Let's face it: everyone likes to be the
first to know about something, to have that
little bit of insider information that no one
else has ... yet. Over the last year and a
half, the media have
suddenly discovered the phenomenon of
secret, or underground dining spots. Not
generally actual restaurants, these are more
often in-home (or in ever-changing locations)
places to check out dishes from glorified home
cooks and budding or moonlighting chefs.
It's also not really new. There have been
what we here in Argentina call restaurantes de
puertas cerradas, or locked door restaurants,
around for at least the last three decades.
They've just become a bit less underground and
secret as one source after another touts them
as the best thing since sliced bread. They're
even making their way into tourism guidebooks.
I have to
take some blame for the sudden discovery
of this so-called trend - especially since
everyone seems to think it started in Buenos
Aires - it didn't, really. We simply caught
the wave at just the right moment.
We were the first here in town willing to
talk about the idea with the press, which
brought us a ton of business - but it also
attracted attention from our building
association and government agencies.
Opening a restaurant in Buenos Aires is
easy enough if you have money. There's little
in the way of licensing, it's a matter of
complying with a set of health and building
codes, and perhaps greasing a palm or two. We
don't get exempted from that, and while what
we do may be "just a dinner party", we decided
on going down the safe route by bringing
everything up to code and paying taxes on our
income. This is not something that many of the
several dozen in-home restaurants here have
bothered to do. It's a choice - and the more
attention that the press pays to all of us,
the more likely it is that taking these simple
steps will have been the right move.
When we first threw open the doors of our
home to an invited group of diners for an
experimental dinner party it didn't feel quite
right presenting a bill at the end of the
evening, but I'm over that now. We offer what
I consider to be a unique dining experience
here in Buenos Aires; a bi-weekly multi-course
themed menu with matched wines, communal
tables, and an ever increasing demand for
more, more, more.
So why do we do it? On a personal level, we
needed some income, and I like to cook. We
also enjoy having people in our home and
meeting new friends every week, even if we
charge them for it. We've also found that for
locals and visitors alike we provide a casual,
relaxed atmosphere in which to meet new people
and try interesting food - and many similar
places offer that same ambiance, one of having
been invited to a party - just one where you
know neither the other guests nor the host
before arriving.
For some of the owners I know it's a sort
of trial balloon, a way of seeing if their
food will go over well before investing in a
full-scale restaurant. In fact, the in-home
spot I first went to here in Buenos Aires,
Verdellama, has long since ceased household
operations and the owners now operate two
restaurants. For some, it's simply a way of
staying off the radar - something that's
getting harder and harder to do as the word
spreads.
We have fun, we don't have to work all that
hard, and we've built up a connected network
of people operating similar adventures spread
out across the globe - we hear about spots
that have either recently opened, or in some
cases have been open for years in places as
wide ranging as
Melbourne,
Paris,
New York,
San Francisco,
Portland,
Seattle,
Havana (long a hotbed of such spots, where
they actually have a name for them -
paladares),
Lima,
Sacramento ... the list goes on, and seems
to get longer every week.
One of the questions I'm most commonly
asked is "do you ever get guests who are a
problem?" In a word, no, not really - I think
it takes a certain kind of person to even opt
to come to something like this. Also, most of
us have some sort of screening process,
whether it's simply a gut feeling, a referral
by a past customer, or whatever it may be.
And what about the other side of the coin -
how the experience rates for the guest? A
visit to a place like mine can be intimidating
for the shy, but that just goes with the
territory. It can be an issue for those who
have various food concerns - allergies or
simple dislikes - as the menus are often
preset with no few options. Most of us are
solo cooks, we don't have teams in the kitchen
to whip up special or alternative dishes, and
truthfully, we probably don't really care -
it's a "here's my menu, if you're not
interested, go somewhere else" attitude - even
if stated politely.
How would that go down with you? Is the
setting in a case like this more important
than getting the usual fussiness of a
restaurant? And would you ever consider
opening your home to paying guests?
