My first experience with Charlie’s Burgers was the event that most likely got the most media attention, “The Insect Dinner” at OMG Baked Goodness on Dundas Street West.
This does actually tie in nicely to what Charlie’s Burgers is all about – unique one off pop-up events for the underground anti-restaurant. Entry into the Charlie’s Burgers exclusive club requires that you answer a questionnaire about your passion for food. Those with the right answers are admitted to be members.

Each unique dinner complete with guest chefs and theme comes about every two months or so. This is accompanied with an email notice, with just minutes to reply if you really want to attend. The first 50% of people applying get in. The second half are then selected by Charlie. To join the club, simply type in www.charliesburgers.ca and Charlie will send you the questionnaire.
To get to the location of the dinner, you don’t just go to OMG. The location is always kept secret until the very last moment. Those lucky enough to attend are sent a message to meet 15  minutes before the dinner at a certain shop, street corner or in my case, a local video store. You hand over your money and then you’re directed to the location where the dinner will be held, which is normally very close and within walking distance.

Normally when you arrive at a dinner event you may have chips, nuts or canapés to nibble on. But here, we got to nibble on sumac, chili & lime seasoned crickets and grasshoppers. And we had the live tarantula spider crawling around in a small fish tank to watch over us. That seemed safer than chef Jeff Stewart walking around with a scorpion crawling around on his arm during dinner.
We were also served 9 courses and here’s a few that I want to write about. The Thai salad with basil, mint, cilantro, green mango, papaya and shrimp garnished with Queen ants. The multi-critter dish was a creamy, perfectly cooked risotto with four kinds of worms, namely wax worm, meal, super and butter. Each had it’s own earthy flavor and texture ranging from chalky to gritty to brittle with a soft interior.

I enjoyed the tart and fruity Rhinoceros beetle juice sorbet but someone should have told me I didn’t need to eat the garnish of black, plastic-like horn of the beetle. My dinner guest Ashley Bast and I were later told that you’re only suppose to eat the inside of the belly of the beetle.

And we didn’t escape the critters in the dessert course either. Candied micro apples were coated in crispy meal worms and served with cinnamon ice cream.
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Other dishes contained forest nymphs, water beetle, scorpion tail to name a few.

I felt sorry for the lady across from me at the table that night. She didn’t even look at the menu prior to applying to get in for the dinner and suffered from Entomophobia (also known as insectophobia) a common fear of or aversion to insects. She wanted to surprise her husband (a chef at a Yorkville restaurant) to a Charlie’s Burger evening. The chefs were kind enough to make some changes to the menu for her, particularly when the sight of four varieties of worms were atop her risotto.

I discovered one thing that night, I certainly don’t need to eat another dinner of bugs and critters. The homemade gummy worms were a nice way to end the meal and bring me back to the world of familiarity.

The last Charlie’s Burger dinner I attended was oddly enough at a restaurant, The Gabardine on Bay street. Remember, this is known as an anti-restaurant. Marc Lepine, chef of Atelier restaurant in Ottawa was assisted by Matt Blondin (ex Acadia) to execute a daunting dinner of 100 courses. Yes, 100!

The marathon 5 hour dinner was executed with precision and took week of preparation. But that needs it’s own blog post, and a long one at that.