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RON MANVILLE
Supper clubs are a great way of helping friends stay in touch over a delicious meal.
creative
cooking
Supper clubs
serve up food,
friendship
By Debi Shawcross
WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING for a way
to foster relationships or develop new friendships, starting your own supper club could
give your social life a delicious boost.
In today’s world, where we eat many
meals on the run, an intimate dinner with
friends is a great luxury. Even though we communicate endlessly with one another by text,
Facebook, Twitter and so on, it’s all done in a
fairly disconnected way. The need to connect
in person is more important than ever. Why
not combine your love of food and cooking
with an evening at home with friends?
That sounds like a dinner party, right? A
supper club is a dinner party of sorts, only it’s
not just about the food. A supper club is
designed to strengthen relationships on a
deep, ongoing level. Club members commit to
meet regularly with common goals in mind.
With these very interests in mind, my
husband and I started a supper club several
years ago with some of our close friends.
Important to all of us was the desire to stay
connected as we juggled careers, kids and
day-to-day adventures. Our supper club has
stayed strong, allowing us to maintain a
deeper connection with each other and in a
way that is more affordable than an expensive
night out with dinner and drinks.
Here are some tips to help you form your
own supper club—and enjoy the great food
and friendships that can come from it.
30 ;e Costco Connection DECEMBER 2011
Decide who will be members.
Are you a group of young married couples
eager to entertain? A group of friends looking
to strengthen friendships? Are you new to the
area and interested in making friends? Are you
a group of single professional people interested
in networking and expanding relationships?
The Costco Connection
You can find all essential ingredients for your
own supper club, from fine roasts to world-class wines, at your local Costco. You can
also find select fine foods on Costco.com.
Organize your club with eight to 10 people you regularly want to meet and eat with,
including neighbors, couples, single professionals, longtime friends or people you just
want to get to know better. You can even have
a regular group but leave a couple of seats
open to invite special, rotating guests.
Regardless, make sure everyone has the same
goals. (It’s a club, after all, and every club
needs a few ground rules.)
Get organized. Decide how often you
would like to meet. Every month? Every other
month? Maybe quarterly works best for
everyone’s schedules. For your supper club to
