Who is Charlie?

And why is he skulking around town with Duck in a Can?

The second question is easier to answer. The duck with foie gras is a signature dish flown in from the cultish Montreal eatery Au Pied de Cochon. Translated as Canard en Conserve, it is the star of the menu Sunday at the new dining buzz in Toronto – the anti-restaurant.

This underground dining experience involves random meals, rotating chefs, hidden locations, secret passwords, synchronizing of watches and encounters with strangers. The anti-restaurant goes by the name Charlie's Burgers – ironic, considering the focus on fine food matched with fine wine.

Charlie's Burgers is not Toronto's first surreptitious supper club, but it may be its most upscale. To join the in-crowd, you go to website charliesburgers.ca and fill out a survey about your food fancies. You may (or may not) be e-vited to dinner.

After RSVPing, we received instructions to meet at a corner in the west end at "6:12 p.m. sharp" and to bring a $110 per person "donation," cash only. Plus: "Bring an appetite and a sense of humour."

The covert operation is creating a buzz among Toronto foodies, and adventurous chefs and sommeliers who want in on the action.

Ask them about Charlie, however, and they go mum.

They claim no face-to-face communication. They point out that Charlie is not alone; he gets the job done with friends and helpers.

"I was incredibly, incredibly impressed by what they were doing," says Jamie Drummond, wine director for the Jamie Kennedy restaurant group. "Everybody is looking for something a little different. It has the potential to be a hit."

Drummond says he was both "worried" and "intrigued" when he and his girlfriend arrived at the anti-restaurant's first dinner, last month. It was held in the tasting room of a public wine storage facility on King St. W.

"It was definitely more like a dinner party – with friends you don't know," he says, recalling there were 18 guests.

Drummond had such a great time, he agreed to be the sommelier for this Sunday's meal. However, he claims he never spoke to Charlie in person about it.

"I like that mysterious air," he says.

Bonnie Stern, another guest at the first dinner, agrees. The Toronto cooking school maven says not knowing what would happen was the fun part. "It was kind of kooky."

Charlie may operate by stealth but, when he reaches out, people in the food business respond.

Matt Chambers, who works at Milagro restaurant, promised to make canapés for this Sunday after getting a message on his machine. "It's pure curiosity," he says. "It's fun for me – a chance to go out and do something different."

Corresponding via email, Charlie notes: "I/we prefer to remain anonymous." The anti-restaurant, he writes, is not about him but, rather, about "the food on your plate and the wine in your glass."

He adds: "Charlie's Burgers was created by me (Charlie Burger) and involved are a group of people who are really passionate about food and who have the deep restaurant connections you need to pull this project off ... It gives great chefs a blank canvas to create whatever menu they want, with no boundaries whatsoever."

Not everyone is a fan. Jim Chan, manager of Toronto Public Health's food safety program, cautions that underground restaurants raise concerns about proper food handling. "The position of public health is almost like a `buyer beware' type of warning."

Next week: Dining at the anti-restaurant.