Eating With Erica Supper Club: A Galentine’s Dinner at Hal’s The Steakhouse
A Galentine’s evening of roses, candlelight and conversation with the Eating With Erica Supper Club at Hal’s The Steakhouse in Buckhead
Some Atlanta restaurants manage to feel both timeless and alive, and Hal’s The Steakhouse is one of them. Tucked on Old Ivy Road in Buckhead, this institution has quietly perfected the art of hospitality since 1989. It is a steakhouse with a distinctly New Orleans soul, the kind of room where you sense the decades of dinners that came before yours. In 2024, Hal’s opened a second location in Nashville. Even so, the Buckhead original remains the heart of it all.
For Galentine’s, the Eating With Erica Supper Club gathered there for an evening celebrating friendship, femininity, and a little bit of sparkle. We took over a corner of the dining room and dressed it in roses. Then we let the night unfold the way our best Supper Club evenings always do: unhurried, unscripted, and full of laughter. Joining us as our guest of honor was Sarah Beth Brown of Brown & Co. Jewelry.
Galentine’s is not a holiday that celebrates romance. Instead, it celebrates the friendships that hold us up all year long. With this in mind, Hal’s felt like exactly the right room: warm, storied, and made for conversation that lingers well past dessert.
A Conversation With Sarah Beth Brown
Every Supper Club dinner has a guest of honor whose story anchors the evening. This time, it was Sarah Beth Brown, President of Brown & Co. Jewelry. Sarah Beth is a working mother steering a family-owned brand. What’s more, she is not simply preserving it. She is thoughtfully evolving it for a new generation of customers who define luxury a little differently than the one before them.
Over dinner, it was clear how gracefully she holds both roles: the daughter of a legacy and the architect of its future. It is the kind of duality that so many of our guests understand intimately. Whether they are running a business, raising a family, or doing both at once, they get it.
Three threads from the conversation stayed with us long after the evening ended. First, honor your legacy while still leaving room to evolve it. Equally important, balance ambition with family, presence, and grace. And finally, remember that trust, relationships, and storytelling build true luxury, not just the product itself.
The Menu: Hal’s The Steakhouse
We began the evening with champagne and Hal’s flash-fried calamari with marinara, shared starters that got the table talking before the meal even began. From there, a Hal’s Chopped Salad set the stage. Each guest then chose her own main course: the center-cut filet mignon, a delicate sea bass with crispy frizzled potatoes, or a roasted rack of lamb finished in a red wine and mint reduction.
True to Supper Club tradition, the sides came family style: white truffle mac and cheese, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, and sautéed mushrooms. We passed them around the table so everyone could try a little of everything. To finish, we closed the night with warm bread pudding. Throughout the evening, glasses stayed filled with chilled Sancerre and pours of red.
A Galentine’s Tablescape
The table was designed to feel like a love letter to the women sitting around it: romantic, but never fussy. Crisp white linens set the stage. Low arrangements of deep red and blush roses, mixed with variegated greenery, ran the length of the table. We kept them intentionally low so no one had to peer around a centerpiece to catch a friend’s eye.
Blush and ivory taper candles, some with a delicate fluted twist, rose above a scatter of flickering votives. As a finishing touch, red rose petals were scattered across the linens for that unmistakably Galentine’s feel.
The Place Settings
Gold-beaded glass chargers and gold-rimmed china caught the candlelight all evening long, while gold flatware added just the right glint against the white. Each seat also had its own handwritten gold place card. It is a small gesture, but one that always makes guests feel the evening was made just for them. In essence, it is never just dinner. It is community, set with intention down to the very last card.
Gold Rim Glass ChargersGet it here →
Gold-Rim Dinnerware SetGet it here →
Gold Flatware SetGet it here →
Blush Taper CandlesGet it here →
Ivory Taper CandlesGet it here →
Gold Candlestick HoldersGet it here →
Gold Votive HoldersGet it here →
Gold Place CardsGet it here →
White Cotton NapkinsGet it here →
White TableclothsGet it here →The Conversation We Enjoyed
Something about this particular evening felt different from the moment everyone sat down. Maybe it was the roses. Perhaps it was the timing, so close to Valentine’s Day. Or maybe it was simply the company. Galentine’s dinners have a way of stripping away pretense. Nobody was performing, and nobody was rushing off to the next thing. Instead, an easy, unforced intimacy settled over the table somewhere between the champagne and the calamari, and it never really left.
There is nothing like this in Atlanta. The women are amazing and kind, and the conversation was just different.
Melissa W., Atlanta, GA
By the time dessert arrived, the table had that particular glow you only get after a few hours of good food and better conversation. Everyone was a little louder, a little looser, and leaning in. Meanwhile, someone was refilling wine glasses without being asked, and someone else was already talking about who to invite next time.
You do not have to know everyone at the table when you arrive. You just have to be open to leaving with a few new favorite people.
If you would like to see more of our gatherings, revisit our family-style evening at Kyma and our Michelin-starred evening at Bacchanalia, or explore the full Dinner Parties collection. Interested in conversation, community and connection? Learn more about the Eating With Erica Supper Club.
KEEP HOSTING
Inspired by our Galentine’s evening at Hal’s? Here is how to host a dinner party of your own.
How to Host a Greek-Inspired Dinner Party
Bring a Mediterranean evening home, from the table setting to the menu.
Read Now →
How to Host a Holiday Dinner Party with Friends
A guide to gathering your friends around the table this holiday season.
Read Now →
How to Host a Palm Beach Royale Party
Ideas for hosting a Palm Beach–inspired party at home.
Read Now →Make Your Reservation at Hal’s The Steakhouse
One of the best parts of the Supper Club is watching guests fall in love with Atlanta institutions like Hal’s. Sometimes it is all over again; sometimes it is for the first time. Without a doubt, there is real magic in supporting the local restaurants that have shaped Atlanta’s dining scene for decades.
Hal’s is open for dinner nightly, and the bar opens at 4 p.m. Gather a few friends, order the sides for the table, and stay awhile. Thank you to the entire team at Hal’s The Steakhouse for welcoming the Eating With Erica Supper Club so warmly, and to Sarah Beth Brown for joining us at the table.
Eating With Erica is a digital media platform focused on culinary hospitality, celebrating the restaurants, tables and gatherings that bring people together. Founded in Atlanta in 2013, it is home to the invitation-only Eating With Erica Supper Club and How to Host.
Erica A. Thomas, Founder & Editor-in-Chief
