Club dining offers a unique combination of classic favorites and creative dishes.
Ask Chef Mike Marques, one of McConnell Golf’s two corporate executive chefs, to describe the McConnell approach to club dining and he answers without hesitation: “Quality. Consistency.” After all, that’s how favorites become favorites - offering the same foolproof chicken-salad sandwich to hungry golfers year after year.
But McConnell Golf never stops at just achieving excellence; its properties constantly raise the bar. Quality and consistency define dining at McConnell, but it’s the variety that sets it apart. “You can look forward to things that you like at certain properties,” Marques explains. “It’s always going to be a little bit different depending on where you are.”
Standard of Excellence
McConnell chefs understand the need to preserve tradition, and club menus reflect that. “There are certain things that you have to have at a country club,” says Chef James “JP” Patterson, Marques’ counterpart. “A wedge salad or cobb salad or chef’s salad at lunch, and you’ve got to have a steak on your menu at dinner.” Many members prefer the comfort found in knowing and loving certain menu items, and “members are the bottom line,” Patterson says.
He and Marques act as liaisons between individual club chefs to ensure the classics remain untouched. Now that their team includes 12 private clubs, they briefly considered streamlining recipes and offering the same uniform menu. “We’ve seen that we can’t do that, because clubs are different,” Patterson says. “It took away from the individual freedoms of each chef. Your chef knows what you want and we don’t want to take away from that.”
Creative Liberties
Empowering each chef to cater to his own club has had tremendous — and delicious — results. “We’ve really left that creative door open for each chef,” Marques says, “and they deliver.” For Patterson and his home club of Sedgefield, that has meant an increased focus on wellness. “I grew up in the South,” he says, “and in Southern comfort food, full flavor means it’s full of fat. So I’ve been playing with substitutes that still give dishes that full flavor.”
At Marques’ home base, Grande Dunes, the thing to order is a pastrami sandwich. “We brine it in house, we smoke it in house, and serve it with homemade mustard. If you come here, try it. It’s a great thing that we do.”
Central North Carolina clubs tend to focus on refreshing American dishes – hazelnut crusted fish at Treyburn, pork loin over a baby kale and quinoa salad with a honey lime vinaigrette at Raleigh Country Club, and purple ninja radish on the menu at Wakefield. In the mountains, look for sliders or fish flown in from Hawaii. Recently renovated Brook Valley sometimes offers ethnic options, like confit pork tacos. And these are always alongside — not in place of — traditional steaks and salads.
To get the most from your dining experience, Patterson and Marques say the secret is to pay attention to the dinner specials. Chefs draw inspiration from what’s in season and available that week to create a dish offered only for one night or through the weekend.
Usually, the dish isn’t revealed until Thursday night or Friday afternoon. But it’s worth the wait: Patterson says the specials often outsell regular menu items on weekends. “Members see the menu every other night, but if they come on a weekend, they know they can get something special. We hit the market up. We use cheeses from across the state. We talk to fish purveyors daily.”
“Specials are our window for creativity,” Marques says. A standout experience, indeed.