The Coach House Black Bean Soup & Corn Sticks (1982)

I love vintage cookbooks, but my favorite genre may be “Recipes from Restaurants That Aren’t There Anymore.” So I immediately bought a copy of Favorite Restaurant Recipes: 500 Unforgettable Dishes from the R.S.V.P. Column of Bon Appetit (1982) when it first popped on my radar. For the R.S.V.P. Column, readers would request recipes from their favorite restaurants and the writers would find them. ***

When I was choosing the inaugural recipe, I knew I had to make the famous black bean soup from The Coach House (NYC).

I first became acquainted with The Coach House in 2020 after I made their Mushrooms a la Grecque from Benson & Hedges Presents Entertaining with Style, Recipes from Great American Restaurants.

As I do with all of the other restaurant recipes that appear on this here blog, I like to do a little research into the establishment. Since I’ve already featured the Coach House, I’m going to just regurgitate a bit from that mushroom post.

 (The Coach House )restaurant was most famous for its black bean soup and corn sticks as well as for its famous patrons–James Beard was a huge fan, dining at the Coach House every Christmas Eve.

After 44 years in business, The Coach House closed in 1993. The building sat vacant for years before Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich opened famed Italian eatery Babbo in 1998. Babbo still exists, but Crocs-lover Batali is no longer an owner. He sold all his shares of all of his restaurants with the Bastianich family once the sexual harassment scandal broke in 2017.

Apparently someone tried to open another Coach House in 1999 , but it closed, too. I have no idea exactly what year, but it is now the Avalon Hotel. 

Every single article I’ve read about the Coach House mentions the black bean soup and/or corn sticks at least once:

The corn sticks — crunchy outside, fluffy and sweet inside — summon up remembrance of things past.

”Oh, those corn sticks, you thought about them for weeks before you finally went for dinner,” said Anne Rosenzweig, the chef and an owner of Arcadia and the Lobster Club, who remembered first going to the Coach House as a child.

Mr. Batali said, ”We don’t want people to come here looking for the old Coach House and be disappointed. Maybe we’ll serve black bean soup, crab cakes and rack of lamb from time to time.”

But there are plenty of New Yorkers who still grow misty-eyed at the thought of the Coach House corn sticks, the black bean soup with Madeira and — sweetest memory of all — the mocha dacquoise.

Let’s dig in.

The ingredients:

The directions:

Soak beans in 10 cups water for at least 12 hours in
refrigerator. Drain well.
Heat fat in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and celery and sauté until tender. Add beans, stock, 2 cups water and garlic and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 2½ hours, adding water if needed to keep beans covered. Transfer to blender in batches (or work through coarse sieve or food mill) and mix until roughly pureed.
Turn into large saucepan and stir in sherry, salt and pepper. Place over medium heat and bring to serving temperature, stirring occasionally. Gently blend in chopped egg. Ladle into serving bowls and garnish with lemon.

Like so many other recipes, I cut this one in half. I also used canned beans, because is it really worth it to soak them overnight?

I was intrigued by this recipe because I was struck by the differences between this recipe and what I usually think of as a black bean soup. There’s nothing remotely Cuban or Haitian or Mexican about  it. And it’s beef-based. No ham hock or bacon. The lemon and sherry sounds more like Bookbinder’s Snapper (Turtle) Soup.

But it smelled BEEFY.

I took a little taste test. Liked it.

But then I put it in the blender and it turned into chocolate frosting:

Mr. Sauce, Esq. chided me for not knowing how to use the blender. “You’re supposed to just pulse it,” he said.

I don’t get it.  Why buy a blender with multiple settings but they all do the same thing: OBLITERATE.

When I went to heat it back up, I added the Madiera and the remaining beef stock.

I hoped that it would thin out a bit, but no. It still looked like frosting.

Now onto the corn sticks!

I’m going to just share with you my unedited notes. I made this so long ago that I don’t even know what I’m referring to.

• going to halve the recipe
• do not have any corn molds.
• going to attempt same method with my all-clad skillet
• muffin pan is oven safe to 450…maybe try the muffins?
• doing test with Jiffy Corn Muffin mix as a back up…but that’s difficult since my doesn’t heat correctly. Or evenly.
• The oven has been a theme for ELEVEN YEARS.
• It did not occur to me to bring out the big mixer. THIS IS WHY I FAIL.
• preheat oven to 450–put pan in for 10 min before. SPRAY PAM. Fill with batter. Bake for 10 and then check

• FELL RIGHT OUT OF THE PAN!!!
• I feel it’s a little undercooked?
• But the seasoning is wrong. Too grainy.
• Jiffy so much sweeter smaller crumb.
• This ain’t the best. But maybe Jiffy would be really great with the pan pre-heat method.

You can tell the difference just by looking at the two–the Coach House version is definitely crispier and pointier.

Here’s the finished product.

Mr. Sauce, Esq. hated the consistency–especially the chopped egg. He found it to be too thick and had too much Madiera in it.

I didn’t hate it. I think that the lemon and parsley were key (which he didn’t use). Regardless, I will not be making this again.

***if you could get the recipe for a dish from a famous restaurant, which one would it be?