//boroughing//
Fall 2012
The Hester Club
Dara Marans
The Victorian homes daintily lined the streets. This was a pleasant excursion into Brooklyn on a weekend evening that provided an alternative to the subculture of techno music. Instead of a warehouse-style nightclub, a house was its replacement—painted pretty purple and green, with a bright front porch and white columns. The Hester Club, where strangers wine & dine in a private Jewish home.
The hostess pulled out a large roll of blue tickets with perforated edges, sending me back momentarily to my childhood memories that were speckled with carnivals. But as I peeked my head around the entryway into the living room, cotton candy and water-gun games were nowhere in sight. Instead, folk music streamed from the parlor, and circular tables dotted the room. The space was filled with mingling foodies, Hasids, hipsters, hipster Hasids, and married couples, all dispersed throughout the room—some listening to music, easing into the environment, and observing the scene, while others created friendships, sampled the food, and were observed. I was handed a menu that made me want to eat the paper—it looked so good.
With limited space and room for just under 100, the environment at The Hester Club successfully encourages socializing and table-mixing among this multi-generational crowd. I spotted two open seats next to a man sporting a long white beard, opting to sit at this three person table where I remained for the majority of the evening while numerous patrons rotated in and out of the seats, pulling up and sharing chairs and stories. Baruch was a neighborhood regular who, as other patrons would later tell me, was a figure known throughout the community for his ubiquitous presence, and consistent with my first impression, his salient facial hair. I was quickly learning from him and other guests that I was attending an event that challenges the immediate environment it occupies. The Hester is located in the heart of Ditmas Park in Flatbush, Brooklyn, a neighborhood full of Orthodox Jews and home to a rabbinate that would consider this venue a licentious activity, if its current undisclosed nature were to be found out.
The Hester Club models itself on the speakeasies of the Prohibition era. According to legend, 19th century Pennsylvanian Kate Hester ran an illegal saloon, telling her patrons to “speak easy” to avoid being caught by the authorities. Assuming the pseudonym of Kate Hester, Itta Werdiger Roth runs The Hester Club, and she too employs a secretive element to her night of entertainment. Itta reveals her address only just before the event and, like the legendary Kate of her past, she uses a ticket payment system to avoid having a liquor license. The name for the Club was also chosen based on the word hester, which has Biblical origins and translates from Hebrew into “hidden.”
Unlike Kate’s saloon, this underground venue fuses live music with organic, home-cooked food – including sultry, toasted sandwiches. My favorite part: it’s 100% kosher. The Hester Club provides a safe space in a religiously-committed community, and it adheres to halacha, or Jewish law, in an effort to graciously welcome in all types of individuals, regardless of religious affiliation or background. An observant Jew supervises the entire meal preparation from start to finish, ensuring that a high level of kashrut is maintained. Jewish rituals are not the focus of this evening of entertainment, but values of serious modesty are nonetheless still upheld; in an email sent before the event, patrons were instructed to “Remember—no dancing!!”
Despite this friendly reminder, individuals of all shapes, sizes, colors, and ilk were welcomed into Kate’s living room. There were bare shoulders and covered knees; hair wigs and colorful tattoos; nose rings and curly sidelocks. The venue merged local clientele with patrons from other boroughs, a diverse medley of musical enthusiasts, eager students, and former Shabbat lunch guests from around the corner.
The dinner menu was light, yet tasty and promising. A server scanned the three rooms with a box of prepared sandwiches tucked into white wax paper sleeves; the ticket exchange was prompt and simple. This pop-up restaurant is environmentally hyper-conscious and bans the use of disposables, opting for Ikea cutlery instead. Self-described as organic, local, and fresh, The Hester Club’s dishes cost 2 blue tickets each, with the menu featuring seasonal items: an opening of house wedges (beets, rainbow carrots, red potatoes and breakfast radishes accompanied by roasted garlic and parsley sour cream); sandwiches on artisan sourdough bread (choice of sheep-milk cheese, fresh figs, raw honey, arugula and red radish or Japanese pickled finger eggplant and cucumber with miso sunflower tahini and crunchy sprouts); a dessert of summer peach pie with basil ice cream and candied suyo-jade cucumber. A creative pair of seasonal cocktails is available for those who wish—an old fashioned and a fig, or a watermelon margarita. Of course, everything had to be tasted.
The live music at the supperclub began in the ’60s with a folk and garage-blues band and ended in the ’20s with a Brooklyn jazz band. I love jazz music above all other genres and appreciated the opportunity to listen in a comfortable, private space. The merging of eras and musical styles at the Hester Club was an interesting attempt at breaking down definitions, expectations, and presumptions about what it means to have an artistically enriching musical experience. Two bands perform at each monthly gathering, one of which is always somehow associated with Jewish culture. Patrons who are interested in an evening of lounging and light chatting can opt for the relaxing couch corner and choose one of several sofas, or a scattering of wooden tables bordered by individual chairs.
The Hester Club redefines Jewish nightlife by providing a culturally rewarding experience while simultaneously providing an environment to be comfortably Jewish. From the jazzy tunes to the Japanese pickled sandwich, The Hester Club provides an integration of flavors that satiated my tastes. It fills a niche need within a growing community in a hip area, specifically in a young singles scene. Going to a warehouse party may not be the appropriate activity for some on a weekend evening. But Kate Hester provides an alternative night of fun, of mingling, of drinking, of observing, and of feeling a part of a diversely religious community—entwining them all within the comforts of her wine-colored living room.
The hostess pulled out a large roll of blue tickets with perforated edges, sending me back momentarily to my childhood memories that were speckled with carnivals. But as I peeked my head around the entryway into the living room, cotton candy and water-gun games were nowhere in sight. Instead, folk music streamed from the parlor, and circular tables dotted the room. The space was filled with mingling foodies, Hasids, hipsters, hipster Hasids, and married couples, all dispersed throughout the room—some listening to music, easing into the environment, and observing the scene, while others created friendships, sampled the food, and were observed. I was handed a menu that made me want to eat the paper—it looked so good.
With limited space and room for just under 100, the environment at The Hester Club successfully encourages socializing and table-mixing among this multi-generational crowd. I spotted two open seats next to a man sporting a long white beard, opting to sit at this three person table where I remained for the majority of the evening while numerous patrons rotated in and out of the seats, pulling up and sharing chairs and stories. Baruch was a neighborhood regular who, as other patrons would later tell me, was a figure known throughout the community for his ubiquitous presence, and consistent with my first impression, his salient facial hair. I was quickly learning from him and other guests that I was attending an event that challenges the immediate environment it occupies. The Hester is located in the heart of Ditmas Park in Flatbush, Brooklyn, a neighborhood full of Orthodox Jews and home to a rabbinate that would consider this venue a licentious activity, if its current undisclosed nature were to be found out.
The Hester Club models itself on the speakeasies of the Prohibition era. According to legend, 19th century Pennsylvanian Kate Hester ran an illegal saloon, telling her patrons to “speak easy” to avoid being caught by the authorities. Assuming the pseudonym of Kate Hester, Itta Werdiger Roth runs The Hester Club, and she too employs a secretive element to her night of entertainment. Itta reveals her address only just before the event and, like the legendary Kate of her past, she uses a ticket payment system to avoid having a liquor license. The name for the Club was also chosen based on the word hester, which has Biblical origins and translates from Hebrew into “hidden.”
Unlike Kate’s saloon, this underground venue fuses live music with organic, home-cooked food – including sultry, toasted sandwiches. My favorite part: it’s 100% kosher. The Hester Club provides a safe space in a religiously-committed community, and it adheres to halacha, or Jewish law, in an effort to graciously welcome in all types of individuals, regardless of religious affiliation or background. An observant Jew supervises the entire meal preparation from start to finish, ensuring that a high level of kashrut is maintained. Jewish rituals are not the focus of this evening of entertainment, but values of serious modesty are nonetheless still upheld; in an email sent before the event, patrons were instructed to “Remember—no dancing!!”
Despite this friendly reminder, individuals of all shapes, sizes, colors, and ilk were welcomed into Kate’s living room. There were bare shoulders and covered knees; hair wigs and colorful tattoos; nose rings and curly sidelocks. The venue merged local clientele with patrons from other boroughs, a diverse medley of musical enthusiasts, eager students, and former Shabbat lunch guests from around the corner.
The dinner menu was light, yet tasty and promising. A server scanned the three rooms with a box of prepared sandwiches tucked into white wax paper sleeves; the ticket exchange was prompt and simple. This pop-up restaurant is environmentally hyper-conscious and bans the use of disposables, opting for Ikea cutlery instead. Self-described as organic, local, and fresh, The Hester Club’s dishes cost 2 blue tickets each, with the menu featuring seasonal items: an opening of house wedges (beets, rainbow carrots, red potatoes and breakfast radishes accompanied by roasted garlic and parsley sour cream); sandwiches on artisan sourdough bread (choice of sheep-milk cheese, fresh figs, raw honey, arugula and red radish or Japanese pickled finger eggplant and cucumber with miso sunflower tahini and crunchy sprouts); a dessert of summer peach pie with basil ice cream and candied suyo-jade cucumber. A creative pair of seasonal cocktails is available for those who wish—an old fashioned and a fig, or a watermelon margarita. Of course, everything had to be tasted.
The live music at the supperclub began in the ’60s with a folk and garage-blues band and ended in the ’20s with a Brooklyn jazz band. I love jazz music above all other genres and appreciated the opportunity to listen in a comfortable, private space. The merging of eras and musical styles at the Hester Club was an interesting attempt at breaking down definitions, expectations, and presumptions about what it means to have an artistically enriching musical experience. Two bands perform at each monthly gathering, one of which is always somehow associated with Jewish culture. Patrons who are interested in an evening of lounging and light chatting can opt for the relaxing couch corner and choose one of several sofas, or a scattering of wooden tables bordered by individual chairs.
The Hester Club redefines Jewish nightlife by providing a culturally rewarding experience while simultaneously providing an environment to be comfortably Jewish. From the jazzy tunes to the Japanese pickled sandwich, The Hester Club provides an integration of flavors that satiated my tastes. It fills a niche need within a growing community in a hip area, specifically in a young singles scene. Going to a warehouse party may not be the appropriate activity for some on a weekend evening. But Kate Hester provides an alternative night of fun, of mingling, of drinking, of observing, and of feeling a part of a diversely religious community—entwining them all within the comforts of her wine-colored living room.