"Underground" dinner Sunday night

Clandestino: The dinner table
Originally uploaded by j_b_copeland

When I arrived in Chicago last summer, one of the first things I remembered reading about was the concept of last-minute, little-known, underground supper clubs that would be held on any given weekend to small groups of people who shared a passion for good food and interesting conversation. In fact, this article is what really tipped me off.
Fast forward almost a year later, and I finally took advantage of an invite into one of the more publicized groups. Chef Efrain Cuevas has been cooking all kinds of food for all kinds of people for about a year now, and with this menu for this weekend - I went for it. I'm glad I did. Not only was the meal stellar, but the setting was equally as unexpected and appealing.
We had dinner in the garden of Chef Efrain's good friend Willy - who's the owner and chef of Honky Tonk BBQ in the Pilsen neighborhood. Willy and his family live in the front house of what was once an old Nunnery (120 yrs ago) that was then sold to a Lithuanian family to become a half-way house of sorts for the people that lived there for some 40 or 50 years. The garden in the back served as our venue for an extraordinary meal. I met a few new folks and we listed to the music of Urban Djinn for a good 3 hours. Oh - and the fact that it was maybe 75 degrees outside was one of the best details for a Texan used to expecting 100-degree days in mid-June.
Clandestino's next dinner is already sold out (only 24 spaces per event) - but I'm going to try for the end of July.