Picture this: you’re on your way to dinner, parking the car and before you find a spot, you’ve passed row after row of Ferraris, Maseratis, Bentleys and a Bugatti or two! This was the Accidental Locavore’s recent “insiders” introduction to dinner in Monaco. It really makes you wonder how many hundreds of millions of dollars in rare automobiles are parked in the Principality.
We were there to meet some friends and have dinner at their club — the Automobile Club de Monaco. They had offered us up a difficult choice — dinner at the Auto Club or lunch at the Yacht Club, and even though we figured the view from the Yacht Club would be pretty spectacular, because my husband is a huge F1 fan, we chose the Automobile Club.
The club is on the start/finish line of the Grand Prix of Monaco. It’s a lovely place, with a small lounge, a well-manicured garden and a large, luxurious dining room. Surprisingly (to me anyway) it’s not littered with souvenirs of past Grand Prixes or rosters of racers. Merely a few tokens, so you know you’re in the right place.
Dinner was as expected, formal but not overly stuffy, with French classics beautifully prepared. And, while I wouldn’t want to do it every night, it was nice to get dressed for dinner. I stuck to a couple of traditional courses, starting with a wonderful fois gras terrine and followed it up with something rarely seen on American menus — sweetbreads. They were perfectly prepared — tender and succulent, and there wasn’t a bit of food left on my plate!
Frank and our hostess shared a gigantic sole — one of the biggest any of us had ever seen, and also devoured every bit of it! He’s still saying it was the best meal we had on the trip! I’m sure someone must have found room for dessert, but after a couple of bottles of a lovely red wine, unfortunately I don’t remember.
The only downside? No cell phones in the dining room, so sadly no photos of the wonderful food, but if you click on the link above, you can take a video tour of the whole place. Big thanks to our host and hostess for making it such a memorable eventing!
