Omnivore - Deranged foodies gather for night two of Baton Supper Club with M. Wells

• Brad Kaplan
• M. Wells at Baton Supper Series menu

In the small, tightly packed room, there was at least one Top Chef contestant, a restaurant critic or two, a few fanatical food bloggers, and seventeen or so other people who could best be described as deranged foodies. They had gathered in this place to take part in a semi-secret supper club involving liver, tongue, heart, and blood. Moans, incantations, and the sound of 1960’s era Mick Jagger filled the room. It sounds almost like a scene from Eyes Wide Shut, but it was really just a rare opportunity for Atlanta to experience the food of Montreal-by-way-of-Queens chef Hugue Dufour and a few of his compatriots. The first night of the two night Baton Supper Series stint at Gato Bizco had been sparsely attended, but night two (last night) was packed after a few local foodie bloggers had shouted out their satisfaction with night one via Twitter and megaphone. Even still, it was a small room, and the number of people who got to experience the foie gras bread pudding, the beef tongue pot pie, was tiny in the scheme of things.

Which got me thinking... how many people in Atlanta have ever even heard of Hugue Dufour, or his recently shuttered and highly praised, but debated, Queens (as in New York) restaurant M. Wells? Or even the place where he made his name, Montreal’s infamously insane Au Pied de Cochon?