The Kipper Club Test Kitchen dinners are the most fun meal tickets in Houston right now. Here’s how these work: Go online to check out the upcoming events, click on the dinner name to read the description and purchase your ticket. The dinners may focus on a notable chef from outside of Houston, a well-known local chef, a group of chefs (aka the “Contenders” dinners) or a theme. Last Friday’s dinner showcased the talents of sous chefs from a quirky assortment of places: Ciao Bello, Oxheart, D&T Drive Inn, the forthcoming Hunky Dory and Fat Cat Creamery.
The events are BYOB, so the first thing to do is figure out what you’re bringing. Don’t forget to pack a corkscrew or bottle opener, although someone at Kipper Club will certainly have one and can open your bottle if you need it. If you don’t want to mess with bringing beverages or don’t have time to pick something up, there is often complimentary beer available. Last Friday’s dinner featured Oasis Texas Brewing Company’s Slow Ride Pale Ale.
On the day of the dinner, you’ll receive an email telling you where to go. No, you’re not driving to a restaurant. That would take all the fun out of it.
It’s the address of a former car lot on North Shepherd drive. Buses from “The Wave” jitney service are waiting to take you away, trippy blue interior lights and all. Make sure to be 15 minutes early! The buses leave on time.
As the shuttles starts to pull away, it’s hard not to giggle. Here you are in a bus of strangers, holding a bag of booze, all lit up in blue and headed to parts unknown.
Soon you arrive at your destination: the type of place you’d never expect to go for a nice dinner. Yet, here it is. Inside, seven or eight chefs are bustling around a long table, plating the first course. Bottles get opened; drinks get poured and suddenly it’s a dinner party.
One of the best things about the Kipper Club dinners is that they are not crazy 14-course events that leave attendees stuffed and miserable afterward. The most recent Contenders dinner was five courses and cost $65. The courses were duck terrine with walnut mostarda, kohlrabi with grains and creamy aged cheddar, carne seca with a poached egg, trotter cavatelli with bratwurst and mustard and spiced doughnuts with lapsang souchong ice cream. Everything was utterly delightful.
Dinners that feature well-known chefs who have traveled to Houston—like this Friday’s dinner featuring Dan Heinze of McCrady’s in Charleston, South Carolina, are more in the $120 to $150 range.
Probably the most eagerly anticipated Kipper Club dinners are the previews of Treadsack Group’s upcoming, chef-driven restaurants: Graham Laborde’s Bernardine’s, P.J. Stoops Foreign Correspondents and Richard Knight’s Hunky Dory. Those tickets are likely to sell out quickly.
The dinners are scheduled through the end of February. Here’s the calendar:
January 16: Do the Charleston: Dinner with Dan Heinze of McCrady’s
January 23: MoPho NOLA with Michael Gulotta
January 24: Burns Supper with Richard Knight
January 30: Bernadine’s Preview Dinner with chef Graham Laborde
February 6: Contenders’ Dinner Series: The Fourth Dinner
February 13: Hunky Dory Preview with chef Richard Knight
February 21: Foreign Correspondents Austrian Wine Dinner
February 27: Zach Ladwig does Seafood
And the name? “Kipper Club Test Kitchen” doesn’t have a real story or meaning behind it, says Caroline May, the PR person with the Treadsack Group. “It was dubbed by Richard Knight off the cuff.”