What Exactly Is the Italian Club Dallas?

I was in two different meetings today and the Italian Club came up and in both I was asked what we really are.  

One friend best said what I often hear - “Oh, I thought you were something like the Rotary Club for Italians.”  The word “Club” is a hang-up for many people so allow me to clarify what the Italian Club Dallas really is.

By definition a Club is described as “a group of people organized for social, literary, political or other purpose.”  I guess in some ways we do follow that… we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and we’re all about exploring, preserving, and promoting the Italian culture, language, history and traditions; performing charitable works; and fostering social interaction within the Dallas community.

But the reality is we’re a whole lot more than that too!

While our primary mission is promoting the Italian culture in Dallas, we are also an undiscovered restaurant, open to the public, and offering some of the best Italian cuisine in the Dallas area at an unbelievable price. 

We’re open to the public for lunch Tuesday-Friday and for lunch we offer a 4-course meal (soup, salad, pasta and entrée) for only $14.  You can see our full lunch menu here.  As a restaurant we’re also open to the public on Wednesday and Friday nights.  On Wednesday’s we offer antipasti & pasta or pizza ($13 members/$16 non-members) and on Friday’s we offer Cena (Italian for evening meal), an incredible 5-course meal ($18 members/$25 non-members).  And soon we’ll be expanding our weeknight offerings to add weekly wine nights and other weekly evening functions, again, all open to the public.

Aside from our restaurant business, we offer many things related to exploring and promoting the Italian Culture:

• We are an Italian Language school offering 5 different levels of courses detailed here
• We offer lectures which you can read about here
• We arrange tours related to the Italian culture which you can read about here
• We have a Book Club which explores books related to and about Italy which you can read about here
• We have a Bocce League which you can read about here
• We have an Italian Dance troupe which performs regionally and which you can read about here
• We offer cooking classes which you can read about here
• We conduct wine tastings and our “Battle of the Bottle” series pitting Italian wines against others which you can read about here
• We perform charitable outreach which you can read about here
• We rent our beautiful facility out for private functions which you can read about here

And those are just some of the list of what we are and the rest of the list is on our website!  So while our name says “Club”, hopefully you can see that we are so much more than that! 

I was actually asked by someone at Taste Addison last year if we were the clubhouse for where the Italian Mafia meets in Dallas!  The answer is a resounding NO… we are an open to the public hybrid of a restaurant, cultural and educational organization who wants to help everyone with a passion for Italy experience that passion as much as we all do… right here in Dallas!

So stop in and say hello or join us for a meal… I promise you that you’ll feel like you have discovered the best kept secret in Dallas!

Ciao!

Mike