It all started on a sad day. After a memorial service for our dear friend Kim's dad, the talk among our group of seven friends turned from how wonderful her dad was to how we all wanted to see more of each other. One person joked that we should regroup our long-defunct book club and liven it up by pairing it with dinner in New York City each time. Most of us are moms and live in Connecticut, so the need for a little livening up is obvious. Finances being what they are for most of us at this point, the dinners needed to be inexpensive and thus, the Cheap Eats Book Club was born!
Our first meeting (in November of 2009) was at Ivo and Lulu in Tribeca (558 Broome Street), which is cheap - every item is $15 or less -and almost unbelieveably a BYOB restaurant in Manhattan. They serve tasty French-Caribbean fare and there is no corkage fee. Yeah - pretty amazing. Five members showed up (wine bottles in hand) to discuss "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. The book was well liked by all. The awful realities of a story set in WWII era Germany certainly made our dealing with the 2009 recession a little easier. I'm sure I should discuss the book in more detail, but I am really more into the food and the friends...that's the real truth. We ordered every single appetizer on the menu along with a couple of entrees to share. Seven bottles of wine were brought to the meeting, but a few managed to go home unopened. The best part was that each member only had to shell out $22 total for a fun dinner and the start of something fabulous. We will meet quarterly and each member will take turns picking the restaurant and the book selection...we look forward to our next meeting (in February 2010). We'll be scouring Chowhound.com for great cheap places to eat and the Times Book Section for great books for now.
During this short time blogging, my husband has interrupted me at least three times and made several mean jokes about the blog...does Arianna Huffington have to deal with this? I don't think so! :)
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