Billusa99 Anonymous

Food: 4/5  Vibe: 5/5  Service: 5/5  Value: 4/5  Overall: 4/5

Agent 99 and I did The Club this past Saturday, as it was December and I deserved a break from my holiday cone of insolence. We were not disappointed!

Places such as this, on the high end of the diners with dough scale, are not usually on our must-do list as we cook a ton at home and refuse to pay high dollars for things we can do better ourselves. Since we both control the purse strings, sometimes I win and sometimes I lose. In this case I lost, but I won -- which makes happy marriages, ultimately. And, if it wasn't for TG's D review, we would not have gone at all.

You would not recognize the room from the old Draelion space. It's 'private club' all the way through. Midnight blue suede walls with a plethora of pics filling every void. Dark faux-leather table covers and stressed leather banquets along the walls. Serving staff in dark blazers, oozing friendliness first and charm as an unobtrusive adjunct.

The wine list is big and expensive, but there is a decent selection of bottles in the 38-60 range. Markup is almost 4X so expect no deals. Paul -- when will you open your Dallas wine-slaying place?! The menu is varied and very interesting, but not over the top crazy. Steak, veal done Milanese and grilled, salmon, halibut, a few pastas... read TG's for that. We were there for pasta, as we had done enough meat for the week already and homemade pasta is a fav of ours.

We started with a wedge salad that we split, so as not to do same to my pants. More than enough for 2. Creamy blue cheese that had an ongoing, lingering bit of heat through the whole thing. It was wonderful, but what was it -- not the cracked pepper. Even our team lead (Lance) didn't know, so we asked him to check. We thought it was Lousiana hot sauce or cayenne. We got no cigar -- it was Tabasco and it was brilliant.

Now came the pasta. Ms. 99 had the spaghetti with lobster tail -- a decent size and perfectly cooked. The red gravy had a perfect amount of heat and pomodoro to it and the tooth to it was superb!!! I had the "off the menu" special -- pumpkin ravioli with lump crab in a butter sauce. Each full square had a shard of crab placed on it, and the two were like June and Johnny after a bus ride to Ontario in '68 -- engaged to be married. Pure heaven, and like pumpkin pie filling inside the ravioli. Now don't frown, because it wasn't sickly sweet, just scrumptious! The ravioli had that translucent skin quality that only comes from first-class dough. Extremely well done.

Since I am a big limoncello fan, we split the limoncello cheescake. It was good, and not heavy at all. But, it was the most ordinary aspect of the evening. Note to Club -- ramp up that end, please.

Now, to the service, which elevated this night above all and is the main reason (beside the food) that we will be back. Lance and his crew were outstanding in every way. He used to be a food & bev manager at multiple Marriots in the U.S. and he bleeds service. He knows how to inform, and he knows how to make one feel welcome, and his team spews that in spades, too. I can now say that we have remembered 4 outstanding servers (on the FIRST visit) in our many, varied meals together here in the Big D: Melanie at Suze, Phillipe at Alessio's, Daniel at Avanti-McKinney and now Lance. Ask for him when you make a rez and you will not be disappointed.

The only reason we did not give The Club an overall 5 is because the only 5 we have ever eaten at is The Compound in Santa Fe... and The Club isn't there yet. But, that's OK, 'cause this isn't Santa Fe and I'll never celebrate my 50th again!

10 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )