This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to London
A basil-topped margherita is deposited on our table. But before we can tuck in, the six of us seated together for dinner have an icebreaker to complete. After all, we’re here to mingle as much as we are to eat.
“I think he’s got a baby face under that beard,” muses my fellow diner Jethro, who is sitting next to me at Dinner for One Hundred (known as D4100), a supper club by the eponymous London pizzeria chain. “Let’s say 22,” a young TV producer opposite me replies as we try to determine who is the youngest staff member at the bar — the first set activity of the evening. The prospect of winning a free bottle of wine offers an instant incentive to bond and, at this dinner for singles, for once no one is reaching for their phones.
This event is part of a new wave of Gen Z-focused supper clubs popping up across London, as twentysomethings increasingly turn away from sticky dancefloors, bars and dating apps in favour of informal yet carefully curated gatherings hosted by their peers. A Gen Z spin on excellent food at fair prices blends the right ingredients of a dinner party with the spontaneity and excitement of forging connections on a night out.
Supper clubs are a well-established and often affordable form of social dining, usually in the form of a themed ticketed dinner where participants find themselves surrounded by strangers and feast on specially designed menus. They are believed to date back to 1930s California, where Lawrence Frank, the restaurateur behind the legendary steakhouse chain Lawry’s Prime Rib, opened the first supper club in Beverly Hills to ring in the end of Prohibition. This cabaret-style dining boomed in popularity and glamour in the US until the 1960s, and only truly emerged across the Atlantic this century in the form of pop-ups at intimate or lesser-known venues and exclusive one-night dos with top chefs.
Now, as twentysomethings — often dubbed the “stay-at-home” generation — ditch clubbing (around three nightclubs have closed each week in the UK since the start of 2024) and are increasingly health-conscious, supper clubs are becoming popular again, particularly with graduates of Covid-era university cohorts, who seek alternative ways to socialise away from partying.
Some of London’s most appealing Gen Z supper clubs rely on social media to connect with like-minded young diners looking to switch up their socialising habits. Online followers of supper-club communities or the emerging chefs involved in them will quickly snap up tickets in advance; some, such as D4100, sell out so rapidly that the organisers recommend setting reminders when tickets are due to be released.
Usually communal-dining experiences, supper clubs are ideal for those hoping to broaden their social horizons. The concept struck me — a recent graduate newly moved to London — as a great way to meet new people with shared interests. The clubs I have tried, run by and designed for Gen Z, may be a fruitful starting point for anyone willing to step outside their comfort zone and form new and tangible connections.
For dinner with a show: The Candid Club
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Where to find them: Taking over a hotel or restaurant in style with a catwalk set up between the tables. candidclub.co.uk; @thecandid.club
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Ticket prices: £50-£60, with a welcome drink exclusively paired for the event, a three-course dinner and dancing after dinner included
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Next event: Late February/early March — date and location to be confirmed
One of the newest supper clubs and already among the most popular is The Candid Club. These stylish dinner parties are organised by two longtime friends: actor Jack Redmayne, 23, and online chef-influencer Kit Paterson, formerly of Manteca, 25. Each event pairs dinner with a fashion show, showcasing Paterson’s cooking and new styles from Instagram-trending designers worn by a select number of models among the servers and guests.
Fashion and food are at the heart of their events. Paterson, who’s known by his 77,000-plus TikTok followers for cooking up a feast, says the supper clubs are more than an opportunity to create the evening’s cuisine: “For [Candid Club diners] to actually eat the food they see online [on his account], and to see the clothes from designers that they scroll past online, I think that’s a pretty great experience.”
At this, the third instalment of The Candid Club, my fellow diners and I are welcomed to legendary rock-star haunt the Columbia Hotel, which has hosted artists and bands on the road from Iggy Pop and Amy Winehouse to Stereophonics and Oasis. “This is much more my scene,” says writer, actor and producer Lucy Nicholson, 28, who was drawn to The Candid Club after hosting many dinner parties at home. Swapping host for guest is a refreshing change: “I like to actually speak to people.”
Redmayne, who acts as MC for the evening, makes an announcement before the arrival of the appetisers — dainty plates of whipped ricotta and autumn squash. “After the starters is the fashion show,” says Redmayne, to which the crowd enthusiastically cheers. “So try not to smoke between the starter and the main or you’ll miss out.”
Following the first course, a stream of model-servers begin to waft plates of chicken thighs and cannellini beans down the catwalk, a narrow passageway between the two long tables lining the Windsor Suite. It’s a theatrical moment that gives our table some amusement, while being an innovative way to offer live entertainment between courses.
Cameras are raised instantly by guests to snap away at the latest designs — and our dishes — sported by the models. In the line-up is the slick tailoring from Soho staple Wax London menswear and young designer Chloe St John’s slow-fashion label Alchemy London, which is taking Instagram by storm with cool-girl chic suits.
This year the Candid Club has planned a large-scale dinner for each season of the fashion calendar. Its next event promises to be another hit, solidifying its place as the go-to soirée for cuisine à la mode and high spirits.
For women to network: 2sday Supper Club
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Where to find them: At pop-up locations around London, and recently on New York’s Lower East Side. @2sdaysupperclub
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Ticket prices: £30-£40, including a three-course dinner and drinks
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Next events: Dinner on February 4 at Ferm of Wyk, 80 Wallis Rd, Hackney Wick, London E9 5LN. An art-exhibition night will take place on February 20 at Unlock restaurant, also in Hackney Wick
Hosting dinners, workshops and talks, 2sday Supper Club is a bi-monthly community event typically at east London’s coolest cafés and lounges. It prides itself on being a space for young women to create and collaborate. Each event, whether a supper club, open-decks night or pop-up exhibition, provides a platform for informal networking. According to American co-founders Hannah Reznik, 22, fashion marketing student and model scout, and Sofia Wimberly, 21, who works in marketing and social media consulting, half of the diners at each event are new to 2sday. Their gatherings of around 30 to 50 young women aim to appeal to solo diners, as well as creatives looking to make connections.
The 2sday creators didn’t intend it to be female-focused, but they found it was a natural incentive for their events. “It was just easier to connect on a one-on-one basis with other women” says Wimberly. “We want to make this a space for women in these communities.”
The duo behind the club met about 18 months ago as neighbours in London, quickly bonding over the communal gatherings of family and friends from their US hometowns.
On my visit, Bread and Butter Lounge, nestled in a Shoreditch side street, is the temporary home for a Day of the Dead-themed 2sday event. The narrow dining area is decked out in cobwebs and garlands, and each spot is soon filled as young women arrive through the doorway.
Each supper club highlights up-and-coming young female chefs, and when I attend the kitchen is powered by 25-year-old Hannah Herrmann of Manteca, Crispin chef Ella Williams, 23, and sous-chef Lola Pond-Jones, 22.
“London can be a lonely place — you have to figure out how to build a life here,” says social media manager Devyn Molina, 29, a can of Sagrado Blanco in hand. Originally from California, Devyn has been a regular at 2sday since finding it last summer on Instagram. Our table is quickly drawn into discussion over our experiences of socialising in London. The consensus is that with remote working and the onslaught of social media platforms prioritising online relationships, it’s hard for Gen Z to branch out and form new friendships organically — and in person.
The starters are whisked along the tables by Reznik, Wimberly and the kitchen team — tortilla chips with an assortment of salsas (the most popular being a sweet-and-sour burnt pineapple), crispy plantain bites garnished with fennel leaves and salted, smoky Padrón peppers topped with wedges of lime.
My table-neighbour Molina and I share a creamy horchata ice cream for dessert, which has a hint of sweetness from dried rose petals and a candied pecan garnish. Splitting it fittingly encapsulates the communal spirit the co-founders sought to create with 2sday.
For singles: Dinner for One Hundred (D4100)
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Where to find them: For singles and themed dinners or late-night events, head to Bar D4100 at 143 Evelina Road, London SE15 3HB. (You can also grab a slice of D4100’s renowned pizza at its pizzeria in Telegraph Hill and at The Perseverance pub in Bloomsbury.) dinnerforonehundred.com; @dinnerforonehundred
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Ticket prices: Tuesday-night singles dinners are £25, and include a welcome glass of prosecco and slices of pizza with adventurous toppings. Larger events at external venues on Thursday or Friday nights are priced at £40–£50 a head.
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Next events: Regular singles nights on Tuesdays, and a special large-scale singles event on February 13, held at a secret guest location (with a rooftop bar) in the West End. Much like when curating a Hinge profile, hopeful attendees must share a few personal insights to secure a ticket — and their “perfect match”
D4100 began in 2020 as multigenerational dinner in a Hackney warehouse, with 20 per cent of tickets reserved for free for elderly neighbours. It was an attempt to combat loneliness in all age groups, and with 100 invitees the dinner became the club’s namesake. Then Covid-19 hit. D4100 was reborn as a pizzeria every Friday in co-founder Jacob Stuttard’s mum’s front garden, using a portable oven. It grew into three pizzerias including Bar D4100 in Nunhead, south London, which started hosting a regular series of dinners and bar events.
Stuttard, 29, and co-founder Jake Bucknall, 28, quickly saw a pattern in peers pairing off at the end of the night. Disillusioned with dating apps and attuned to the continued repercussions of their generation’s isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, from February 2023 onwards they tapped into dating events. The hosts have since brought together singles across themed evenings at Bar D4100 or at one-off locations such as the Hoxton Hotel.
The singles supper club is now its most popular events concept. Those aimed at 20-to-30-year-olds have the biggest take-up, with their 30-40s dinners a “close second” and an emerging crowd of 40-50s diners. “In that [20–30s] age range,” explains Bucknall, “there’s never really been anything other than dating apps.”
I attend an event in their Nunhead restaurant. As I enter the small bar-pizzeria, Bucknall greets me and my guest (bringing a single male friend was a requirement to even out numbers) and points us towards our seats. In musical-chairs fashion, these are assigned differently for each course of pizza, with the 50 or so diners herded outside during the reshuffle in a form of culinary speed dating.
Mixing people up is key to sparking chemistry, and the low-lit tables of four to eight offer multiple chances to strike up a conversation. For most people here, it’s their first foray into D4100 or indeed any singles event.
“We’re there to matchmake,” says Stuttard. “So it’s all about rhythm, pace and energy.” Stuttard juggles and Bucknall acts as a general-knowledge quiz master, keeping the atmosphere light while dishing out frequent generous rounds of pizza (such as the bestselling The MacGyver: hot honey, whipped feta, Spanish chorizo and crushed fennel seed) fresh from an enormous pink-dome oven.
Despite the success of D4100, the duo recognise the heteronormative limitations of a male-female dinner-party model. They’re now working with queer-event organisers to make D4100 more inclusive.
D4100 is a testament to modern dating, where the swarm of apps and situationships make long-term romance less of a guarantee. “In the early days we used to say that if you come to a Dinner for One Hundred event, you might meet the love of your life,” says Jacob. But anything can happen: “We don’t say that any more. We now say everything’s possible.”
Have you tried one of London’s Gen Z supper clubs? Tell us about it in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter
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