Montpelier Basement Supper Club

About a year ago, I started following a chap by the handle of @EssexEating (aka Dan) on Twitter, thanks to a retweet by @anglotopia of his post about the Hawksmoor burger (which I sadly didn't get a chance to try on my recent trip). I quickly grew to love Dan's fun-to-read and informative blog posts about the London dining scene and his own adventures in the kitchen. In the course of the year, Dan moved from Essex to Bristol and started up the Montpelier Basement supper club with @pearcafe just a few months ago.

As soon as they announced their November supper club dates, I saw that one of them (their 5th supper) happened to be on the 27th - a day I was actually going to be in England! I knew Bristol was easy to get to from London (thanks to my previous adventure there four years ago - time flies!), and set about coordinating with Dan and Elly the best way for me to attend and still catch my flight back to the States the next day. As soon as it was apparent that attending the dinner was totally doable, I signed on and set about modifying my travel plans.

Last week, after spending two lovely days in London seeing all my favorite sights and buying all the Maltesers, Fruit Pastilles, Nescafe decaf cappuccino packets, McVitties, CDs, and Toni & Guy Texture Paste I could fit in my suitcase, I set out for Paddington Station at lunch time (Starbucks salmon & soft cheese sandwich and lemon-poppyseed skinny muffin) on Saturday and headed out to Bristol on First Great Western. About two hours later, I was navigating the roundabouts that lay between Temple Meads station and my hotel.

I spent the afternoon browsing the shops of Cabot Circus and Broadmead in search of a bottle of wine to take to the dinner with me, as the Basement is BYO.  Sainsbury's and Tesco were a bit lacking, and by the time I got to M&S I just wanted to be done with it, so I picked out a good enough looking bottle of Pinot Grigio and carried on to WH Smith and their curious "Tragic Life Stories" section.

Because I am me, I was the first guest to arrive at the Basement, and, after a warm welcome from D and E, started sipping on some sherry while warming up from the chilly night in front of the crackling fire.  Soon other guests began to arrive and we quickly had to take our seats because there was not enough standing room for the 15 guests in attendance.  The meal was served at a pleasant leisurely pace that allowed for lots of great conversation and a few quick breaks from the kitchen craziness for D and E.

The whole meal was superb - restaurant/fine dining quality all the way through. As a special treat for Thanksgiving, E had baked a pumpkin pie (from scratch!) for me. I am not sure if I have ever felt so at home while being so far away from it. I sincerely hope I will be able to attend another Montpelier Basement dinner one of these days, but in the meantime I can enjoy the menus and dream of the delicious food.

 Menu board, lovingly written by E

 Sherry

 Thyme & Walnut Gougeres
deliciously salty - I ate about five of them but could
have easily eaten twenty

 Jerusalem Artichoke Soup
sumptuously silky and rich with perfectly balanced 
flavors - an excellent way to warm up on a chilly evening

 Wine, kindly shared by @sourcefoodcafe
enjoyed this dry white wine very much

Baked Cornish diver caught scallops with tarragon crumb
I am generally not a scallop fan thanks to an over-abundance
of them in my childhood diet (we should all be so unfortunate),
but this scallop was mild and the garlicky, buttery tarragon crumb
was additively delicious - I sopped up every last bit of it with
the accompanying bread

Pork Cheeks in Bennett's Somerset Cider 

with sage, mustard & apple mash and buttered Somerset leeks
One of my very favorite dishes is the veal cheeks at Lambert's Cove Inn 
on Matha'sVineyard. These pork cheeks were just as meltingly fork-tender
and luscious as that paragon of perfection, and the leeks, mash, and 
apple provided an accompaniment of well-balanced autumn flavors

Orchard Pig cider 

"not enjoyable, but fine" - probably not the tag line they went with in the end.
Meant to accompany the pork cheeks, but my table didn't quite get ours in
time, as we nearly inhaled our yummy pork

Treacle Tart with clotted cream ice cream
excellent light dessert -  sort of like a light pecan pie without the pecans

Pumpkin Pie 

Perfectly balanced subtle spices embedded in a silky texture
atop a light, crisp crust. I am so touched that E made this for me! 

Find the Basement on twitter: @montpelierbsmt, where you can also find instructions to sign up for their mailing list, which I highly recommend if you think you might be able to make it to Bristol at any time, or if you like to read mouthwatering and inspiring menus.

(Additional - better - pictures from @eatlikeagirl here.)