This evening, I participated in the inaugural Toronto event of The Social Feed. Originally started in Vancouver, attendees pay for a ticket to attend a dinner at a local restaurant. I think it's an interesting idea. I didn't know what kind of folks would be interested in such a thing and the fact that it was a 'family style' meal intrigued me as well. And for $28, it was worth the 'risk'.
Well, it was really fun!
I've previously attended a 'buy-a-ticket-for-an-event-with-strangers' thing before, and while it was a neat experience, I found that most of the crowd seemed like they already knew each other and was not quite as willing to branch out. I had enjoyed the premise of the event (which was different than this one), but had felt quite awkward at times. In this instance, there were a couple of us who came with another person, but everyone seemed genuinely interested in getting to know other people at the table.
We were seated at two rectangular tables placed end to end, which didn't actually work out too well for meeting everyone at the event. There wasn't an organized 'mingling' period to the night, so I think we naturally just chatted within the smaller tables. I happened to be seated along the wall in the middle of the long bench seat, so I wasn't able to conveniently move about. Others who were on the facing side of the table seated in free chairs did attempt to swap seats between courses, so my one recommendation to the organizers/hosting restaurant would be to seat the group at tables with easy access to all seats. We did discuss and organized swap of key seats at each of the tables, but it didn't end up happening very effectively. Maybe another group would have been more proactive about it. I too could have been more proactive and not worried as much about inconveniencing my bench-seat neighbours by having them slide over to let me out.
The food was fantastic as well. I had dined at Czehoski's previously, but I don't remember it being as good as our meal was tonight. Here was our menu. Another great thing about this set-up was that it's clearly a win-win for the restaurant and the attendees because larger portions are easy to cook and multiple courses and better for sampling. I would have never been able to get a 12-course tasting menu for $28. And all of the food was great. The dessert...oh, my. So. Good. And the ice cream that went with the Apple Tartin was salted caramel, not vanilla. Yuuuuuuuuum. Often at group meals, you get dud food. This was clearly a well thought out menu, with a motif throughout. It flowed well and was well paced. Passing around plates of food does lend itself well to conversations and 'grazing' also lets folks take breaks to chat and not be rude when reaching across to get that 2nd helping of whatever. The food was seriously good and it got better as the meal progressed. I'm still not a fan of risotto, but the rest of the mains were really good, and well, I've already expressed how delicious the dessert was. Pacing seemed quite good. We got enough breaks between courses to chat and (sort-of) mingle and well, allow us to be able to eat all of those courses. It was a lot of food!
It was an interesting mix of people who attended the event. I liked it. I couldn't (well, I could...but it was still curious) believe how quickly folks pulled out their Smart devices, Tweeted, Instagrammed, Facebooked, swapped contact info, etc. This is where business cards would be useful. I guess that's the point, right? Exchanging info through pieces of paper is obsolete? I refuse to believe it. I suppose that's what social media is all about. Is it contradictory that I would be interested in an event like The Social Feed, but am vaguely disgusted with social media?
Anyway, who knows if I'll actually cross paths with these folks again, but even if it does just turn out to be a discrete event in my life, I would have to say that it was a success.
The second Toronto event takes place next week and is already sold out. There are just a couple seats left for the third event.
I would definitely go to another 'Social Feed'. And you should too.
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