In a bustling kitchen at the edge of the Plaza District in Oklahoma City, four men in aprons prepare an 18-course meal. They delicately slice quail eggs and fresh-baked pan bread, and lay eggplant and raw fish together in a small bowl, placing small bits of juniper on top with delicate precision. Two rooms away, on a handmade wooden and metal table, one of them lays smooth wooden chop sticks on small pieces of reclaimed granite.

While the group operates in a seemingly professional environment and their patrons sit among visually comforting surroundings, sitting underneath rustic branches that act as curtain rods and framed shots of stunning aerial photographs, this is not a restaurant in the traditional sense. It is a dinner club called Nani, and it operates out of the bottom floor of the very home of some of its staff.

In February, the state Health Department issued Nani a cease and desist order, stating its owners were operating without a license as a food establishment. The case is ongoing, pending an appeal hearing.

Colin Stringer and Andon Whitehorn, Nani’s owners and two of its three chefs, argue they are not a restaurant at all, rather a private dinner club, and have been operating as such since last summer.