the Zoo facility) rounded out the tasting tables. And an extra thanks to Lancer, which offered some great, sweet desserts, too. Bravo.
5-8 CLUB IS 80 YEARS & COUNTING…Birthday Cheers and congratulations to the folks over at the famous 5-8 Club who are blowing out the candles for their 80th year in business. That’s like dog years in this business, where every year can be a killer, times seven, right? The original club, which was a neighborhood speakeasy in the early years (called the 58th Street Club), has been a mainstay for hot burgers and cold beer ever since prohibition.
Nearly 50 years ago, they were one of the first to build the burgers stuffed with American cheese that have been a south side favorite from Matt’s to Adrian’s (the old Ruben’s) to the 5-8 Club. Now called Juicy Lucy’s, the 5-8 is famous for offering choices of pepper cheese, Swiss cheese and the Amablu blue cheese aged here at the caves in Faribault since 1936. In recent years, this South Minneapolis location at 58th Street and Cedar Avenue South has been joined by two sister operations (See details on page 8).
Jill Skogheim, director of operations, (and a 10-year 5-8 veteran) who planned the ongoing events along with her cohort in crime, 5-8 GM Penny Jernberg, (a 16-year veteran) kicked-off their 80 Days of Celebrating with an Elvis Show under a big tent in the backyard and buried a time capsule. Then they made October a month to remember with some super Halloween fun, too. They rolled back prices to 80 cents for burgers and beers for one full day and hosted two rounds of Juicy Lucy eating contests at all three locations, and a final round later in the month.
The last week of October was set to salute Halloween all week long with hot apple cider, mulled wine and pumpkin ice cream pies. November finds more good stuff, like free burgers for vets on Veteran’s Day. Then on Saturday Nov. 15 Jill tells me they are planning to build the World’s Largest Juicy Lucy. Keep Tuned into their Web site for more at www.5-8club.com.
