“I’m going to Gigi’s Supper Club tomorrow night”, my friend Liliane said about three weeks ago, “have you been?”

“Been?”, I replied, “I’ve never heard of it.”

Then, about a week ago, Liliane said, “We’re going back to Gigi’s on Thursday night. You’re going to like it. You should join us.”

I checked the menu. I liked the look of the graphics. I liked the sound of the courses. I liked Liliane’s enthusiasm. We were intrigued. We were going.

Gigi’s Cafe, by day a breakfast/lunch spot, is located in what you might call the outer outskirts of San Miguel’s Colonia Independencia. I gave the cab driver $100, feeling a little cheap knowing he’d just spent half an hour taking us from one corner of town to the other. It was the driver who’d first spotted the blue letters up to the left of what looked like garage doors. In we walked to almost land on top of a dining table set for eleven. To the left was a similar size room with a similar sized dining table where our group of ten were seated.

The furniture was obviously of the folding type but the tables were nicely draped with white tablecloths and tall vases of fresh snapdragons, iris and eucalyptus. The chairs could have been more comfortable. The napkins could have been cloth. But, overall, the look was classy and comfortable.

One of Lilian’s other invitees, Sherry McDougall nailed it when she said, “Picture yourself at your family and friends Sunday dinner. Now picture yourself at that Sunday dinner with really great food!”

The “great food” comes from Chef Jarome Smith. The good service comes from fellow New Zealander Aria Campbell. They both do it elegantly and efficiently. They’re both the parents of a daughter named Gia whose nickname is, you guessed it, Gigi.

What I liked about the menu, right from the first time I saw it was it, was so unlike most fixed course menus you’d ever find in San Miguel de Allende.

The starter was fried bread. I think the last time I’d had deep fried bread was at a Fall Fair about 40 years ago. And topping it with anchovy. Doesn’t Chef Jarome know that almost half the world would say no to anchovies on their pizza?

And how do you balance such a big starch? Beautifully with a bowl of very fresh greens.

Almost every multi-course menu has a seafood ceviche these days but none quite like Gigi’s. The difference was what accompanied the marinated fish. Mandolined candy stripe beets, matchsticked apples and the freshest shreds of young dill worked wonderfully together. The chef told me that “a lot of the credit should go to Chinaberry (a local farm) for that dill, those beets and the greens”.

Crispy arancini balls stuffed with creamy chicken and mushrooms, another seldom seen menu item, came next followed by a main that was equally daring. A big portion of Gigi’s target audience are from the U.S. and there are a lot of Americans who don’t eat lamb and wouldn’t have appreciated Chef Jarome’s elegantly spiced shoulder. 

The Supper Club we attended was only the second of Gigi’s family style dinners. The response was so great that Aria and Jarome added a repeat performance the following week. How often they’ll be scheduled in the future “we’re not sure yet”, Jarome told me, “but there’ll definitely be more.”

I know I’ll now be following Gigi’s Facebook site, looking for another promising menu and trusting that it will be just as well-executed and just as well-served.

Gigi’s Cafe is located at Francisco Marques 23 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. You’ll find their Facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/people/Gigis-Cafe/100094384497420/