Dinner at the Club: 100 Years of Stories and Recipes from South Philly's Palizzi Social Club

by Joey Baldino, Adam Erace

Overview

A Special Invitation to a Delicious Members-Only Experience


A hard-to-get reservation is prized among serious restaurant-goers, but a table limited to members only seems to be the Philadelphia diner's Holy Grail. Palizzi Social Club is 100 years old this year in South Philly, but it was after chef Joey Baldino took over from his late uncle Ernie that business really started to boom.



Palizzi has mastered the balance of old-school Italian kitsch and super-high-quality food and cocktails. Once a gathering place for the Abruzzi-American community, Palizzi Social Club is a current hot spot: members can take up to three guests, and if the light is on outside, they're open. In 2017, Palizzi was named Bon Appetit's #4 Best New Restaurant, Esquire's honorable mention best new restaurant, and Eater Philly's #1 restaurant of the year. Chef Joey's menu at Palizzi has a broad Southern Italian scope. Seventy adaptable, accessible recipes throughout include dishes like:

• Fennel and Orange Salad
  
• Arancini with Ragu and Peas
  
• Spaghetti with Crabs
• Stromboli
• Hazelnut Torrone

Come on in, and join the club.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762493869
Publisher:	Running Press Book Publishers
Publication date:	10/29/2019
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	206,359
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Chef and restaurateur Joey Baldino, known for his deeply traditional Italian cooking, owns Sicilian BYOB Zeppoliin Collingswood, NJ and Palizzi Social Club. Prior to opening Zeppoli, he honed his culinary skills as chef de cuisine at Vetri, sous chef for the opening of Osteria, and in the kitchens of other top Philadelphia chefs, including Georges Perrier, Michael Solomonov, and Jose Garces. As a young cook, he apprenticed with Alice Waters at her legendary California restaurant Chez Panisse and at Daniel Boulud's New York City flagship Daniel. Today, he proudly resides just blocks from Palizzi Social Club, carrying on his family's South Philly legacy of good food and authentic hospitality.

Adam Erace is a food and travel writer who contributes to more than 50 publications, including Men's Journal, Fortune, Food & Wine, and Travel + Leisure. His writing has been recognized with awards from the International Association of Culinary Professionals and the Association of Food Journalists. He is the co-owner of Green Aisle Grocery, a gourmet market with two locations in Philadelphia. He lives in South Philly with his wife and two maniacal rescue dogs.

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/21/2019

Chef Baldino and Erace (coauthor of Laurel) open the doors to Philadelphia’s members-only Palizzi Social Club, with nearly 70 hearty Italian recipes, 13 cocktails, and numerous options for a Feast of the Seven Fishes. The club, founded in 1918 as a gathering place for male immigrants from the Abruzzo region, served a cuisine inspired by family traditions and the blue-collar joie de vivre of its neighborhood. Tomato and cinnamon-braised tripe is a mainstay not because it is often ordered, but because it represents the “community’s past.” One popular dish is macaroni and crab gravy—intended to bring to mind summer vacations in South Jersey, the dish’s tomato sauce is packed with blue crab, anchovy, and clam juice, balanced by white wine and brandy. Conversely, tagliatelle with lemon and bottarga employs a simple sauce of lemon juice and spices, but the noodles are golden thanks to a 20-yolk pasta dough recipe (it results in a pound and half of pasta, and the leftover egg whites can be used for a dessert, hazelnut torrone). The cocktail list includes the Bozzelli, a daiquiri-like quaff with habanero tincture, and Cocchi Americano, an aperitif wine with a history back to 1891. Old-world flavors and heartfelt presentation make for a delicious mix in this rare look inside a South Philly institution. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Joey Baldino cooks from his heart, without pretense, and in celebration of those who ate, drank, and communed at the club before him. Dinner at the Club brings to life the richness and magic of Italian-American South Philly, and the collection of winning recipes will coax all who enter your home kitchen to 'eat a lot, drink more, and mostly: be social.'"
—Danny Meyer, restaurateur and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group

"Palizzi Social Club is a South Philly institution and a national destination: old school, authentic, and with food any Italian grandmother would co-sign on. You also need to be member to get in, which means that most people will never see it. That's why I'm thrilled this book exists. It lets everyone, at least for a moment, bask in the glory of the place."—Questlove, musician with The Roots

"Dinner At The Club is a peek into a true relic of Philadelphia history, the Palizzi Social Club. With beautiful stories and delicious recipes, this book preserves the memory and celebrates the heart of Italian culture in the city and transports you to a dinner at the club."—Marcus Samuelsson, Award-Winning Chef, Restaurateur, andCo-Owner of the Red Rooster Harlem

"Old-world flavors and heartfelt presentation make for a delicious mix in this rare look inside a South Philly institution."—-Publishers Weekly starred review

"This book is gold."—-EatYourBooks

From the Publisher