Orange Arrow Anti-Restaurant Club

Earlier this year, the Washington Post ran an article detailing the rise of underground dinners in Washington, D.C. One of the dinner groups, the Orange Arrow, sounded promising, especially when after considering their pleasantly snarky list of «rules» that they ask their diners to abide by — e.g., «If you can’t/won’t eat certain things, this is not for you;» «No crybabies, whiners or buzz kills can come to our party;» and «Don’t try to sell your ticket on Craigslist. Failure to show basic decency gets you on the blacklist.»
The group was apparently co-​founded by a James Beard award-​nominated chef (we have reason to believe its Carole Greenwood, of Buck’s Fishing and Camping fame). The premise is intriguing — basically, opening up a restaurant in D.C. is tough. It’s expensive and competitive, and chefs are often relegated to cooking for the mainstream instead of preparing what they want, how they want. So why not create a truly unlicensed, offbeat experience? Thus the Orange Arrow was born.
So I registered online and two months later received a questionnaire in my Inbox. The Orange Arrow wanted to know, «What is your favorite food and where do you eat it? What is your favorite restaurant and why? When did you last host a dinner and what did you cook?» Apparently my answers were considered satisfactory enough, but I got the «go-​ahead» to purchase tickets. We were in.
After the tickets were purchased ($ 125 pp, ouch) and my PayPal account depleted, we had to wait on further details until the night before the dinner. That was when I received the e-​mail with the time and location. The e-​mail stated: «This is a rogue restaurant operation. Unexpected things may happen. Company and food will always satisfy!»
The night of the dinner, we were an urban Hansel and Gretel, following orange arrows chalked on the sidewalk. We came upon quite a scene in NW — the loading dock of a storage facility — and people milling everywhere, a giant grill on the sidewalk, and the chef was hard at work cracking lobster tails and shucking oysters. It was an under-​the-​sea slaughter, with crustacean carcasses and shells everywhere. Long tables were set up and dressed in cloth and mismatched yard sale china. Candles in cups lined all the walls and were dotted up and down the tables.
We checked in with the hostesses, and were promptly split up for assigned seating. My husband and I were fine with this idea, but apparently there was a couple there on a first date that wasn’t thrilled. The table mates were all friendly, pleasant, and entertaining, and conversation rolled right along. The theme of the night was simple, fresh, local fare — something I can always get on board with.
Sitting at the table, we were served a small bitter orange apéritif, and then plates of raw oysters and grilled asparagus came around. The waitstaff kept bringing oysters, so I had three or four. I heard later that other tables barely had any — hm (poor work, waitstaff — you lose points for this).
Second course was ½ a small grilled lobster tail with some sort of lobster mousse. Somehow the celebrated James Beard award-​nominated chef goofed up on this one, and they ran out of lobster tail (more points off). How you run out of a dish after asking people to pay $ 125 pp, with a confirmed guest list? Thankfully my husband and I both received a tail.
Third course was a glass cup of what I am guessing to have been asparagus crème (others guessed pea purée?) topped with watercress. The waitstaff served a pleasant rose, but it would have been nice to know the vineyard/​vintage (more points off — put out a quickly typed-​up menu or wine list!).
Fourth was a grilled beef tenderloin accompanied by chargrilled greens. OK, this was actually delicious, and the waitstaff loaded our plates up with tender, tasty beef. Perhaps this was to make up for screwing so many people on the lobster tail. However, my husband’s table was again left without. A few people received only a couple of ounces of meat (again, waitstaff, get yourselves together — points … points …). The course was served with a pinot noir (again, vintage?).
By now some of my husband’s tablemates had left in frustration from the lack of lobster tail and lack of beef, so I moved over to his table. Dessert was sliced strawberries, a scone, and fresh cream, served with a mysterious champagne. Somehow there was plenty of champagne to drink.
Overall, our experience was enjoyable, mainly due to the novelty. Unfortunately, this dinner was not something that I would have expected from an «anti-​restaurant establishment.» While the food was mainly tasty, the horrible service and lack of information was disheartening. Plus the selection of dishes was weak — nothing was particularly adventuresome or «out-​of-​the-​box.» Granted, terrific food doesn’t have to be avant garde, but when you advertise yourself as rebellious. then I expect a bit more. Verdict — save your money and go to any number of established restaurants.

OK, I posted this originally to a Unilocal discussion thread and I am suppose to put it here. And for those who participated in the thread I did indeed attend the dinner. This is the first time I have ever posted a review, but the dinner was sooooo not worth it I felt compelled to write. So here you go.
I attended the May 8 Orange Arrow… here is the skinny.
The venue was as expected… not so with the food. It was a very common, a lot like what you would expect at a wedding. For all the build-​up (…you must like all kinds of food, location given the night before, no talking outside the event, etc.) I was expecting interesting food. What I got was an ordinary dinner from a so-​so catering company.
The starter was oysters and grilled asparagus. The oysters were OK, however there was no accompaniment (unless you count the bottle of Tabasco.) Asparagus was good, however the gentleman sitting next to me said he could taste grilling fuel. We also had ½ a loaf of french bread between 4 of us (no butter or olive oil.)
Next came asparagus soup and ½ a grill lobster (or was it a large prawn?) Soup was good, lobster just OK (and my dinner companion didn’t get lobster as they ran out! Gee, they knew how many people were attending as we all pre-​paid $ 125 a seat!)
Main course, beef (not sure what cut.) Again, just OK. I could have had a much better steak dinner for half the price at Rays the Steak. Although the flavor was good, my pieces were either fatty or tough. No sides, no potato or rice or anything.
Dessert was a small, dry, short cake with strawberries and whip cream. Again, nothing special or reflective of a «James Beard» chef.
There were several wines throughout the meal, but again, nothing special. And come on, set the bottle on the table and let me pour my own… I promise not to spill.
All in all it was an interesting evening but not at all fine dining and certainly not what you would expect at $ 125 a seat… unless it was your wedding reception where you would pay $ 125 a person and get a bad meal.

I’d give it one star mainly because of the price, but I gave it the extra star for their clever marketing.
Orange Arrow sells themselves as an «anti-​restaurant underground dinner club» striving to raise the bar on DC’s culinary experience. All under the guise of cloak and dagger secrecy. In order to get an invite to the dinner you must sign up through their website, answer a few questions on your food experience (I assume they are looking for «foodies» of sorts) and wait for an invite. My invite came 3 months after signing up in the form of a mysterious e-​mail– «The Arrow is pointing at you, your in. If you can not or do not eat certain foods this is not for you.» I was allowed to invite one guest, and was given a Paypal account to deposit my $ 125 per person. The email stated that I would be sent an email the night before the dinner giving the when and where dinner details. When I got the dinner info I was given a laundry list of rules:
Show up no earlier than 15 minutes before 8pm, Don’t be late. You won’t be let in if you’re late, Don’t talk to anyone waiting with you, don’t tell anyone the location, Have a good time!
Intriguing and a bit sketchy.
The dinner was held in the loading dock of a giant warehouse in NW Washington (I’ll let them keep the location under wraps as I think they still use it). Every guest was forced to sit separate from the person they came with. My wife and I were totally ok with this as we love to meet new people, however I did meet a person who was on first dates and one who got a babysitter so they could spend the night with their husband, they weren’t impressed with this setup.
I recognized the chef behind the giant portable smoker grill outside cooking dinner (I won’t mention their name) I was surprised that they were the only one cooking, Orange Arrow makes it sound like it is some sort of super chef conglomerate.
After entering the cold industrial space, we found our seats among the three long banquet tables and kitschy miss matched dinnerware. I meet the fellow diners near me and started the small talk.
A pre-​diner cocktail was served, a single sip of some effervescent pink drink.
There was crusty bread in the middle of the table that was help yourself, it wasn’t cut so you had to use your hands to tear off a peace. Now I am no germ-​phobe but having a bunch of strangers handling the bread is kind of gross.
Then oysters on the half shell were passed around family style, everybody got one. They were tasty, I wish I knew where they were from. The servers didn’t know and nobody «in charge» offered any answers.
Then the servers poured a 2oz sip of some blush wine, no vintage or varietal was given.
Then we were served some sort of greens with what I guessed to be a sweet pea purée? I say guess because again nobody seemed to know what they were serving and there was nobody to ask.
Then there was an awkward 45 minute wait for the next course with no alcohol served and the DJ blasting house music making it VERY hard to chat with the people you were sat with.
The next course was a small grilled luke warm lobster tail. Which we had to eat without anything to drink! No wine, not even water.
A second round of wine finally came, a red of some sort, again no info given but at this point nobody cared we just wanted a drink. Luckily this time they were a bit more generous with the pour– a 3oz sip.
Then a hour wait for the main course, I think it was a grilled dry rubbed beef tenderloin served with a grilled salad (the same kind of greens used for the second course). Again nobody bothered telling us what we were eating! I got two small cuts, some got three, some got a second serving– no rhyme or reason why. Half way through the main course they came around with small airline bottles of water (I’d never been so happy to be served water).
At this point of the meal 4 of the 8 people I was near left out of frustration.
Then for the grand finally we were served some cheap sparkling wine and a strawberry shortcake with a stale scone.
So, basically the for a $ 125 dollars you got a glass of wine, an oyster, a bad salad, a small lobster tail, a cut of mystery meat and a bad dessert.
WOW, Orange Arrow’s answer to raising the DC culinary bar was SURF & TURF! $ 39.99 at your local Red Lobster and just as good.
The only thing they raised the bar on is profit margin!
I was soooo looking forward to this dinner and I am sooo bummed it kind of sucked. I mean how can they not even have someone describing the food?
If this is what it means to be an «anti-​restaurant» then I’ll stick to the pro-​restaurants and at $ 125 a head, you can do just about any of them.