Bradbury's, the glass prow coffeehouse and creperie that occupies the triangle at North Hamilton, North Webster and East Dayton, has lately been home to evening events by the Glass House Supper Club, held about every six weeks. An event on Sunday featured guest chef Cathy Erway, of the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based , creating an Asian fusion meal.
The word about these one-time-only dinners tends to spread via Facebook and Twitter, and getting in is a matter of paying close attention -- and being willing to commit ahead of time to a sometimes as yet menu-less meal, for which you buy a ticket in advance like you're going to a play or a baseball game. (And it is entertainment.) There were about twenty seats for the six-course meal, and I had ended up buying the last available ticket, less than 24 hours after they went on sale.
While part of the idea behind the new supper clubs is to highlight fresh, organic, sustainable ingredients, another important aspect is social. It's family-style, communal dining, and you're likely to meet new people. Like going back to the college dining hall, only with much better food.
Upon arriving I fell in with Nichole, of There was no written menu -- food emerged from the kitchen and servers announced what the dish was (although sometimes not until after we'd actually eaten it). Dinner started with a few small plates. First up, lamb and cilantro potstickers in a puddle of soy-inflected sauce, with a tiny flower of carved carrot (I think) holding a dab of a hot sauce something like sriracha. Next, an Asian-inspired variation on buffalo wings that featured a sweet glaze on the wings, celery stalks, mung bean sprouts, and a dipping sauce made from pureed silken tofu and fermented tofu, which made a subtle sub for blue cheese dressing. Erway explained that "Hapa" is an Hawaiian term for people with a mixed Asian heritage, which is true of many of Hapa's members and a frequent inspiration for its menus. A plate of what I'll call Chinese steamed bun sliders followed. Our table also referred to them as tacos (since the puffy steamed bun holding the filling was folded in half taco style, instead of encasing the filling like a traditional bun) and "Chinese sloppy joes," after the filling, a sweet stew of kidneys. Then, the salad, a knockout, shredded spinach in a tart soy dressing dotted with candied kumquat, topped with some UFC-cured lardon, and accompanied with a version of "thousand year egg," hard-boiled egg steeped in a tea-broth and emerging with a speckled pattern. We loved the tea-steeped eggs, but our table felt the real triumph here was the combo of the candied kumquat with the soy-sesame flavor of the spinach. At this point I was completely satisfied, but it was time for the main entree: Rustic al dente noodles with rich duck sausage and marinated shitake mushrooms. It was wonderful and intense and too much for me to do more than sample. Lastly, dessert was beautiful, cubes of sweet cream ice cream topped with black sesame seeds and with an apple and ginger tempura on the side, conceived as an Asian take on apple pie a la mode, only much less sweet. The tempura ginger drew raves from the table but at this point, I just couldn't eat any more. I liked everything, although the succession of plates didn't balance very well; it was all almost too interesting. In retrospect, the idea of a bowl of plain rice seems appealing, just to even out the experience between courses. But the whole meal was a pleasure,
