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When I think of an underground supper club, I think of walking through a dark, damp alley, opening a creaky steel door, meeting some guy named Boris and being led into a dimly lit room to sit at a crowded table with other diners. My first underground dinner with Chicks with Knives was nothing like that. All I had to do was drive to an address in the valley, park my car on the side of a winding road, follow a couple of hand-written signs through a spacious house and there I was, dining al fresco with twenty other eager people.

The five course dinner was said to be completely vegan, which was one reason why my dining companion and I had signed up for it. We were both under the impression that it would be difficult to attend an underground supper club which offered vegan options. Fortunately, Chicks with Knives are happy to accomodate vegans even during their omnivore dinners.

We started with a cold salad dish which consisted of freshly made tofu served with yuzu custard, pea greens, thinly sliced cucumbers, and a shiso leaf. The yuzu and shiso flavors were the stars of this dish. There’s just something so clean and summery tasting about citrus in salads. The cucumbers added a nice crunch to the salad, but I wanted a mixture of cucumber and fennel bulb instead of just cucumber. The anise taste in the fennel would have paired well with the citrus tang of the yuzu. I was totally jealous that Rachael, one of the Chicks with Knives, had a local hookup for yuzu.

Next came the mushroom and peas. Rachael had lamented to us before serving that this was supposed to be a morels and peas dish, but the mushroom man was no where to be seen that day at the Farmer’s Market. While that was unfortunate, it was also a reminder that yes, they do use local produce and their ingredients are as fresh as they can possibly get.

The peas had a sweet, fresh crunch to them, but were overshadowed by the fantastic croutons that came on the side. The toasted pieces were crunchy, just the right amount of salty, and fantastic dipped in the small dollop of pesto which also came with the dish. I could have eaten a whole plate of those croutons dipped in the pesto and been happy.

My favorite dish of the night was the pyramid ravioli which came next. The filling was simply mushrooms, artichokes and olives, but oh so delicious. They were dressed plainly with a splash of olive oil and garnished with chive blossoms. The ravioli was so good that nothing else was needed — no, not even cheese. I was sad to see there were only two pieces per portion. The umami-fiend in me wanted a giant bowl of these just for myself.

When I had heard that there was to be a socca dish, I definitely wasn’t expecting what came next. I usually think of socca as a pancake-shaped flatbread. The socca in this dish was rolled up and sliced. Each bite was soft, spongey, savory, and soaked up the zesty sauce below perfectly. The tender broccolini and charred zucchini were also tasty with the sauce. One person at our table, who said she didn’t usually like zucchini, really liked the way it was prepared here. Really, what wouldn’t taste great dipped in a great sauce?

Last but not least came a dessert I was apprehensive about: layered carrot cake. Too many years of dry, tasteless, cafeteria carrot cake has scarred me. The fact that carrot cake was invented during WWII to use up dehydrated carrot rations also doesn’t make it sound all that appealing. Despite my fears of the cake, this layered carrot cake was worth writing home about. Maybe the war would have been won sooner if all carrot cake tasted this good. The slice was incredibly moist, thanks to the coconut and tapioca cream frosting. The cake would have been too sweet, but the tart pineapple pieces on the side cut down on the richness quite well.

During her introductions about the food, Rachael mentioned that she didn’t want to think of this dinner as a vegan dinner, but more of a “I love vegetables dinner.” Nothing rings truer. The dinner illustrated the concept that you don’t need a lot of complicated sauces or fancy equipment to produce a mouth-smacking meal as long as you have fresh ingredients that stand well on their own.

Dinner was delicious as a whole, my only complaint being that serving portions were too small. Maybe that’s just the glutton in me talking, but I really wanted more especially after the ravioli and socca dishes. I was wary about the supper club at first, but after this meal, I’m eager to see what they’ll come up with at an omnivore dinner. The fact that they can accommodate vegans even for those dinners certainly sweetens the deal.

Chicks with Knives

Louise absolutely LOVES filthy, cheap places! (See more of her posts). You can also find more of Louise's writing at her own website NakedSushi.