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Underground Dining in LA

For a handful of intrepid chefs, a brick-and-mortar restaurant is no longer the proper forum to showcase their food and drink. Instead, they’re turning to private homes, art galleries and outdoor locales for one-off underground dining events that have sent shockwaves across the internet and the Twitterverse. Here are three key LA players that you need to know.

Hidden Agenda

The genesis of LA’s underground dining scene seems to be Ghetto Gourmet, a dinner series that started in San Francisco in 2003 and eventually went national. It was at one of these dinners in LA where Amy Jurist was sucked underground. “I was enthralled,” recalls Jurist. “It was in this cool warehouse and didn’t find out where until the day before.”
Overnight, in a surprise twist, she went from guest to chef. “[Co-founder Jeremy Townsend] called me that night and said ‘My chef for tomorrow backed out’… I did the dinner for 60 people the next day.”

Now Jurist, the caterer behind Amy’s Culinary Adventures, hosts a bi-monthly “bootleg restaurant” known as Hidden Agenda. Diners fill family-style picnic tables at offbeat locations like art galleries, lofts and (in the summer) backyards that remain secret until one signs up. “This is a restaurant where the menu will never be the same, the people will never be the same, and it will never be in the same location,” says Jurist. “It’s kind of enchanting.”

Jurist made the switch to catering after working as a Sony executive. “Originally it was a way for us to get reimbursed by our friends when I made dinner,” she recalls. “I had this bigger idea as my catering business grew that I could create my own catering jobs when I didn’t have other ones.”

Jurist tends to stick to Mediterranean and Asian-influenced dishes, but the breakout offering has been the decadent feast known as “A Bacon Affair.” Last year’s incarnation incorporated 10 kinds of bacon in creations like bacon Bloody Marys, a caramelized bacon ice cream sundae with chocolate bacon sprinkles and tempura bacon, “because the only thing that can make bacon better is deep frying it.” Her no-holds-barred meals have also showcased duck, lobster and cheese [not together]. “A lot of people have this organic thing or are locavores,” says Jurist. “My food is obnoxiously decadent.”

“What I love is that with catering, one person hires you and has to eat your food,” says Jurist. “Here, 60 people raise their hand and say I want to eat your food.” A lot of times, the host will come up with the idea and the date, then has to scramble to find a location.

Jurist embraces the term underground and considers her dinner parties food raves, saying, “You sort of have to hope for the best and keep moving around.” She also makes sure to look at the people who sign up and Googles them to make sure they don’t work for the Health Department.

On The Lamb

The latest addition to the underground dining scene is On The Lamb, a collaboration between Rachel Humphrey (savory dishes), Whitney Adams (beverages) and Joy Wilson (sweets). Humphrey cooked her first underground meal for Chicago’s Sunday Dinner Club in 2005. After she started working with Adams and Wilson at LA’s Cube Marketplace & Cafe, the trio started staging themed dinner parties for friends. “The parties became more and more intricate and more inspiring,” says Humphrey. “We spent a wonderful New Year’s Eve together and decided to go for it, take all this inspiration and great camaraderie and start a business together.”

According to Humphrey, the name On The Lamb is “a play on the fact that these are underground roving events, that we are ‘criminally minded and on the run.’” They also hope to travel nationally and internationally with the concept.

“For many of the dining clubs I’ve been to, the beverage is an afterthought,” says Humphrey. “Ours takes center stage, be them non-alcoholic, wine pairings or original cocktails.” For example, at their Love on the Run event, they paired Bourbon-braised pork and boar sliders with a Paco Palmer: reposado tequila with Lapsong Souchong tea and agave-orange sour.
Their events aren’t just limited to food or drink. On The Lamb also focuses on the finer points. According to Humphrey, “We take special pride in thinking of all the details down to stashing cute hand-wrapped candies in the medicine cabinet and providing decorated bottles for guests to play spin the bottle.”

Next up, On The Lamb is considering high tea overlooking the ocean, in addition to hosting “Bareknuckle Cocktails,”which would include live fighting with female boxers (over cocktails, of course) in a boxing gym.

When it comes to the underground aspect, the ladies of On The Lamb aren’t very concerned. “The way we see it, this is an experimental phase,” says Humphrey. “On The Lamb is raising funds via these donation only events to become a legally operating events firm … beyond this: No comment.”

Chicks With Knives

Rachael Narins and Suzanne Griswold, who call themselves Chicks with Knives, embrace a sustainable, organic, local and ethical approach with their supper club. The two California Culinary Academy grads became friends while teaching local cooking classes, and ended up partnering on a food venture they continue to expand upon today.

The duo relies exclusively on word of mouth to populate their dinner tables, which typically run four courses, serving between 16-20 people and costs around $50-65. “We don’t actually have ‘concepts,’” says Narins. “We just make food from what is in season. That’s where our inspiration comes from. The location comes in to play when there is something on the property we can cook with. We always try to use the host’s lemons or avocados or whatever they have to make it a truly local experience.”

“We really love Southern California and can’t help but highlight what is in season and bring together people who believe in supporting local agriculture,” says Griswold.

The Chicks don’t consider themselves “underground.” Instead, they’ve dubbed themselves a “private social organization dedicated to the promotion of good food.”

Aside from the principles behind the food, both women describe Chicks With Knives as higher-end, more polished and possibly more adventurous. One example that reflects how organic ingredients and thoughtful approach come together: The duo recently created a dinner featuring flowers in every course: A hibiscus and jasmine cocktail, pea soup with lavender-salt popovers and seafood grilled in banana leaves with banana blossoms and chrysanthemum.

“There’s so much beautiful food available to us, and making positive choices should be second nature,” says Narins. “We only serve food we can feel good about.”

Finding Underground Dining
Amy’s Culinary Adventures | amysculinaryadventures.com
Chicks With Knives | chickswithknives.com
Ghetto Gourmet | theghet.com
On The Lamb | onthelambfb.com

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