Dinner Lab
Part of a new wave of one-night-only culinary salons (a la City Grit), Dinner Lab is a membership-based social-dining experiment that unites undiscovered chefs with adventurous diners. “The Dinner Lab platform flips the traditional restaurant experience by putting up-and-coming chefs center stage and allowing them to create their own menus. Our members are also able to give feedback, something that’s typically missing from the standard dining out process,” founder Brian Bordainick says. “Basically, our business taps into people on the precipice of their career, and gives them an opportunity to put forward a vision for the future… And as long as there are great chefs thinking and dreaming of new ideas, we can continue to tap into them. Because if we had to come up with all these ideas on our own, Dinner Lab wouldn’t stand a chance!”
Although they presently operate outposts out of nine major US cities, Dinner Lab’s canniest move so far has been to expand into Brooklyn, where they sold out of annual memberships (granting twice-weekly access to impromptu suppers held everywhere from rooftops to abandoned factories to motorcycle dealerships) in a matter of minutes. “We wanted to be in the epicenter of what we perceive to be an area of happening food. We have great excitement for all the young companies that have relocated to Brooklyn and call it their home,” Bordainick says. “The community that is being created there is incomparable to anything that we’re seeing in any of our other markets.”
Wow, thanks guys. We’re really honored to be part of this. Of course we can think of a whole lot of others at least as worthy…
As noted, Joios hosts lots of tastings. We’re always looking for products, tasters, venues. All ideas appreciated!