My Ultimate Supper Club Guide

This sounds very official for something that is very fun and relaxed

Japanese steakhouse night

The truth is I’ve been trying to intro this newsletter in a creative and innovative way, but really, this is just your classic guide. You, dear read, don’t need a prologue about how and why I joined a supper club or how much it’s meant to me these last few years. You are here for the cold hard facts. The steps. The “how”, not the “why”. So let’s get into it and stop trying to come up with something whimsic— god I’m boring myself. Here we go.

Sperry’s steakhouse at Christmas!

How to start a supper club

This is the part of this guide I feel the least qualified to write about because I did not start my supper club. I’ve always been a cheerful participant, but I asked Hannah how she gathered us all together for the first time and this is what she said:

Basically she texted all her friends and said she was starting a supper club anyone could join. So then HER friends did a survey of THEIR friends, and anyone who was interested in receiving more information sent Hannah their email address. Hannah then sent out an email outlining the vision and the first 12 people to get in touch made up the club.

I love this because it means you are guaranteed to meet new people, but also at the very least they’re a friend of a friend which means you already probably have some connection points with each other.

Limiting the capacity didn’t have anything to do with being exclusive, and everything to do with the fact that it’s incredibly challenging for most people to host more than 12 people comfortably in their home. To be honest, our supper club has been organically whittled down to 10 people now and it’s been the perfect size.

I get asked all the time about how we got started (I only knew one of the women in my supper club before joining) and this is how. It definitely takes a little bit of moxie, but I believe in you!

Slightly gothic tablescape for spooky Halloween vibes

Guidelines that have been good to us

• We trade off who hosts. Usually that means that you host supper club once a year— very doable.

• We meet monthly. Twice a year we go out to eat and no one hosts and this is also VERY good fun. This summer we even invited our partners out to join us and hit up Top Golf after dinner. It was so summery and casual and really really wholesome.

• The host does not have to make any food. They’re responsible for the tablescape, playlist, and drinks. Our loose rule is that you have to try making a new on-theme cocktail. Some of my favorite drinks have come from these dinners. I made a sake sangria this year that was a HUGE hit, and I would have never discovered it without the push from supper club.

• The host also gets to pick the theme of the month. Some supper clubs are cookbook clubs, where everyone cooks their way through a cookbook each month. But we keep it simpler than that— just a theme. Past themes have been: Hawaiian, aphrodisiacs, cold food (a theme that ended up being wildly popular during a particularly sweltering July supper club!), Friendsgiving, Cape Cod, and more. Honestly it’s whatever sounds fun!

• Another loosely followed rule is that everyone has to try making something new to them. Sometimes this gets trumped when there’s a family recipe that fits the theme.

• We all text the group chat what we plan to make that month so that we don’t get doubles of things and get a good variety. Usually two of us volunteer to bring dessert instead of a main or side.

Halloween 2021 with Ted Lasso and an old lady(??)

Keeping it easy

We’re all women who have careers and who are also mothers. Life is very busy and full for most of us, so in order to make meeting monthly as attainable as possible, we keep it easy.

• While we strong encourage making attendance a priority, there’s no shame if you can’t make it a month or two. We rarely have a supper club where 1-2 people at least aren’t missing. Some months it’s just half of us, and those times can still be really special.

• Say you just CANNOT swing making something that day— work goes long, kids have needs, etc— you can totally pick up something on theme from a restaurant to bring. Coming straight from work to Hawaiian night? Swing by and pick up a Hawaiian pizza. Studying for your grad school finals all day? Just pick up sushi for Japanese night. The point is connection.

• Usually two months a year we just go out to eat. Always in December (because we’re all hosting different things for the holidays and it’s just a busy month anyway!), and then usually again in the early spring when things feel drab and uninspiring and we all just want to get out of the house. It’s fun to just go out with some girlfriends and eat and drink good food.

I believe that’s pretty much it! Really this is just an excuse to get to know other people in our community and eat good food. If you’re a part of a supper club, I’d love hear a bit about how you conduct yours in the comments! And if you have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them below!

much love

g