A super supper made for sharing
Experience fabulous Mexican food at this fantastic pop-up dining club
It seems our appetite for the supper club trend cannot be satisfied. Emily Rand started hers, Rande, four years ago. Taking over abandoned spaces, she sets up trestle tables and prepares a tasting menu of Mexican food that has grown and grown in popularity. Now she hosts two pop-ups a month, runs private events, and is launching a test kitchen in the autumn.
“I’d never cooked professionally before, but I’m from a big family where everyone is obsessed with food,” she admits. “When we get together we all bond by standing in the kitchen chatting and cooking, so hosting for 25 or 30 people is ingrained in me.” For Rand, a supper club is entirely different to a restaurant. “You can eat alone in a restaurant and that’s fine,” she says, “but it’s great to be able to see a different side to London, to meet new people, and to share food with others.”
The joy of supper clubs is precisely that you don’t know who you’re going to be dining with. Rand says: “It can be a stressful experience for people to come into a situation where nobody is familiar, but as hosts we try to make sure everyone gets along.”
The odd locations Rand chooses for her nights, such as warehouses and empty old flats, act as a natural ice-breaker. She explains: “People walk in and are like ‘What the hell?’ and it’s an instant conversation starter. ‘Where are we? What are we doing? Are we really sure about this?!’ This really brings people together.”
In fact one couple even met and fell in love at one of her dinners. “They were randomly sitting next to each other — she’d come by herself — and last year they got married,” Rand says. “Supper clubs are a great thing to do if you’re single and looking to meet someone romantically. Or even if you just want new friends.” Rand has found that there’s no supper club “type”, and says: “We had an 85-year-old man who turned up in a wheelchair one time. We’ve had newly-divorced 55-year-old women who want to get out and be doing something different. “We get people visiting the city, who want to see something that’s not Piccadilly Circus or Soho... people from Amsterdam, New York and even a regular who comes in from Bedfordshire.
“Everybody leaves having had this shared, crazy experience, and I look around in amazement at how cool it is that I’ve brought 35 strangers together.”
What: Rande Pop Up presents A Little Taste of Campo Viejo
When: Thursday 18 October
Where: east London
Price: £49 plus booking fee for four courses with wine pairings
Tickets can be purchased at randepopup.com