Variety and the Spices of Life

One of the great benefits to being a Chef in a private club venue is the variety of menu offerings one can create during a single calendar day. The day can start off with a member’s favorite healthy breakfast such as our Organic Ground Turkey-Egg White Scramble or the very popular City Club Chilaquiles. And the City Club is not limited to a “Members Only” mindset; we have the unique privilege of offering cuisine for every kind of event imaginable. Our professional event planning staff will help you plan for Rehearsal Dinners, Corporate Meetings and Seminars, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs to name a few.
Morning event planners find the meeting and dining room decors a memorable back drop for an eye pleasing array of our Club-Baked Muffins, Bagels & Lox and Croissants to the plated Egg Frittatas with Sweet Italian Sausage.
To avoid the afternoon “slump” during an information packed meeting, we have helped coordinate creative, nutritious snacks to fit between the most rigorous of agendas. One of our experienced Catering Managers will help you with snack ideas that could include, but not limited to, health bars, nuts and whole fruits. We have planned the right combination of flavors and nutritional offerings to perk up the senses, but still be health and energy conscience.
The evening menus are some of my most favorite. We are prepared for the challenge to prepare provocative, satisfying Hors d’oeuvres for “Happy Hour “at the Member’s Bar. Variety is the goal with each week’s menu planning. House-made breadsticks, Lemongrass chicken Fingers, Ahi Tuna Tartare gives you a hint of what you may find to enjoy with your favorite beer or cocktail. Planning for a special Anniversary Party? Do you have a fundraiser in mind? Our goal is to offer you exceptional cuisine, not only for the palate, but also the eye. Coordinate with your event planner to arrange for a tasting and experience the artistic cuisine surrounded by the timeless beauty of the City Club.
Michael Muñoz, Executive Chef

Raise Your Glass (or Three)

 

 

In the works for months has been our Tre Bicchieri Wine Dinner. Originally set for March 5^th, we have postponed the date to April 23^rd - but it will be well worth the wait! Chiara Geronimo, from Italia Wine Imports, has worked with our Food & Wine Committee to put together an amazing "tour" of Italian wines. And not just any wines…most of them are winners of the prestigious Tre Bicchieri (translated as three glasses) awards, hosted here in the Bay Area by Gambero Rosso, the experts on all things Italian. After tasting through 14,000 wines (hopefully not all by the same person!) they came up with hundreds of winners – and the wines hand-selected for our dinner show just how variegated the wines of Italy can be.

Not only will you be wowed by the wines, but we are also extremely excited to feature the collaboration in the kitchen – our own Chef Michael Munoz is pairing with Chef Richard Corbo, the rising star who heads the kitchen at Ducca. This powerhouse of talents is sure to produce several courses that will delight your palate! Limited space is available for this event, so don't wait until the last minute – make your reservations now! For members and their hosted guests, this dinner comes in at a very reasonable $95 inclusive. But if you would like to come and try out the Club as a non-member, you are welcome to sign up; the cost for all these wines, and a full dinner still a very digestible $125 inclusive.

This will be a dinner not to be missed!

 

Larissa Lorian

Member Services Manager

Larissa.lorian@cityclubsf.com

Second Tuesdays Does it Again! Another Home Run!

February’s Second Tuesdays turned to be another hit for many of our lucky brides and grooms who visited their Catering Managers for a tour, champagne and hors d’oeuvres. Chef Michael Munoz prepared tow of his favorites – a refreshing tuna tartare offered on a light crisp and his truffled croque monsieur – often the groom’s favorite!

Our Vendor Spotlight was a true treat! We had Artists in Music, Classic Party Rentals, Under the Chuppah, Butterfly Cakes and La Tavola Linens. Having such a great group of industry professionals available to our guests, I noticed that our visiting couples were really able to get important one-on-one advise, coaching and inspiration.

Not only were guests able to taste (in my opinion) The Best Red Velvet Cake around by Sonya Hong’s Butterfly Cakes, but they were also able to look at her light-hearted and elegant designs to see how her cakes are a perfect fit for an impeccable wedding indulgence.

Once the cake was selected, we introduced our guests to Classic Party Rental’s Gwen Ortiz who was standing by to give that creative inspiration and advise on how you can serve your cakes on a whimsical plate, or bring a pop of color and originality to your wedding day décor!

Peter Rudolfi of Artists in Music, mingled through The 10th Floor Café discussing different musical options for any musical flavor and budget. Even a bride and groom who thought they had found the perfect band listened to Peter’s careful advise on how to select a band that you can really trust to bring tapping toes and big smiles to you and your guests for the big celebration.

Carol Attia, the Bay Area’s leading Chuppah designer showed guests her elegant and colorful pictures of Chuppahs she has done for weddings at The City Club and throughout San Francisco’s top venues.

And to add a final pop of fun to our space, La Tavola Linens brought us edgy and elegant linens that offered tantalizing textures and crisp colors!! It’s amazing what fun linens will do to a room! The new Company has colorful books filled with all of their newest and latest linen options.

Definitely ask your City Club Catering Manager to connect you with any of our visiting Second Tuesdays Spotlight guests to make your wedding day exciting & different from any other wedding you’ve ever been to!

March 10th is our next Second Tuesday Open House. Please mark your calendar and contact your Catering Manager to schedule an appointment or let her know that you’ll be visiting with your friends, family or vendors for a planning session. We’ll have another great group pf Spotlight Guests to introduce you to. Stacey Miller Designs, Denon & Doyle, Lisa Huffman Hair Designs and Under the Chuppah will be available to give you their one-on-one time to talk with you about your wedding day.

See you on March 10th!

-Alison Bianchetti, Catering & Sales Manager

Weddings at the City Club De La Cruz & Oshima, 1.3.09

In our budget conscious economy, finding ways to stretch your dollar a little further is the key to planning a successful wedding. One of the best options to bring prices down is to consider moving your celebration to what are considered “off” times. Since Saturday evenings are the most desirable dates and times they are also the most costly. Why not consider hosting your event on a Friday or Sunday evening, where rental and vendor fees are sure to be lower? Or, do as Jim and Carmen did, and host your Wedding on a Saturday or Sunday Afternoon! They chose Saturday, January 3rd in the afternoon and it was truly a wonderful event.

Compared to the evening events, I felt like to focus of the afternoon was really on the couple and on the marriage. The ambiance was mellow and open and the Club had a fresh, bright feeling. On the budgetary side of things, for “lunch” they hosted a variety of different heavy appetizer stations including an Asian Station with Dim Sum as well as a Prime Rib and Salmon Carving Station along with a variety of passed hors d’ oeuvres. This option got them away for the per person full meal price but still offered enough food for their guests to enjoy a hearty afternoon nosh. They also saved on the beverage bill by choosing to host a variety of non-alcoholic beverages along with wine and beer.

A couple of other great ideas from this couple…
1) Higher a great coordinator, wait you are thinking, that costs money, but not when it’s Jessica Goldblatt with Dreams on a Dime, who specializes in working with budget conscious events.

2) Rather than the traditional tiered wedding cake, the couple purchased a sheet cake from Tartin and had them cut it down into smaller pieces. The smaller peices were then frosted on all sides and once strategically displayed it had the same great effect!

3) They used their family as a great resource for assistance. Cousins and other family members were responsible for floral, folding origami votive boxes and other décor.

I hope you will away at least one money saving tip from this couple that did it right! They had a wonderful wedding surrounded by friends and family and did it without breaking the bank.

Happy Planning!!

-Cassie Harris, Sales & Catering Manager

This month we are featuring two new additions to our wine list from the Byron Vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley. The Santa Maria Valley is located on an unusual topographic slice of land known as a transverse range. Unlike the majority of California's wine producing valleys, the orientation is east to west rather than north to south. As a consequence, an unprecedented amount of marine air and accompanying fog is pulled into the vineyards from the nearby Pacific Ocean.

The first wine we are featuring on the wine list is a Chardonnay. The valley is the ideal location for cold-climate grapes, featuring benchland vineyards. This Chardonnay is rich and creamy, with toast, citrus, lime and minerals. It will be ideally matched with our newest menu selection, the New England Pan Seared Day Boat Scallops. This wine was #30 in the Wine Spectator Top 100 wines of 2008. WS is quoted, “Ultra rich and concentrated, with layers of fig, citrus and tangerine flavors that are shaded by toasty oak, filling out the flavor profile and ending with a complex marshmallow edge.” 93 Points, Wine Spectator.

The second wine featured is from the Single Vineyard Designates. It is the Bien Nacido Pinot Noir. For more than 30 years, Bien Nacido has been growing some of Santa Barbara County's most distinctive benchland Pinot Noir. This wine demonstrates the sophisticated interplay that goes on each year between soil, weather and variety. Expect a complete wine packed with cherries, spice, earth and truffles. Enjoy this wine with another one of our new additions, Lemon-Pepper Seared Hawaiian Big Eye Tuna. Bon Appetite!

Alex Rychetsky, Food and Beverage Director

Seasonal Menus & Custom Planning

Together with our Chef Michael Munoz we have created sample menus and packages that are truly delicious.For those looking for a custom five course meal, a seasonal or all organic menu, or just a little ethnic flair, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Our Chef Michael Munoz is happy to work together with our Catering team to create special custom menus that are exciting and crowd pleasing.

Depending on the type of food and style of cuisine you request there may be an increase in expense, but if you are a true San Franciscan and enjoy good flavors and delightful cuisine, then your appreciation for food should be understood.

We recently hosted a Cuban Inspired event where we passed the following items:
Duck Confit Tamalitos with Cherry Glaze
Taquitos with Cuban Vieja Ropa
Spicy Shrimp & Potato Empanadas
Ceviche en Crispy Plantain

A sample all organic and vegetarian menu included the following:
Parsnip & Seckel Pear Soup with Truffled Crème Fraîche
Living Cress Salad with Local Citrus, Marcona Almonds and Citrus Vinaigrette
Wild Mushroom Strudel with Butternut Squash Gratin, Living Pea Shoots and Salsify Cream
Valrhona Chocolate Pot de Crème

We hope these menus sound tempting and show some of our various tastes and flavors.
Be sure to ask and from there our team and Chef will do our very best to accommodate.

Happy Planning!
Michelle Kimmins- Director of Sales & Catering

City Club Nonprofit Breakfast ~ January 29, 2009

Breakfast & Networking Opportunities




Dr. Michael O'Neill of USF with City Club Board of Governors & Event Chairs Syndi Seid & Fred Rodriguez
















Distinguished Guest, Phillip Vaughns

Dennis M's Photography Showcsae!

What an exceptional evening! As wedding and special event planners at The City Club, we are so lucky to have the opportunity to plan some stunningly remarkable events for our clients and members alike. The Dennis M showcase however was a very special treat!

Together with Duncan Reyes, we had an opportunity to create a sophisticated yet funky look that The City Club hasn’t seen before. We completely recreated the 10th floor Café to look like a vintage Cuban night with an edgy South Beach twist! Our opportunity was to showcase Dennis M, an award-winning photographer who with Duncan assembled a great group of people to throw a great party in order to show off his breathtaking work, and of course – The City Club!

Hartmann Studios and Impact Lighting started off by bringing in fantastic led lighting that faded between crisp blues and aqua to warm romantic magenta and auburn tones. Hartmann brought in edgy white leather couches with bright lounge pillows, vintagy lamps. We brought sleek cocktail tables an chairs and set them with soft votive candles with sparkling crystals and ambient turquoise hues.

Amy Burke Designs threaded the look together and delighted the senses with her simple, elegant and lively floral designs. Her ultra modern pieces were so creative using different materials to hone in on the modern yet vintage twist we were looking to bring into the Cuban theme. They were so interesting you literally wanted to reach out and touch them.

To set the perfect backdrop Oye Productions brought in a sassy Cuban combo who filled The Club with their rich melodies. We literally felt as though we were on the set of The Buena Vista Social Club’s live recording! Once the music was in place our guests were really able to feel the amazing vibe The Club had brought together.

Our Executive Chef, Michael Munoz put together an outstandingly rich menu with Cuban inspired cuisine! And, of course to top off the savory, Butterfly Cakes brought in decadent samples of silky chocolate cake! It was absolutely to-die-for!! So to die for, that Butterfly Cakes is coming back on February 10th for The City Club’s Second Tuesdays!

- Alison Bianchetti, Catering & Sales Manager