Richmond's Secret Supper Society is making dinner parties cool again
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A snapshot of "The First Bloom" dinner party from Secret Supper Society. Photo: Courtesy of Joe Claughton.
Dinner parties in Richmond aren't dead, they're just hiding in your grandmother's house.
Sometimes, they're in the home of an old diplomat. An art gallery. In a club with disco balls — at least when Secret Supper Society is hosting them.
The big picture: SSS is an idea that started among Richmonders James Crump-Wallace and Miles Gordon, longtime friends who wanted to create a dinner club where people never know what to expect.
- Since launching last November, each dinner's location, menu and theme have been kept secret outside of a few teasers on their Instagram. And they always sell out.
- They use spaces that aren't typical restaurants, they rotate the local chefs behind the multi-course menu, and they turn the experience into a production complete with an icebreaker revolving around the theme.
- That means that at the former diplomat's house (Virginia House), people had to tackle a social issue regarding food deserts in Richmond.
What they're saying: "We ended up seeing that people were really connecting at the end," Crump-Wallace told Axios. "And they came to the next one together when they had just met at the first dinner … that was the 'Alright, we got something' moment for me."
Zoom in: At the heart of it all is the details. When SSS did "Dinner at the Disco" at what's now LOSO, they talked about the fashion and culture around the era.
- Then, they had walk-out music for each course, DJs and dancers.
- At "Granny's House," they fashioned the venue to feel like someone's home, complete with Capri Sun-style pouches for the cocktail hour.
- For "Symphony of Flavors," Gordon and Crump-Wallace worked with the Richmond Symphony to have live music playing throughout it.
Then there are the chefs, which have included Xavier Beverly of Ellwood's, Matthew Brusca of Alewife and Austin McCormick of Lemaire.
- If you go: Prices for each dinner range from $165 to $220 and we recommend keeping an eye out for the next one on their Insta or via their mailing list.
The bottom line: "We're a new take on fine dining," Gordon told Axios. "Fine dining that's not stuffy. Fine dining that's not exclusionary."
- This is what they take pride in — that, and bringing strangers together.
Go deeper: From dinner parties to feeding Richmonders in need