Coat Check at the Supper Club

Kathryn Nicolai (0:01)

Welcome to Bedtime Stories for Everyone, in which nothing much happens. You feel good, and then you fall asleep. I'm Kathryn Nicolai. I write and read all the stories you hear on Nothing much happens. Audio engineering is by Bob Wittersheim. Now, this process works by giving your mind a steady place outside of your own thoughts and plans to settle. There is brain science and habit building behind all of this, but all you really need to do is listen. It will work in the background, and the more you tune in, the faster it will happen each night. I'll tell our story twice, and I'll go a little slower the second time through. If you wake again in the night, don't hesitate to just push play, and you'll drop right back off. Our story tonight is called Coat Check. At the Supper Club. And it's a story about a restaurant on the edge of the lake. It's also about a quiet corridor lined with numbered hooks and cubbies, carefully set tables, match boxes and bobby pins, and caring about giving your guests a place where they feel well taken care of, unhurried, and at ease. So lights out, campers. Snuggle down into your sheets and get as comfortable as you can. Let your whole body relax. You have done enough for the day. I promise. It is enough. Nothing to do now, but rest. Let's breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.

One more. Draw it in. Big sigh.

Good. Coat check at the supper club. The supper club sits a bit out of town on the same lake as the inn, in fact, but nearly all the way around to the other side. When you approach it, when your car takes slow turns through the wooded lanes and you catch a glimpse of the water, it feels as it should, that you are arriving someplace special. That is one of the things that sets a supper club apart from a regular restaurant. And one of the reasons they tend to sit out on a lonely country road or on your way up north, rather than on any plain-jane block of downtown or in some sad strip mall. They are meant to be a destination. No matter how many times I take this drive, it never stops being beautiful. The Virginia Creepers have already turned into a bright, sunset red. And the maples are following, in shades of orange and yellow. The air out here is fresher, too. And on the way in today, I rolled my window down and let it wash over me. I could smell the lake especially. Maybe something about the colder weather we've had lately. I thought I remembered a science class in middle school. Maybe the one where we looked at lake water under a microscope. Where we learned that in spring and fall, there is a kind of lake turnover that shifts the deep water to the surface, carrying different scents with it. And indeed, it did smell more earthy, like the leaves that had fallen in a year ago, and were so much closer to returning to soil than the ones changing color now. In the side lot at the supper club, I rolled up my window and stepped out of the car. The lot was steadily filling up beside me. I held the door for a server and a bar back, and we passed through the kitchen to our various stations. I smiled to myself as I walked through the rows of tables. Last night's side work still visible in the salt-and-pepper shakers grouped along their edges after being refilled. I smiled because, though I love the wide windows in the dining room, that look out on the lake, the shining horseshoe-shaped bar, and the original dark-green Nogahide-covered booths, my spot in this building was, to my mind at least, even better. I worked in coat check. Our coat check room was tucked a bit past the host stand, and off a larger vestibule, where folks could shed or don their outerwear without bumping in to each other. Feeling decidedly unhurried is part of the design here. We joke about how the waitstaff keep in great shape with the miles they must walk between front and back of house. But the spaciousness of the restaurant mirrors our approach to your meal. You're not rushed through the door here. Your entree doesn't arrive before your salad is finished to sit and get cold. Your check doesn't come as soon as your plate is whisked away to hint that it's time to turn the table over to the people crowding the host stand. No, the Supper Club has literal room for you to dine, not just eat. And taking a moment to check a coat, a hat, or umbrella for a lot of people who've been coming here since they were kids themselves is part of that experience. It's a moment to exchange a greeting, a smile, to hand something over to someone who will care for it till the evening ends. I pushed open the dutch door and walked down the long hall lined with brass hooks and numbered cubbies to the thick ceiling-to-floor curtain at the back. It was the same dark forest green as the booths and hid a small space for me to store my own things. Our check within a check. I shrugged out of my jacket and pushed my bag onto a shelf. There was a stack of fresh notepads with our logo printed across the bottom, and a rocks glass from the bar full of pens, and I took one of each. I like the process of setting up each evening. I opened the top half of the Dutch door and secured it in place, latching the bottom half so I could receive coats and bags, but still be tucked into my little corridor. The bottom half of the door had a handy counter built in, and I set out a bowl of cellophane-wrapped peppermints and a stack of branded matchboxes. The room had a few overhead sconces, so I could easily find the numbered hooks or cubbies as I worked. But we also had a small shaded lamp on and a desk just inside the doorway, and I switched it on. I laid out my fresh pad and pen and checked the box of handy necessaries guests sometimes asked for. It was stocked with safety and bobby pins, a lint brush, small packs of tissues, bandages for blistered heels and new shoes, and a tiny set of sewing scissors. Many were the times I'd notice a price tag still hanging from a guest's sleeve or collar as they shed their coat, and could discreetly clip it away with a wink. I checked the clock, quietly ticking beside the lamp, noting doors would open in just a few minutes. And I bustled up and down the long hall, checking that the hooks and cubbies all had their claim tags attached and ready. It's a bit old-fashioned, but our check system didn't use the more common paper tags most restaurants have shifted to. We had our original brass tags, each one about the size of a half-dollar, with its number etched onto the surface, and a braided green tassel through its eyelet. And I should say, we had about 75% of the original tags. They do occasionally go missing and have to be replaced. You can pick the new ones out easily, as they are missing the handsome patina, which has grown on the older ones. Each table or booth, even each seat at the bar, has a matching brass hook, where guests can hang their tag while they dine. Besides being handy and perhaps a bit theatrical, this tends to keep them from being shoved into pockets or purses where they can quickly disappear. In my inspection, I saw that there was no tag on the hook between numbers 53 and 55 I clicked my tongue and made a note of it on my pad. Often they turn up within a shift or two, found kicked under a table or wedged into the upholstered booths. For tonight, I would skip that hook while hanging coats and hats. This early in the autumn, I had a feeling a good number of guests wouldn't even have any outerwear to hand over. I leaned on my elbows on the Dutch door counter and looked toward the bar where the last tray of glasses were having their water spots polished away. The garnish trays were packed with lemon, lime, and orange slices, jars of syrupy cherries, and collections of fresh herbs. The waitstaff were aproned and walking around their tables, adjusting napkins and lighting the small candles that helped to set the mood. Our piano player had arrived and was warming up her fingers with some chords. The manager had a thick stack of menus under his arm. As he scanned from back of house to front, nodding as each element met the standard, he turned and walked past me in my doorway, where I instinctively stood up, pulled my elbows from the counter, and clasped my hands behind my back. His eye twinkled, and he called out to us as he went to unlock the door. Here we go. Good show, everyone.