Super Fat Tuesday (2/5) @ Elephant Thai

Late last year, GAF and I agreed that it was time for an LTH event at GNR winner Elephant Thai. Now that the holiday dust has settled and a few posts on ET have been bouncing around, we're ready to do it.

Gary and I look forward to meeting any of you who are so inclined at Elephant Thai on Feburary 5th in celebration of the once-in-a-lifetime(?) conjunction of "Super" and "Fat" Tuesdays.

We'll be there at 7:15 pm. Please post if you'll be joining us.

Elephant Thai
5348 W Devon
Chicago, IL
773-467-1168

PS an event held on an election day at a restaurant with Elephant in the name should by no means be construed as a partisan endorsement.

Hi,

I am an election judge. Polls closing at 7 PM and the attendant duties involved preclude my attendance. I look forward to the post event reports.

Regards,

I would love to join you.
Thanks for coordinating this event.

Jyoti

Happy_stomach and I are both planning on coming. Thanks for organizing.

As an organizer of a previous Fat Tuesday, it'll be fun to see this one. I'm in.

I'm planning on going, and will even delurk to say so.

Joe & Gary,

Ellen and I would love to join you, thanks for setting this up.

Enjoy,
Gary

Add me to the list, please, Joe. Great night for an event!

Golly.. Room for one more?

Wow, great response!

germuska
GAF
jygach
CCCB
happy_stomach
nr706 (+1, right?)
aruzin
GWiv
MsWiv
Josephine
BrendanR

That's 12 (or maybe eleven). I'd like to cap it here until I can check in with Elephant Thai. This is probably as big as we can get but if I hear differently, I'll update.

Can you waitlist 2 more? It sounds like a great distraction from watching election returns. Thanks.

G Wiv wrote:Ellen and I would love to join you, thanks for setting this up.

Joe and Gary,

It slipped my mind this was the evening of the Purple Asparagus event at May Street Market.

Please consider our two seats available. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Enjoy,
Gary

germuska wrote:That's 12 (or maybe eleven). I'd like to cap it here until I can check in with Elephant Thai. This is probably as big as we can get but if I hear differently, I'll update.

Any update to the number situation? Have you set up a waiting list?

I was hoping to join you.... so please let me know if there's room for one more. Thanks!

Sorry for the brief period of radio silence folks... things got a little involved at work this week.

I've spoken with Ann from Elephant Thai and have us down for a party of 12. I moved the time up slightly to 7 pm because they close at 9. tarte tatin, you are currently the first and only person on the waiting list.

Ann and I agreed that it would make sense (especially given the time issues) to arrange the menu ahead of time. Having only eaten at ET once, and being interested in getting input, I put off actually selecting it yet. She did say that she would plan to make thai fried chicken for us, even though it's not a normal menu item. I was thinking that for simplicity's sake we should simply tell Ann that we will put in $20 per person. With tax and tip, that would mean that each person would pay about $26. Input on this is also welcomed. (For Thai food, that may even be too much; I believe Bridgestone's TAC Quick dinner was more like $15/person)

I'll call tomorrow to establish the menu with her. Please offer suggestions here in the meantime. Both MenuPages and GrubHub
have online versions of the menu, and of course, past threads may well be a source of inspiration. It might also be good to know if anyone is relatively spice/heat-averse or has any other preferences regarding the menu aside from specific dishes.

Elephant Thai is BYOB.

Hi Joe,

I looked through previous posts and the following dishes appear to have appealed to fellow LTHers:

Chive Dumplings
Roasted Duck Curry

Other dishes which I would be interested in trying, but do not appear on the menu (specials?):

Red Snapper - 3 Flavors
Emerald Noodles

Thanks for the legwork.

Jyoti

Joe-Having not eaten there, I don't feel qualified to seriously input on the menu, except for the Thai fried chicken, which you've already ordered.

As I paged through the threads prior to signing up, I thought I saw pictures of chive dumplings that looked really good. Now I can't seem to find those pictures (so maybe I imagined them)? But I see they're on the menu, so assuming those are the same chive dumplings I think I imagined, then I'll suggest those as well.

Other than that, I leave the ordering up to others.

Thanks for planning this.

It looks like a couple of people posted while I was making some edits to my most recent, so to make the edits clear:

* I added the suggestion of finalizing the menu with Ann at a flat $20/person
* I noted that Elephant Thai is BYO.

germuska wrote:With tax and tip, that would mean that each person would pay about $26. Input on this is also welcomed. (For Thai food, that may even be too much; I believe Bridgestone's TAC Quick dinner was more like $15/person)

I don't have an issue with $26/pp. (I'm not sure if you were soliciting opinions on that, but you seemed to think that might be too much.)

aschie30 wrote:

germuska wrote:With tax and tip, that would mean that each person would pay about $26. Input on this is also welcomed. (For Thai food, that may even be too much; I believe Bridgestone's TAC Quick dinner was more like $15/person)

I don't have an issue with $26/pp. (I'm not sure if you were soliciting opinions on that, but you seemed to think that might be too much.)

No so much "too much out-of-pocket cost", but rather "too much food". (Is there such a thing?)

But thanks for the input.

$26/person seems fine, though it seems like that would buy A LOT of food. Not necessarily a problem...

This will be my first time to Elephant Thai. I'm interested in the chive dumplings, duck curry and red snapper. From previous posts, I'd also like to try the shrimp rolls. Ong choi might be good as a token vegetable dish, though I saw it in an old post but not on Menu Pages. So long as the group doesn't object, I'd like at least one dish with some serious heat.

Just my two cents...

To echo happy_stomach - serious heat in a few dishes would be fantastic!!!!

Jyoti

I'll third some heat.

OK, here's our final menu:

Starters
Shrimp Rolls
Moo Ping
Fried Chicken
Chive Dumplings
Som Tum (Papaya Salad)
Sticky Rice

Entrees
Duck Curry
Red Snapper
Emerald Noodles

Ann was talking kind of fast (I imagine the lunch business was picking up) but I am confident that the total cost will be no more than the $26 discussed above, and I'm pretty sure a little less.

She also said that we could fine-tune our heat desires when we are all there.

Can anyone translate "laissez le bon temps roulez" into Thai for me?

PS speaking of the Fat part of Super Fat Tuesday, I'm going to play all New Orleans music on my WNUR show tomorrow, so if you're so inclined, tune in at 89.3 FM or www.wnur.org between 5 and 7:30 AM!

I'm posting to say I'm excited about this dinner and to simultaneously acknowledge my spot. The menu is making my mouth water.
Firey heat is more than ok here!

Can 1 more person join?

Thank you everyone for such a pleasant evening. I'll post the pictures of food I took tomorrow. I'm sorry I spaced out on saying good-bye to everyone. I'm feeling under the weather this evening, and my brain and manners aren't with me. Aruzin--welcome to LTH, and I hope you join us again. I'll look for your outing on the Events board.

Thanks to Joe and Gary for arranging a fun evening. I especially liked the chive dumplings, duck curry (redolent with coconut milk) and emerald noodles - as well as the company. I'm sorry I was at the wrong end of the table to get into the discussion of the implications of LTH's growth, but as usual, it was the company that made the evening. I didn't get pix, but I'll look forward to seeing Sharon's.

OK, folks, this is why I rarely volunteer to take pictures at group dinners. 1) I have no photographic skill. 2) I always flake out and forget my role as photographer and fail to document a few dishes. Last night, I somehow missed the papaya salad, which was actually my favorite dish of the evening (though I could have taken even a little more heat), and the emerald noodles, my least favorite (the texture of the noodles didn't agree with me). All of ronnie_suburban's pictures in this thread are better than mine, but here's what I got:

Chive dumplings:


Shrimp rolls:


Pork skewers:


Fried chicken:


Duck curry:


Snapper:


I enjoyed Elephant Thai. It's a bright, welcoming space, and all of the dishes we had were very pleasing. I'd have everything we ordered again, especially the chive dumplings, shrimp rolls, papaya salad and fried chicken. While I liked the creaminess of the duck curry, I prefer the versions of this dish I've had elsewhere, like TAC Quick. Also, I was excited about the snapper, but it turned out to be too sweet for my tastes. I'll be back to Elephant Thai--it's a solid reason to visit a stretch of Devon that's convenient for me to get to but that I otherwise neglect. Thank you all again for the company last night!

Thanks to everyone who went for a delightful evening, it was great meeting all of you. Special thanks to Joe and Gary for planning the evening, and to my newly discovered near-neighbor Josephine for siding with "mentor" in the "hazing v. mentoring" debate; a Lincoln Squareathon would be a lot of fun once the weather starts to turn. It's good to know that you guys don't bite... at least not when there's something like the papaya salad to keep you distracted.

Amanda

Joe & Gary - Thanks again for organizing this event. It was a lot of fun!