Have you ever been had in clubland?

Nope, not a night club, but a club, you know, the kind where they have memberships and ties and all that ... I'm not a club member, though I can see how there are benefits. I've had the luck to be traveling in circles where I've been invited to some of the nicer clubs in the country. Over the past few years I've dined at:

• Harvard Faculty Club (Cambridge, MA)
• St. Francis Yacht Club (San Francisco)
• University Club (New York City)

At the Harvard Faculty Club, we had an intimate dinner for about 25 people all sitting at one very very long table. Needless to say, that didn't make for much mingling or mixed conversation. There was a nice menu to choose from, I ended up with the creamed squash soup and a steak with vegetables. A very good soup and a nice steak. There was a good wine list and service was good. The ambiance of the club was pretty much everything what you might imagine a club to be, at least it was for me!



The St. Francis Yacht Club was a much different experience. Again, we had 20-28 people, but instead had three large round tables and after a while, people were started to mix and mingle. Being in the corner (with a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge). Dinner was a buffet (which helped with the mingling). It was a pretty good buffet, nice large selection of salads and some nice entrees (including grilled cheese triangles for the younger set - of which there were quite a few). There was also a pasta bar where the chefs would whip up pasta and a sauce to your taste. And to top off your calorie intake, there was a sundae bar for dessert.



In New York City, however, was my ultimate (to date!) club experience. The University Club is located in a fabulous building that just squeals "old New York." We had a small party, about sixteen people, split over four round tables. After an open bar to start, we were seated and given a choice of the meat, fish, or vegetables. There was a soup and salad option for a starter, I went with the salad (quite good) and followed with the meat option (a good steak and potatoes, though the salmon option looked good too). Lovely food and a charming environment. As we were leaving, we had a  brief tour of the members' reading room and were entertained by the slightly tipsy guests at a wedding reception. 



So, overall, the "club" experience is interesting. You may not get the best food, but you get an interesting environment. So, as Elvis Costello said (about a different type of club):

With a handful of backhanders and a bevy of beauty
You’re going off limits
Going off duty
Going off the rails
Going off with booty
They tell tales of fiction found on all the criminal types
Lead to a higher ranking man or a face with thin red stripes

The boys next door
The mums and dads
New weds and nearly-deads
Have you ever been had in clubland?

(which I guess is apropos of nothing! but I liked the title!)

Harvard Faculty Club
Meal: Dinner
Rating: ****
Date: 19 March 2008
Address: 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-3899
Website: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/

St. Francis Yacht Club
Meal: Buffet Dinner
Rating: ***
Date: 18 October 2009
Address: On the Marina, San Francisco, CA 94123
Website: http://www.stfyc.com/

University Club
Meal: Served, fixed dinner
Rating: ****
Date: 29 October 2009
Address: 1 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019-5485
Website: http://www.universityclubny.org/