A Local Icon

“It’s the kind of joint Frank, Dean and Sammy would truly love. Lucky for you they’re dead, so you can have their table.” That was the headline that accompanied the first Club Soda advertisement 15 years ago. Club Soda was cutting edge and unique then, and it is still cutting edge and unique today. 

Pulling inspiration from the jazz clubs of New York’s 52nd Street and the Chicago steakhouses of the late 1940s and early 1950s, everything from the interior design to the marketing is driven by the jazz and cocktail culture of that era. That attitude, or zeitgeist, if you will, has been critical to Club Soda’s success. 

But do you want to know what else has been key to Club Soda’s success? It’s flexibility. And that includes its off-site catering options. Patrons to the local icon know that they can get a killer martini and a great steak at Club Soda, but perhaps the best kept secret of Club Soda is it’s catering options. We sat down with Noelle Reith, owner and general manager of Club Soda, and she spilled the beans. 

FWL: How long has Club Soda offered off-site catering options? 

Reith: We’ve been doing some variation of off-site catering since we opened 15 years ago. It started with box lunches delivered to downtown offices and kind of grew organically from there. Today, off-site catering is a large part of our business; we’ll cater anything from an intimate dinner for two to a corporate event for 500.

FWL: What foods are available through Club Soda’s off-site catering? 

Reith: We have a pretty extensive catering menu. Large enough that there’s not enough space to detail it here. But I’ll tell you a dirty little secret about Club Soda – we never say no. If you’re not happy with what you see in the catering packet, all you have to do is tell us what you want and we’ll make that happen. Our goal is to make your catering experience as good as the experience you have when you’re in the restaurant.

FWL: What types of events do you cater? 

Reith: The shorter list would be what types of events we don’t cater, mostly because I can’t think of any. Well, we haven’t catered base camp at Mount Everest, but that’s just because no one has asked … yet. Seriously, we do catering for any type of event: weddings, graduations, corporate functions, not-for-profit events and the list goes on. 

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