Discover York's Newest Alternative to Online Dating

Spurred on by frustrations with the modern approach to dating, Melissa (and fellow co-founder Lindsey Green) took inspiration from London’s growing number of intimate supper clubs and decided to make the most of York’s excellent culinary scene with a club of their very own.

What is The Good Taste Club?

I’ve got a marketing hospitality background and Lindsey is actually a chef and caterer, so the events we’ve run in the past have been based around food for that reason. We’d had conversations with friends about dating experiences that sounded horrific and they were all fed up with apps. So we started thinking about a supper club.

It became apparent that there was a lot going on in London with dating supper clubs where you have an equal amount of men and women at a table getting to know each other over dinner. We’ve got so many lovely places in York to eat that you’re spoiled for choice really so we thought, why not give it a go? We went to talk to The Old Liquor Store first and they thought it was a brilliant idea. The response we’ve had both from restaurants and from guests has been amazing.

What is the appeal of supper clubs over meeting via apps?

I think for ladies particularly there’s the safety aspect. You’re meeting, not just in a public space, but spaces we’ve tailored to the demographic we’re trying to appeal to. The first event we did was 35–50. You are making a commitment to go, so you are definitely interested in meeting people regardless of whether it’s for dating or just for friendship. They almost know what sort of people they’re going to potentially meet before they even come, whereas on an app it’s a bit random.

Then the fact that you’re sitting down and eating a three-course dinner, there’s something to talk about straight away. A lot of [guests] were saying they haven’t just come to meet a partner, they’ve come to meet new people. They were happy just to meet anyone so it was very much a social event.

Do you run events for other age groups?

We have another even planned that’s slightly older (45–60) and we are just talking to another venue about a younger age group (25–35). We’ve had a lot of emails from guests older than 60 saying they just want to meet people and go out for dinner but they don’t want to go out on their own so we’re looking at the possibility for 65 plus.

Did interest from the younger demographic come as a surprise?

We started with older groups because we thought the younger demographic wouldn’t be interested but yes, we’ve been really surprised. We’ve actually had a lot of messages asking if we are going to do a younger one. It seems they’re exactly the same – they struggle to meet people and they don’t want to go on the apps because they had a bad experience.

The venue we’re looking at is Pairings – they’re going to do a wine tasting activity first, and then we’ll sit down for the charcuterie boards. There won’t be awkward silences, you’re diving straight into an activity you can chat and have a laugh over before sitting down for dinner.

What can a first-time guest expect?

There’s a welcome drink, and we have a chat with everybody to make them feel comfortable and introduce them to other guests. The table is pre-organised so everyone has a place card and it’s a long table so you’re not just talking to the person next to you, you’ve got people around you.

After the main course we ask the men to swap places with others at the table, so everyone gets to chat to different people. [At The Old Liquor Store] we did see after dessert that some people did go back to where they were sitting before. When we closed the event people hung around and carried on chatting. That was lovely – they didn’t all make a run for it! The details are all on our website of exactly what you can expect from the night. You’ll always get a two- or three-course dinner, it’s a set price and a pre-order menu with a welcome drink.

Tell us your goals for the future.

We’ve been asked already if we’d consider moving this to other areas, and we certainly would. Taking it outside York would be nice, but the ethos of it will always stay the same; quite personal, supporting those independent restaurants, and helping local residents. I’m really quite excited to see where it goes!

ourhappyplace.co.uk/the-good-taste-club