We cook for the room, not the reservation book.
Aubergine is a private dining club in Grandview Heights, Ohio. One seating a night, six courses that follow the week's best ingredient wherever it leads, and a room that takes three hours seriously. We opened these doors in 1990 with the belief that a meal could be a kind of correspondence — between farmer and chef, kitchen and table, house and guest.
The menu is written Wednesday morning from what arrived at the back door. By Saturday, half of it has already become tomorrow's. Nothing leaves the kitchen our hands have not touched. Nothing enters the room without being read aloud first.
The kitchen is led by Marja Winkler, with Rita Flores on the line. Colin Gregory tends the pass and the door. Every plate crosses our hands before yours.
There is one unhurried culinary experience,
prepaid, by invitation or by letter,
for those who understand that the slowest course
is sometimes the most important one.
We are not a restaurant in the usual sense. There is no walk-in. There is no second seating. There is no rush. Thirty-two seats, six courses, and a room that closes behind you at seven and opens again only when the last guest is ready to walk out into the evening.
We will see you at seven.