The Club At Chops

A great little place for dinner and a cigar. Hidden behind Lobster Bar is this hidden gym with as wonderful of an atmosphere as you’ll find anywhere. Great food. Great service. Great atmosphere.

The club at Chops is hidden behind the bar — I believe you need to be a club member or have a friend who is a club member make the reservation for you. If you’ve done one of those things, the man by a big door next to the kitchen will ring you through. The whole thing felt very New York exclusive to me…
Dinner here was a great experience. There’s live music (piano/​cello), the service is impeccable, and the atmosphere is comfortable and elegant. I believe there’s a dress code so no looking sloppy.
The seafood platter is great (and huge)! The mussels were fresh and the shrimp/​lobster were delicious. It fed 5 people no problem.
The steaks are quite good. Medium rare was just right. I ordered the Hong Kong fish dish, which was also very good and comes with a side of white rice. In terms of appetizers, the brussel sprouts were the best. Other people in my party loved the lobster mac and cheese, but I don’t like cheesy lobster.
For dessert, we got the raisin bread pudding, cookies n’ cream ice cream, and mango sorbet. I loved the cookies ‘n’ cream, but then again I always do!
Our server was incredibly nice and attentive (not to mention very beautiful and well-​mannered).
My only complaint about Chops is how dirty the bathroom was. Somebody was messy earlier in the evening and nobody had taken care of it — that’s never fun.

Now this was a fun little find!
One of my friends has a membership and introduced me to this little gem.
First off, I totally had a ‘Jane Bond’ experience as we slid the card to open the private/​unmarked door on the West Paces street entrance. I must admit… I suddenly needed to be in an all black trench coat, wearing sky-​high stilettos, and whispering some secret code-​word into someone’s ear. When I came too from my day dream, our group of four was entering the door and it brings you in behind the bar at the private club. (or you can enter through the restraunt by swaggering through the kitchen. Make sure to act like you know where you’re going & you’ve done this a million times!) Since it is a private club, I’m sure they all know each other’s faces so new people are watched closely to see who you might be. No worries though boys, the fun just arrived!!!
So we sat down for dinner and someone ordered the steak tartar. Now, I’m all for a good hunk of read meat to satisfy my inner carnivore… but never in my life had I planned on eating it straight up raw! The most I can do is medium minus on a steak. All that so say that trying steak tartar was completely out of my comfort zone peeps!
But I was gently coaxed into giving it a whirl. So I loaded up my little toast point with a small spoonfull of this steak tartar concotion, closed my eyes (almost held my nose-​but we are in a high class place girls!), and tried it.
Similiar to salvation, a great excitement pulsed through my body. Oh my word… I LOVE STEAK TARTAR! As the crowd exploded in laughter, there I sat wondering why my sweet Southern Mother had always charred our steaks and not let any raw morsel of beef enter my vessel. We totally missed out!
I may be a dramatic story-​teller, but take my word on this. The club is super swanky, rich mahogny feel, plenty of suits, great art, fabulous piano player, and studded with NFL’ers and Buckhead VIP’s, but I’m going back just to have that great steak tartar again!!! (sidenote, I did order it upstairs at Chops recently and it was just as yummy, and only $ 15!!!)
We also had a delish bone in something or another steak, I was definitely one of the best steaks I’ve had. But the steak tartar stole my heart, so if you see a cute blonde alone at a dark corner table, making love to something on her toast-points…it’s me… Just play it cool, I’m not out of the closet on my insatiable need for raw beef yet :-) What would Mother say!
Signing off~
Honey Rider
(the original Bond girl!)
–Sidenote. There is a valet guy for the private entrance off West Paces. Just pull into one of those meter spots and get out like you know what you’re doing. Stand by your car for just a sec, holding your keys like you’ve done this before. and he’ll come running over in just a sec!
–The only con: For a group of 4, it’s going to cost you about what your first post-​college apartment cost you each month. It’s not cheap!

The lobster nuggets here are only outdone by the crab chunks appetizer. Great drinks too.
It is one of them pricey, high falutin clubs, probably designed to keep out riff-​raff like me.
The only thing that keeps me from giving it a 5 is that when I joined the club I don’t remember seeing anything about the discounts on all Buckhead Life Group restaurants not applying to private parties. Since saving on my companies Christmas party was part of what justified laying out the $ 700 or so it takes to be a member, I’m pretty sure I would have noticed if the discount didn’t apply to parties.
In any case, I don’t live close enough anymore to make it worthwhile for me, and I typically went with others who are members anyway (you can bring up to like 4 guests I think).
You get extra special, no wait service at all the BLG restaurants with your membership, plus special invites to pretty cool parties where they have cool free stuff like Cognac tastings, wine tastings, cigar tastings, etc. and they serve really great appetizers at those events making it nice to be a member.
It is one of those things that is designed for people who are looking to be luxuriated though, not those who are looking for a deal.

We went down to this little cozy bar after our Valentine’s Day dinner @ Chops Lobster bar, WOW it was a really neat little hidden gem. Piano player, couches, cigars, and full bar! We toured the humidor it is HUGE. I believe the club is a membership only type deal, but the manager @ Chops is a friend and let us go down to check it out. Nonetheless we had a great time.

Very private-​feeling «speakeasy”-type club. Hops after 10pm.