2nd Act Supper Club gets a reprise

First, there was the 2nd Act Supper Club. Then Fat Cat Brasserie was born. COVID put a crimp in everyone’s menu, and smart entrepreneurs like Amanda and Anthony Felan whipped up some side dishes to get through.

“This was a brainchild used in the beginning before there was even a Fat Cat Brasserie,” Anthony explained. “It’s actually been around for about seven years. We launched it in 2017.

“It was a concept I discovered in culinary school in San Francisco. At the time, they used to call it guerilla dining. It was more like a speakeasy dinner club.

“The first dinner that we did was at the Calanthean Temple downtown. The idea was to sell tickets to a location where nobody knew where they were going to go, and they weren’t going to know the menu until they arrived and sat down and saw [it]. It started out as a social experiment. I wanted to get out of the restaurant norm and get people to interact with people over something as common as food.”

The event didn’t make any money, but it was such a success they did more of them in locations like Agora Borealis on Lake Street and the little-known, hidden ballroom above the stage of the Municipal Auditorium.

In 2019, the Felans decided it was time to settle down, and they moved into the brick-and-mortar location at Creswell Avenue and Kings Highway they called Fat Calf Brasserie.

Then, COVID.

They struggled through the shutdown and began seeing business picking back up, so much that the tiny restaurant in Highland’s growing pains became truly painful. It was soon apparent that they needed a catering kitchen, a place where they could prepare for catering jobs without disrupting the crowded restaurant’s work areas.

That’s when they found 440 Olive St., the old location of Lilah’s Bakery and, before then, a neighborhood grocery, among other businesses. 2nd Act Supper Club was back, and it had its own home.

“We’re going to turn this into 2nd Act Supper Club d/b/a Fat Cat Catering and Events,” Felan said. “It’s going to be a small dining room restaurant, and we’re going to use it to push catering out of, not a place where you can just walk in and get reservations. It’s wine dinners, and we can be closed to the public and really have some fun in a private, intimate setting and take people back in time for a little bit.

“The feeling that it gives you is a very 1920s, New Orleans, speakeasy vibe. Curtains are hung everywhere. Easy chairs everywhere. The artwork is from all our 2nd Act Supper Club dinners that we’ve done over the years. We’re excited to see it come back to life.

“This is going to be a cool way if people want to have it for a birthday party for 15 people. You can come in here and get the same level of service that you get a restaurant, but you have the whole place to yourself.”

Its place on the web can be visited at https://fatcalfbrasserie.com/2nd-act-supper-club.