How to Start a Supper Club: Lessons From 60+ Dinners

Hi, I’m Erica A. Thomas, founder of Eating With Erica and the Eating With Erica Supper Club.

Over the past three years, I’ve hosted more than 60 dining experiences in restaurants, private homes, various cities and unique locations. That’s 60 dinners, 60 chefs, 60 tablescapes, and 60 events. As a result, one question lands in my inbox more than almost any other: how do you start a supper club?

Before I answer, a little context on where my perspective comes from. In corporate America, I worked in marketing and events, where I led a team of 15 and curated events for 200 to 500 guests across six cities. My work in food, dining, entertaining, and hospitality has been featured by Southern Living, CNN, Good Morning America, Woman’s World, TIME, and Wine Spectator. I’ve collaborated with Michelin-starred chefs and restaurants, worked alongside James Beard-recognized culinary talent, and attended the Michelin Guide awards as an invited guest two years in a row. Each month, I also share dining, entertaining, and hospitality ideas on FOX 5 Atlanta.

Through Eating With Erica, I’ve partnered with brands including Lexus, La Marca Prosecco, Angel’s Envy, Woodford Reserve, Walmart, Target, J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, Rombauer Vineyards, and Panera Bread. I was also selected as the face of a collaboration with Draper James, Reese Witherspoon’s lifestyle brand. Meanwhile, the Supper Club itself has welcomed partners such as Diptyque, Neiman Marcus, Saie, Angel’s Envy, and J. Lohr.

I share all of that for one reason. Dining, entertaining, hospitality, partnerships, and community building aren’t a new hobby for me. They’ve been my work for years. So if you’ve been wondering how to start a supper club, here’s what I’ve learned by actually doing it, again and again.

What Is a Supper Club?

At its simplest, a supper club is a recurring gathering centered around food and community.

Modern supper clubs take many forms. A supper club might be:

• A monthly dinner group among friends
• A series of restaurant experiences
• Chef-led dinners
• Ticketed dinners open to the public
• At-home gatherings that rotate between hosts

Some stay small and informal, while others grow into a full supper club membership. In other words, there is no single formula. What separates a supper club from simply hosting a dinner party is the recurring nature of the experience and the community that develops around it. A dinner club becomes a supper club community when the same faces start looking forward to the next seat at the table.

Why I Started the Eating With Erica Supper Club

I started my supper club because I wanted to be intentional about community. In particular, I wanted women to have a special gathering to look forward to each month. Hosting has always been in my DNA, so the supper club felt like an effortless transition.

By the time the first dinner happened, dining, entertaining, and hospitality had already been at the center of Eating With Erica for a decade.

I love discovering restaurants. I love beautiful dining experiences. I love entertaining, and I love hospitality. Above all, I love connecting wonderful women with other wonderful women.

I knew so many incredible women who, under normal circumstances, might never have met one another. With this in mind, I wanted to create a safe, welcoming space where genuinely kind women could connect.

I wanted women to have at least one evening each month where they could show up authentically and leave their titles at the door.

At our table, no one needs to lead with her profession, her accomplishments, her job title, or her social status. She can simply come to dinner.

The goal has always been the same: arrive as strangers, and leave having made genuine connections. That is the heart of our women’s supper club, and it’s still what I think about before every single dinner.

Start With Something That Brings You Joy

Before you start thinking about logos, memberships, restaurants, ticket prices, or Instagram, start with something you genuinely enjoy.

For me, the foundation was already there: dining, entertaining, hospitality, and community. My supper club grew out of what I was already doing and loving.

Yours may look completely different. Some of the best supper club ideas are built around:

• Wine
• Cooking
• Motherhood
• Entrepreneurs
• Creatives
• Singles or couples
• New residents
• Travel
• Books
• Cultural experiences
• Neighborhood community
• Food exploration

You do not need to duplicate Eating With Erica. In fact, I’d encourage you not to. The most meaningful gatherings grow from what naturally fits your own interests and the community already around you.

Please, do what you love. If you see someone else’s success and simply try to emulate it, it will not come across as authentic, and it will not last. What’s more, your audience will notice.

Over the years, I’ve developed my own standards for what makes a dining experience memorable. I share many of those principles in my 15 Dining Rules I Live By, including the little details that influence how a guest experiences a table.

Start With Your Purpose

Before you select restaurants, sell tickets, design a logo, build an Instagram page, or print a single menu, ask yourself one question:

Why should this supper club exist?

If you can’t answer that clearly, everything else will feel harder than it needs to. On the other hand, when your purpose is clear, it quietly shapes every decision that follows: your community, the experience, how often you gather, where you host, who is on the guest list, and the overall style of the evening.

Purpose is the part no one sees on Instagram. Nevertheless, it’s the part guests feel the moment they sit down.

Five Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Supper Club

If you’re serious about starting a supper club, these are the five questions I’d ask first.

1. Why do I want to start a supper club?

Is your goal community, food, friendship, networking, hospitality, revenue, or something else entirely? There’s no wrong answer. Some people want a supper club business; others simply want a standing dinner with people they love. However, the answer you give will shape everything that comes after it.

2. How often do I realistically want to host?

Monthly? Quarterly? Seasonally? The schedule needs to be realistic for you as the host, not just exciting on paper. A rhythm you can keep is far more valuable than an ambitious one you can’t.

3. Do I have the time to host a supper club?

The dinner itself is only one piece. Behind every evening there’s planning, invitations, communication, reservations, guest questions, coordination, and follow-up. Be honest with yourself about how much of that you can carry.

4. Where do I want to host?

Will your gatherings happen at home, in restaurants, in private dining rooms, at event venues, or across multiple locations? Each option changes the feel of the evening, the cost, and the amount of work involved.

If restaurants are part of your vision, the room matters just as much as the menu. I’ve personally hosted dozens of private dining experiences around Atlanta, and I’ve shared some of my favorite spaces in my guide to Atlanta restaurants for hosting private dinners.

5. Who do I want sitting at my table?

This question brings everything back to community. You cannot create an intentional community without being intentional about the community you are creating. Think about the women (or men, or families, or neighbors) you hope will find one another at your table, and what they have in common.

Decide What Kind of Experience You Want to Create

When people imagine how to host a supper club, they often picture the décor first. Décor matters, but it isn’t where I start.

Instead, I ask two questions. How should someone feel when she walks into the room? And how should she feel when she leaves?

Once you know those answers, the rest comes into focus: the atmosphere, the food, the venue, the guest count, the welcome, the flow of conversation, and the hospitality that ties it all together.

The restaurant or menu is only one part of the experience. People may initially come because of the restaurant, the menu, or the event. They return because of how the experience made them feel.

Start Small

You do not need 50 people to have a successful supper club.

In my experience, a manageable first group is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. A smaller table allows you to observe, listen, and learn. You begin to understand guest dynamics: who draws others into conversation, what makes a quieter guest feel welcome, how the energy of the evening shifts from the first glass of wine to dessert.

Equally important, starting small is how you establish culture. The tone you set with your first handful of guests becomes the tone everyone who joins later will feel. It’s much easier to shape that culture intentionally with eight people than to correct it with forty.

Starting small also gives you room to refine the experience. You’ll notice what worked, what felt rushed, and what you’d do differently next time, and you can adjust without the pressure of a packed room.

Growth will come. What’s more, it will come more naturally when the foundation is right.

Consistency Builds Community

One successful dinner does not necessarily create a supper club. Consistency does.

A single beautiful evening can be memorable. But community grows when people have recurring opportunities to connect: when the woman you met at one dinner is sitting across from you again at the next, and the conversation picks up where it left off.

Some of my favorite Supper Club memories have happened because women returned to the table again and again. Our Friendsgiving at The Blue Box Café in New York is one example of how a recurring dining community can eventually extend beyond a monthly restaurant reservation into travel, traditions, and shared experiences.

If you’ve ever wondered how to build a community, this is the most honest answer I can give you: keep showing up, and keep giving people a reason to come back. That kind of connection can’t be rushed. Community is created over time.

Want to Host, But Don’t Know Where to Start?

Maybe you love the idea of gathering people around the table, but starting a full supper club isn’t your goal, or perhaps you’re simply not there yet. That’s completely fine. Start by learning how to host dinner parties with confidence.

How to Host teaches the foundations of thoughtful entertaining and creating memorable gatherings: planning, tablescapes, the guest experience, hospitality, and the small details that create real connection. It’s a hands-on experience centered on tablescape styling and intentional hospitality. You can join in person in Nashville and Savannah, book a corporate workshop in Atlanta, or learn online through How to Host, From Home.

If you’re beginning with entertaining at home, my guide to hosting a fabulous brunch is also an easy place to start practicing your hosting style with a smaller gathering. For more ideas on hosting a dinner party or a private dinner party, you’ll find years of real gatherings in our Dinner Parties collection.

Ready to Start Your Own Supper Club?

If your goal goes beyond hosting a beautiful dinner and you specifically want to create, launch, or grow a supper club of your own, I’m developing several ways to help you take the next step, from a live workshop and a private strategy session to ongoing group and private mentorship.

Whether you’re still exploring the idea or you’re already hosting and ready to grow, the first step is the same.

Final Thoughts

Some of the most meaningful things in my life have started around a table. If you’ve been thinking about how to start a supper club of your own, start with your purpose, start with something you love, and start with the people you hope to bring together.

And when you’re ready to take the next step, we’d love to help you build it.