July Supper Club - Picnic & Movie

On Thursday July 29th, Supper Clubbers headed to Brooklyn, yes I typed BROOKYLN again, to watch Alfred Hitchcock's, 1954 Rear Window at Brooklyn Heights new and gorgeous Pier 1. No, not the store, it's the Brooklyn Bridge Park just below the Brooklyn Bridge with views of Manhattan, the East River and tug boats. The event was called "Movies with a View." Check out their other events here: http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/go/programs-/-events/movies-with-a-view

Anyway, I decided early on this year that we would not have formal Supper Clubs in July, November and December. July is filled with weddings and travel making it impossible for folks to attend a supper let alone host as supper. So I opted to schedule a picnic in the park on a weekday. With so many free outdoor events I decided to tag this Supper Club event a movie and it was wonderful.

All week I watched the weather. Sunny Monday, sunny Tuesday, sunny Wednesday but storms on Thursday. I had scheduled the event late in July because I was out of town for the middle of July and a lot of people are away around the 4th. So if it was going to rain on Thursday, we wouldn't be able to reschedule. Wednesday night the weather man said it was still going to rain on Thursday. Seriously? I had just prepped 3 different types of mini sandwiches (cucumber & dill cream cheese, veggie with sautéed squash and BLTs) and baked chocolate chip cookies in 90 degree heat, 5 month pregnant...and it was still supposed to rain?! So like all good planners – I made a back-up plan to have an indoor picnic in our apartment. THANK GOODNESS by 2:00PM on Thursday the storm blew south, the humidity went away and it was clear blue skies! It was an amazing night.

Since these movies in the park are very popular, Kelly arrived at Pier 1 at 4:00PM with a huge tarp and some blankets. She was able to secure us an amazing spot for 9 people. Key point here is that Kelly brought a tarp. Although it didn't pour on Thursday it did rain a little bit in the morning, making the grass damp. So whoever is reserving a spot...have them bring a tarp. Other Supper Clubbers showed up around 6:00 - 8:00PM, music started at 7:30PM and the movie started at around 9:00PM.

We had so much food. I didn't need to make three different types of sandwiches. I ended up giving the leftovers to our neighbors. Kelly and Tim brought bread, cheese and meat with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes (from a friend's garden) and olive oil. Alex and George brought a beet, carrot and something else yummy salad made from their CSA share, Angela brought pate and oysters, Jeremy brought snacks and Roxanne brought Italian anti-pasta items from the Italian grocery store in Chelsea Market. Hold crap, I think we ate bread and cheese for 3 hours straight and finished off the supper with chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches. There were definitely some neighbors eyeing all of our food with envy and one guy even came around to video tape our spread.

And the movie...I'm not going to review it because that is for another blog like bananawho.com (Jeremy is a contributing writer). BUT, if you haven't seen it you should. It's a classic!

All around great night and great supper club. I'm definitely planning on organizing a picnic for Supper Club 2011!