Perfectly Practical #214 - Start a Supper Club

I have started two & a half* Supper Clubs on two continents and am embarking on starting a third in a different state.

I feel strongly about food...and about relationships...and about our relationship with food.

Why oh why is it perfectly practical to start a Supper Club?
Seriously...

Here's why:

• Get a grand meal with a little buy in - In our Supper Club each couple brings a dish.   What an inexpensive night out to get a 5 star meal for the cost of one dish!
• Share the sitter - It makes sense a lot of the time to share a babysitter at a member's house then split the cost at the end of the night.
• Ready-made set of {discerning} taste testers - More often than not, I have brought food to Supper Clubs for folks to try out and give me their opinions.  Most of my canning experiments get debuted at Supper Club.
• Your house gets clean when you host - I have friends who insist on hosting events every other month or so just so that their house gets a really thorough deep clean.
• Relationship building at its finest - Opportunities to visit in a relaxed atmosphere over nice food is hard to come by.  Restaurants are too loud generally and because not many folks have a table big enough to seat 12, we almost always have a different seating arrangement.  That means, we never know which couples we will be seated by until we get there.  But we all get to visit beforehand and celebrate together over dessert (if there is a celebration to be had.)
• *Bonus* - I always learn something at every Supper Club get-together.  Whether it's about politics, business, art, food, history, etc.  And obviously, I learn at least one new recipe.

Here is our standard for Supper Club:

1.  There are 6 couples maximum involved.  Any more than that and people can't accommodate them in their dining spaces.  That also means that you can get together every other month.

2.  The hostess sets the theme and menu.  She also is responsible for the main course and the signature drink (if there is one) then divvies out the rest of the recipes.

3.  Everybody tries a little of everything.  My friend Kathleen calls it a "thank you bite" as a way to show appreciation to the chef. What's the point of a club whose sole purpose is to eat if you aren't going to try all the unusual foods on offer?


Some things to note before you begin:

1. Invite people who are adventurous - If you invite friends who are picky eaters (or complainers), it makes the whole experience awkward.
2. Invite interesting people from different sectors of your life  - These folks may or may not know each other at first, but that's okay.  They'll get to know one another over good food, good company, and good times. 
3. Know that not everything is going to be a work of art - We have had awesome wins and epics fails in the recipes and execution thereof.  They just get laughed off, perhaps discussed as to what went wrong, and then the chef whose recipe it is gets slagged off - in the most respectful manner possible of course.  
4. Make sure at least one person in the couple likes to cook - If cooking is stressful to your friends, then it won't be a fun endeavor.  

Here's a look at one of our past Supper Clubs.  As you can see, things aren't always fancy and we quite often use what we've got on hand.

I really like the fancy ones though when the tables are dressed beautifully and the food is some exotic theme.  We have also taken our Supper Club on location to a lake house.  The sky is the limit!

Some of our past themes have been:

Chocolate
Giada De Laurentiis
British Empire
Greek
James Bond
Grady Spears
Modern Southern
Pioneer Woman
Classic French
Moroccan
Paula Deen
and so many more...

Have fun, be creative, and happy eating!

This is part of WFMW.

*The half is because the first Supper Club that I tried to get going in Marshall didn't quite take.