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'Moby-Dick' Inspired Feast to Feature Queequeg's Beefsteaks, Broiling Fowl

By Nikhita Venugopal | December 28, 2015 12:06pm | Updated on December 29, 2015 8:37am
 Table of Contents Supper Club will host its first public event with a Moby-Dick dinner in Carroll Gardens on Jan. 22. 
Table of Contents Supper Club will host its first public event with a Moby-Dick dinner in Carroll Gardens on Jan. 22. 
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Court Tree Collective

CARROLL GARDENS — It will be a feast fit for a sea captain. 

A literary supper club will host its first public event with a menu inspired by Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick; or the Whale" in Carroll Gardens on Jan. 22. 

"No whale meat will be served," organizers promise.

Mackensie Griffin, 28, came up with the idea for "Table of Contents Supper Club" by combining her two favorite interests — food and literature — as a student in New York University's Food Studies program.

After graduating two years ago, she hosted her first private dinner party in the summer of 2014, inspired by Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises." She later held another based on a book of Swedish recipes.

This month, the supper club will host its third dinner at Court Tree Collective, located at 371 Court St. in Carroll Gardens from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

The dinner, priced at $60 per person, will recreate a few dishes — some literal, some interpreted — feasted on by Captain Ahab in Melville's novel as the seafarer travels aboard the Pequod in search of his nemesis, Moby-Dick.

"There's a particularly good description of clam chowder," Griffin said.

There will also be squid with balsamic syrup, broiling fowl and dumplings and Queequeg's beefsteaks "done rare." Drinks include a molasses and gin cocktail, Peruvian corn beer, and ginger-jub and cognac.

And while it's not required, guests are welcome to dress in their finest 19th century garb in keeping with the novel's 1851 time period.

"I want people to feel like they're in the story," Griffin said.

Griffin plans to host more literary supper clubs in the future for novels such as "Alice in Wonderland," the "Little House on the Prairie" series and M.F.K. Fisher's "The Art of Eating." She's also open to hosting private dinner parties.

"It's a fun way for people to connect to a book that they've read," she said.

To sign up for the dinner, click here. To contact Table of Contents about private events, email mackensie.griffin@gmail.com.