My Thoughts on Starting Your Own Supper Club
Reflections from 9 Years of To Be Hosted
Hey Party People!
Hosting dinner parties started as my hobby, but this month marks nine years of hosting as a profession. Along my journey, I’ve learned how to be a great host, but I’ve also learned what it takes to run a hospitality business that endures. Most of these lessons, I learned the hard way — with the kind of pain and humiliation that I can only laugh about now. I have a hunch that someone reading this will be curious about what it takes to start a supper club, or organize events, so let’s talk about it.
The Romance
I started To Be Hosted in 2017 as a monthly meet up with a rotating line up of chefs, artists, and musicians. When it comes to the NYC dining scene, I was among the early adapters to have a supper club (or called a dinner club), where guests purchase tickets to dine with us communally. Our experience includes a chef-led meal, wine, entertainment and guided conversation. Back then, the only experience similar to ours was from a company called Resident, but today there are many supper clubs and communal dining experiences. The New York Post recently did a round up of a few supper clubs HERE (including ours), but there are dozens and dozens more.
Since starting, To Be Hosted has evolved to also offer boutique agency services to brands like Netflix, Spotify, and Pinterest, tapping us to curate their dinner parties. The rise of the “influencer dinner” came to NYC swiftly and it continues to be a go-to gathering method for engagement and storytelling for this creator economy.
The Reality
For each supper club that exists here, I’ve seen two more start and fade away just as quickly. As with any trend, what goes up must always come down. And this is particularly true for supper clubs and recurring event series in NYC that often suffer the same fate as traditional restaurants (because food costs, overhead expenses, marketing, etc.). On the agency side, this lifestyle is increasingly challenging with short timelines, reduced budgets, unrealistic expectations for those reduced budgets.
With nine years doing this delicate dance with a hospitality business, I often wonder: do I have one more year in me? I ask myself this all the time. What keeps calling me back to the party planning streets is this desire to see events keep happening. Our society needs more parties (I’ll make this argument for you in another newsletter). I can’t plan them all, but I am uniquely positioned to help others plan theirs, so I will be doing that a lot more this year.
My Reflections
If you’re interested in starting your on supper club or other event series, here are the top five things I want you to prioritize as you embark on your journey:
Be very specific about what you are hosting, who it is for, and what attendees will get out of coming. The more specific and intentional the better. With so many events and clubs emerging, how you define your event and the establishment of a clear, relatable WHY will help you attract the right guests.
Be obsessed with your guests. What do they like? What do they care about? What do they need? The gathering is for them, keep them front of mind.
Set a budget and stick to it. Understanding your costs is essential. You want the production to be sustainable and easy to replicate.
Get organized and stay organized. The reality of events is that you are really just managing a lot of information and making sure everyone involved has the information they need. You need strong systems. For me that includes a work back schedule that also functions as a master to do list, a budget with payment status, and a day-of run of show.
Don’t worry about what other clubs or hosts are doing. Try new things and see how it resonates with your guests. And bring your community along with you as you figure out what works best for all of you.
If you’re building something, I hope you endure. If you’re building a supper club or planning your own event series, I have much more to say on the topic, so if you’re interested, I am hosting a 90-minute virtual workshop on March 18th.
Final Thoughts: Thank you to our To Be Hosted diners, my subscribers, and the people who continue to mention my name in rooms that I am not in.
Cheers to you, and cheers to To Be Hosted turning nine and feeling fine!
PS - I’m thawing out and To Be Hosted’s spring/summer event calendar is coming soon! If you were forwarded this email, make sure you’re subscribed to be the first to know about event tickets and more!