Dining Out

from Smart Living Elite - May 2022

Your Fun

The Anvil Club Delights Inside and Out

If you see The Anvil Club’s general manager, Joe Robinson, at just the right time there’s a good chance you can join his tour of the historic restaurant in East Dundee.

Guests are often surprised not only by The Club’s origins as a blacksmith shop but by the way it has been expansively transformed from gritty beginnings into the Fox Valley’s premier fine-dining institution and banquet venue.

Over 65 years of improvements have produced an intimate, warmly elegant destination that is The Anvil Club. From its Saddle Room, which draws on The Club’s equestrian past, to the Board Room, which feels like a C-Suite executive dining room, there are a variety of delightful spaces to enjoy. Sparky’s Hideout and Bar on the lower level has a speakeasy vibe. The Wine Cellar is a private dining room complete with dozens of enameled cast-iron wine lockers that offer keyholders an exclusive set of benefits. And, yes, The Anvil Club’s Piano Lounge Bar is truly legendary.

There is, however, one special place that summertime brings to the fore at The Anvil Club because there is nothing quite like dining under the stars on the club’s Veranda. This is not like al fresco dining alongside a busy street in the city. Rather, the ambiance of the Club’s Veranda is that of a secret garden, walled and bedecked with flowers.

The Anvil Club, which is now open to the general public, opens its Veranda for the summer season on May 26.

Executive Chef Tino Almaraz is designing a Veranda menu that makes good use of The Anvil Club’s brick oven. Gourmet flatbread and other summery delights will be featured. Of course, the full Anvil Club menu is offered on the Veranda, and the Veranda Bar will be open for craft cocktails and top-shelf libations.

Live entertainment can always be found at The Anvil Club over the weekends, but there’s something extra-special about enjoying music outdoors.

For information about The Anvil Club, including menus, events, pictures, banquet planning, dress codes and online reservations, go to theanvilclub.net. ❚

The Anvil Club is located at 309 Meier St., in East Dundee, (847) 426-7710.