How Middle Child Clubhouse Rethinks the Classic American Diner, in Six Dishes

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The Daytime Menu

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Blueberry Chai Yogurt Bowl

“You may not think of MidKid for healthy yogurt bowls, but it’s easily the best version you’ve had once you taste it,” De La Rosa says of this sleeper-hit dish.

A stunner that could blend in with the dinner menu, it’s composed of lemony Greek yogurt with flecks of dark chocolate shavings, swirls of turmeric coconut milk, and fragrant mint sprigs. A small mound of oat and honey granola sits in the middle with a layer of housemade masala jam underneath.

Despite not growing up with the culture, De La Rosa is a big fan of South Asian flavors, and he created this Indian-inspired bowl after reading about how Indians utilized masala chai to revolt against the British Empire’s tea taxes.

Recipe development began with using the blueberry chutney from the Surfer turkey hoagie and finding its ideal pair. Eventually, De La Rosa landed on a chai-spiced granola bowl. As a “chocolate caliente, tripleta sandwich, or víveres” guy, he says this savory breakfast spoke more to him with rich earthy flavors.

Olivia’s Big Pancake

Ironically, as a non-breakfast person, one of De La Rosa’s first assignments was to develop a new signature pancake. So, he turned to his wife, Bianca, a breakfast lover who often wants pancakes when she’s not making Venezuelan arepas. She turned him onto her favorite pancake from New York’s Sunday in Brooklyn.

“[They] took this item that’s so simple and elevated it. I was so captivated,” De La Rosa says of the malted pancake with hazelnut maple praline.

Tasting those pancakes struck an emotional chord for De La Rosa, reminding him of his mother’s sick-day remedy — a drink made with cinnamon sticks, honey, oranges, limes, and red onions. So, he created a richer syrup to complement Middle Child’s existing pancakes made with malt powder and brown butter.

To make the syrup, he adds fresh oranges, cooked down with their juice, peels, and cinnamon sticks. He places the pancakes under the salamander for a few minutes to give them a crème brûlée-like texture with caramelized edges on the outside and a moist interior. Cahn adds silicone-molded butter with Middle Child’s signature smiley face logo to make the dish even cuter.

The resulting pancake feels homemade but is extra special and large enough to share (though people tend not to). Even more impressive: The pancake has cultivated an Instagram fandom of its own.

“[It] hits nostalgic notes from my childhood,” enthuses De La Rosa, who named the pancake for his daughter, Olivia.

Duck Fat Cubano

“My fondest memories with my father were sitting together at his house where he would make me sandwiches like Cubanos or jamon y queso,” De La Rosa recalls. Cooking is his pathway to healing and reconnecting with his father, who’s since passed away.

As he seriously considered the Middle Child brand, evoking American nostalgia and family-style meals, he had an epiphany: to create a daytime menu aligned more with how his Dominican family ate growing up. “How do I take dishes we all know, like a sandwich or a pancake, and push the boundaries?” De La Rosa asked. How could he bring Latin-influenced family-style dishes to make him, as a person of color, feel more comfortable in a white space?

The duck fat Cubano connects South American cuisine and culture with Middle Child’s reputation for excellent sandwiches. “The Cuban sandwich is one way that Latinos have influenced American culture,” De La Rosa explains.

After the sandwich debuted last summer, it has since developed a cult following. Today, it’s the second best-selling lunch item, beloved by guests since the first day it debuted. But it took months of attention and constant recipe tweaking.

First, De La Rosa makes traditional pernil (roasted pork) marinated in sofrito, housemade adobo, orange, and lime for a touch of tartness. The pork cooks low and slow for 13 hours and sits in its own juices for another 24 hours, helping the meat break down and become even juicier. Simultaneously, he brews a mother stock, something he learned from watching Enrique Olvera’s “Chef’s Table” episode on Netflix. Juices from the pernil get strained and mixed with rendered duck fat and the mother stock.

This Cubano is all about proportion. And it’s a wet sandwich, so get napkins ready. De La Rosa takes ciabatta from LeBus Bakery in King of Prussia and bastes it with butter, mustard, and Duke’s mayonnaise. Next comes sliced pickles, equal layers of uncured Heritage Berkshire ham (a leaner and richer cut), and the juicy pernil. Each sandwich is made to order on the plancha for five to six minutes for quality control.

“[It’s] visually satisfying and a consistent eating experience from first bite to last bite,” says De La Rosa. It’s an item so popular that it can’t leave the menu, he adds.

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The Nighttime Menu

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Shrimp Escabeche

Henzy’s transition from fine dining to MidKid’s diner-style space pushed him to be both serious and playful — bridging high-volume efficiency and beautiful plating with fun remixes on classic dishes.

“Shrimp cocktail is one of my favorite foods in the world,” says Henzy, although he’s been disappointed with how recent iterations have gone downhill over the years; think limp shrimp served lukewarm in a bland tomato sauce. So, he wanted to create a modern version that would keep the integrity of its key ingredients and turn a classic dish on its head.

The four gambas in Henzy’s take on a shrimp cocktail resemble razor fish clams, but smelling the dish alone elicits classic shrimp cocktail freshness. His cocktail vinaigrette starts with marinating shrimp in a pickling vinegar with shallot, garlic, coriander, chile flake, peppercorn, citrus zest, and juice. He then uses oils from the shrimp shells to make a mayonnaise with Old Bay seasoning, giving the cocktail sauce its distinct red color. The shrimp are also gently poached in citrus and garlic oil for maximum tenderness and finished with Thai basil and crispy shallots.

Rigatoni alla Pepperoni

Pasta has been part of Henzy’s repertoire since he started working in professional kitchens as a teenager at notable restaurants like Talula’s Garden and Vernick Food & Drink. “Being a sous chef at Quince [a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant in San Francisco] took my pasta education to the next level,” he recalls. “I found a true master of the craft in chef Michael Tusk.”

For Henzy, cooking pasta at Clubhouse feels like bringing a piece of himself to the menu. He says there’s nothing better than diving into a bowl of noodles after a late night or particularly rough shift. Working the fast-paced pasta station is fun and lets him trade in his precise tweezer skills for more rustic cooking and plating.

Rigatoni alla Pepperoni was a spontaneous, on-the-fly creation for some industry peers dining at the restaurant one night. Henzy saw Salumeria Biellese pepperoni lying around the kitchen and leaned into its pizza topping flavors. He quickly cooked up a vodka sauce, tossing in garlic, Sicilian oregano, fennel pollen, and chile flakes to punch the dish up. The table went wild, and Henzy added it to the menu in late summer of 2023.

“It tastes like Totino’s Pizza Rolls,” Henzy jokes. “Pasta is just such a great vehicle for flavor, and if you’re not tied to tradition like we are at Clubhouse, you can be creative and fun with it,” he adds.

While Clubhouse only has one or two pasta dishes at the moment, Henzy hopes to develop a more extensive pasta program with more spins on classic dishes like bucatini Amatriciana.

Brick Chicken

“For me, the mark of a great chef is how they make chicken,” Henzy notes. “Getting there takes some skill, knowledge, and time.”

Henzy used to think ordering chicken at restaurants was boring, but he appreciated it after cooking roast chicken under chef-owner Greg Vernick while at Vernick Food & Drink, where the French-style roast chicken with lemon and herb jus is widely revered.

Henzy’s brick chicken with Castelvetrano olive and hot cherry pepper tapenade is a nod to the sandwich staple condiments he loved eating growing up. Olives were one of his first food aversions growing up, but one day, he overcame the acidic taste and polarizing texture by snacking on them constantly. Not long ago, Henzy first tasted Peruvian pollo a la brasa — the famous golden, spice-laden spit-roasted chicken — thanks to a Peruvian friend’s insistence. That sweet heat flavor profile stayed with him, driving him to connect a chicken dish to Middle Child’s sandwich history.

Henzy loves making shareable entrees that he’d want to eat himself and that are visually exciting. The brick-red bird is cut up in fourths, laid on a generous spooning of bright green sauce, and topped with mint, parsley, and chives. He marinates the chicken overnight with rosemary, thyme, garlic, olive juice, and hot cherry peppers. Then it’s butterflied and cooked under a foil-wrapped brick on the flattop, which helps confit the chicken with a crispy exterior and ensures even cooking all the way through. Chunky potatoes are lacquered with the chicken jus and hit with plenty of salt for a similar textural experience.

“I want to push guests. We have a responsibility as chefs to show people how to eat,” says Henzy. “You need a little heat in your life.” His pushing works: Recently, he saw a diner at the bar crush the chicken and a Caesar salad alone.

Middle Child Clubhouse is open every day except Mondays. Breakfast and lunch (starting at 8 a.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. on weekends) runs until 2 p.m., and dinner starts at 5 p.m.

Alisha Miranda is a Philadelphia journalist, digital producer, and #LatinxIndustryNight host. Follow her at @alishainthebiz. Follow Resy, too.

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