Clandestine dining at the LovePoppy Secret Supper Club

Location: Somewhere in Brighton, East Sussex BN2

Overview: “Following the recent popular trend of Supper Clubs in London and Paris, Love Poppy brings this great idea to Brighton. A broad palate, an open mind and a bottle or two of something good are all that you need to bring.”

There has been much written about the emergence of the secret supper club format – where people pay to eat food cooked by an amateur, at a strangers house, with people they don’t know. I’ve always loved the idea as eating out often leaves me disappointed and I love meeting new, like-minded people, so when I stumbled across Love Poppy, a Brighton local who provides afternoon teas and Secret Supper Clubs, I decided to take the plunge...

After paying my money – I’m told to wait till the day before the supper club, when the location for the evening of the clandestine dining will be revealed – all very cool. I’m told to wait on the corner of Foundry Street and North Road, where a greying man with thick rimmed glasses will hand me an envelop containing the location for the rendezvous (that didn’t happen – but I did receive an email).

After finally receiving the coordinates, my wife and I arrived at the secret address, excited as to what our evening would consist of. We happened to arrive at the same time as two other supper club guests, swiftly followed by a third, after introducing ourselves, we were buzzed in and made our way through to our venue for the evening.

We were all greeted warmly by our hostess – Poppy, who after frisking us for concealed weapons and bugs (that didn’t really happen), she explained exactly what a supper club is about, where and how they originated and a little about what she has experienced so far since hosting these covert dinner parties.

There was a mouth-watering aroma in the air of lamb, slow roasting away in Poppy’s oven and a beautifully decorated dining table awaiting us, as we chatted and awaited the final supper club guests’ arrival. With the crack-team finally assembled, we opened our wine and took our places around the dining table. Whilst we further made our acquaintances, a classic appetiser of figs with prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella was placed in the centre of the table to which we all helped ourselves, as a huge lover of figs this was a great start to our meal. The conversation continued to flow around the table, it wasn’t long before we realised we had rather a lot in common with our fellow supper club guests, with the help of the wine everyone seemed to be really relaxing into and enjoying the evening.

The Food

After tantalising us with the amuse bouche, Poppy then placed in front of each of us, a vintage tea cup full of Butternut Squash Soup, complete with saucer and crusty bread. The soup was great, very warming, earthy flavours with a hint of spice and plenty of depth to it, making me instantly want more. My fellow diners were obviously of the same opinion, as when Poppy offered a second round of soup, each one of us took her up on her offer. I was a little surprised to see that Poppy wasn’t dining with us, being a supper club virgin I didn’t know whether the hostess dines as well. I guess I just presumed that she would be, part of me felt a little bit guilty about being cooked for and waited on all evening, whilst Poppy slaved away in her kitchen (albeit so silently you wouldn’t even know she was there!), but this is obviously how the supper club runs.

The wine and conversation (now verging on banter) continued to flow as Poppy began placing elements of the main course down in the centre of the table. First, Dauphinoise potatoes appeared, followed by fine green beans with lemon and then the main event of slow-roasted shoulder of lamb, pulled off the bone and looking as tender as anything. We helped ourselves, very politely I might add, to each component of the meal, everything was spot on – the Dauphinoise were perfectly cooked, infused with thyme and nicely seasoned, the lamb was so deliciously tender and juicy I went back for a second helping, and the addition of the lemon to the green beans gave them a zingy lift.

Having read Poppy’s food blog and discovering that she also entertains via the means of vintage afternoon teas, I had high expectations for the dessert, she certainly didn’t disappoint. Placed in front of each one of us was a slice of Chocolate Souffle Cake, with crème fraiche and a blackberry fool-type thing in a mini kilner jar, very professionally presented. It was a triumph. The crème fraiche was the perfect foil for the rich, dark chocolate mousse like cake, my wife thought she had gone to heaven, simply stunning. Just as we finished the final few crumbs of choccy deliciousness from our plates, Poppy announced “Just another little something sweet...” as she placed a huge passion fruit pavlova down in the middle of the table! It looked amazing, so we all dived in with varying modes of attack, this I must admit pushed me into the realms of feeling stuffed, but very very satisfied.

Summary

After not knowing what to expect from the Secret Supper Club (other than supper!), we had a fantastic evening and I would definitely be keen to go to another evening like this. We found that it is a great way of meeting other like-minded people, there was lots of hugging and exchanging of numbers before we all made our separate ways home, such a great, different way to spend an evening. Well done Poppy!

Our supper club experience cost £35 per person (and we had to provide our own drink) - to find out when the next one is visit www.lovepoppy.co.uk or read her blog at www.lovepoppyfood.blogspot.com