Ginuary 29th: Red Robin Lemonade.

Tonight was a special treat just in time for the end of Ginuary – the second coming of Brisbane’s Red Robin Supper Club. A friend discovered RRSC while it was still in its inception stage, so I was lucky enough to go to the first RRSC event back in August 2011. It’s taken this long for round two, but you can’t rush perfection.

Red Robin Lemonade

• 2 parts watermelon juice (strained puree)
• 1 part lemon juice
• 1 part sugar syrup
• 1oz gin

 

Build in a highball glass with a top-up of soda water to taste. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

 

As soon as I heard there was a RRSC event planned for January 29th, I got in touch with the mastermind chef behind Red Robin to ask if he’d be interested in throwing some Ginuary flavour into his menu, in whatever form he so desired. Lucky for me, he was up to the challenge, and this fresh bevvy was absolutely perfect for tonight’s muggy summer evening.

 I was totally chuffed to pick up the drinks menu and see Ginuary Special right up the top. When the waiter came around to ask if I’d like any drinks to start off with, there was no question. I didn’t actually look at the rest of the drinks menu at all throughout the entire evening, though it does appear to have a fine selection of beer, wine and cider.

After a couple of days of constant summer rain, the sky taps were turned off tonight but the awful Queensland humidity settled in. Tonight’s gin was a gift of fresh watermelon and homemade lemonade (none of that fake fizzy business), just the thing I wanted to be drinking.

It was great to look up from my menu decision-making to see everyone making a strong Ginuary effort, too. To be fair, they weren’t doing it for me – they were doing it because gin is the best.

Red Robin Supper Club is a delightful concept, one of the first “secret” supper clubs to crop up in Brisbane.

The Red Robin Supper Club can pop-up anytime, anywhere. Whether the venue’s an established restaurant, warehouse, park or even a private home, the idea of the Supper Club is simple, to share outstanding food with like-minded people.

Led by local chef, Rory Doyle, The Red Robin Supper Club is a unique dining experience. Whether wild and innovative or rooted in deep tradition, the food of Red Robin is to be enjoyed, talked about and remembered.

Tonight’s menu items were mostly inspired by Rory’s recent USA adventure. With that knowledge I say thank you, Rory, and thank you, America.

I feel like it would be remiss of me to not share the joy of the meals tonight as well.

The first RRSC was a set menu with matched drinks, so tonight’s event was certainly an added complication – I had to choose? How could I possibly choose? How could anyone be expected to choose?

Here’s just a sampling of the menu – these were my personal favourites from the evening, though there wasn’t one bad or boring dish among the entire collection.

You know how you hear of people crying over food because it’s so delicious? It always sounded ridiculous to me, but tonight I felt very emotional about the pork buns and the dessert doughnuts. Very emotional. It wasn’t just because of gin, either.

Anyway: we all rolled home to rub our bellies.

The end.

P.S. Follow Red Robin Supper Club on Facebook or twitter if you’re interested.

Posted by Miss Ginuary | 2 comments