Sometimes A Perfect Stranger Is The Best Dinner Host
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A group gathers in a Ballston, Va., home for a supper club organized through the site Feastly. A new food trend gaining popularity in New York and other cities lets diners enjoy a meal prepared by a stranger in that person's home.
With website names like Eat With, Side Tour, VoulezVousDiner and Feastly, a new food trend that is sweeping New York and other cities allows diners to enjoy fine meals inside someone else's home. Think of it as Airbnb for hungry people.
It's easy to think these sites are all about the food, but they're not. The food is often just an excuse for what can essentially be a really great party with a bunch of people you've never met.
Recently I went to a "taco party" I found through the Eat With website. I paid $40 to go to the home of two fun-loving Latinas. They have a great apartment, filled with art, just across from the Brooklyn Museum. As soon as their guests arrived, they made it a point to shove rum drinks into our hands.
Katrin Bergmann came all the way from Frankfurt, Germany â she was part of a gaggle of German tourists who turned up â because she'd seen a segment on Eat With on German TV called "How to Survive in New York."
Glori Linares, left, and Victoria Delgado, invited strangers to a dinner party in their apartment in Brooklyn through the site EatWith.com.
"We thought we wanted to do something different from a normal tourist tour, and we wanted to talk to real people who live here," Bergmann said. "And so we have real Brooklyn people around us ... and Germans."
The hosts, Glori Linares and Victoria Delgado, kept shuttling between the dining room and kitchen, frying up empanadillas stuffed with Oaxaca cheese. They're both vivacious and easygoing â perfectly suited to the job of hosting a bunch of strangers and dealing with "unforeseen circumstances," like an episode last summer when a guest fainted after a little too much rum on a hot day.
But I actually went for two dinners, and one was nothing like the other. The second dinner was in the East Village, in Manhattan. The host: a Wall Street banker turned Hindu monk named Rasanath Dasa.
We sat in Dasa's apartment, discussing authenticity and the pure life, capitalism and self-denial, all the while sipping water and having what might be some of the best soup I have ever eaten. If this all sounds a little strange, and surreal â it was. It was also completely mesmerizing.
Vipin Goyal co-founded Side Tour, the site where you can sign up for Rasanath Dasa's dinner. He said the company takes pains to find people who are more than just good cooks.
"It was people who we thought would be really remarkable for other people to get to know," Goyal said.
The idea seems to be succeeding. Side Tour says some of its hosts make anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 a year, and in the fall the company was bought by Groupon.
Meanwhile, Eat With is adding dining experiences in dozens of countries. Not that anyone's expecting home dining to replace restaurants, at least not in New York. After all, there are only so many New Yorkers who can cook and are willing to play host in their tiny apartments. But that doesn't make the experience any less fun.
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Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now we have the story of people who are eating out by dining in. Numerous websites seek to connect diners with home cooking in someone else's house. Eat With or Side Tour or VoulezVous promise to connect you with a stranger who would happy to have you over for dinner.
Reporter Arun Venugopal, of member station WNYC, gave it a try.
ARUN VENUGOPAL, BYLINE: It's easy to think that this latest foodie trend sweeping New York and other cities is all about the food. Mmm, can't wait to get that home-cooked meal in Chinatown.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
VENUGOPAL: But it's not.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I know baseball.
(LAUGHTER)
VENUGOPAL: The food is often just an excuse...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I know the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to L.A.
VENUGOPAL: ...for what can essentially be a really great party with a bunch of people you've never met.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You say Jay Z, because in my funny-speaking language, I say: Oh, that's Jay Zed.
(LAUGHTER)
VENUGOPAL: This was a taco party I found through the Eat With website. I paid 40 bucks to go to the home of two fun-loving Latinas. They have a great apartment, filled with art, just across from the Brooklyn Museum. And as soon as their guests arrived they made it a point to shove rum drinks into their hands.
Katrin Bergmann came all the way from Frankfurt, Germany. She was part of a gaggle of German tourists that turned up, because she'd seen a segment on Eat With on German TV called "How to Survive in New York."
KATRIN BERGMANN: We thought we wanted to do something different from a normal tourist, tour. And we wanted to talk to real people who live here. And so we have real Brooklyn people around us, and that's...
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: And Germans.
BERGMANN: And Germans, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
VENUGOPAL: The hosts, Glori Linares and Victoria Delgado, keep shuttling between the dining room and kitchen, frying up empanadillas stuffed with Oaxaca cheese. They're both vivacious, easy-going, perfectly suited to the job of hosting a bunch of strangers and dealing with unforeseen circumstances, like an episode last summer.
GLORI LINARES: And all of a sudden, we hear a thump on the floor.
(LAUGHTER)
VENUGOPAL: She passed out?
VICTORIA DELGADO: She did pass out, and we freaked out a little bit, not that much.
LINARES: After that, she was, like, really, like, she was fine.
DELGADO: She just fainted.
LINARES: She just fainted.
VENUGOPAL: Because it was a hot day, and the lady went a little heavy on the rum. But I actually went for two dinners, and one was nothing like the other.
RASANATH DASA: If ambition is tied into authenticity, there's nothing more powerful than that.
VENUGOPAL: Here, the setting was the East Village, in Manhattan. And the host, a Wall-Street-banker-turned-Hindu monk.
DASA: The problem is when it gets rooted in narcissism. Then it takes on a very different form.
VENUGOPAL: We sat in Rasanath Dasa's apartment, discussing authenticity and the pure life, capitalism and self-denial, all the while sipping water and having what might be some of the best soup I have had. If this all sounds a little strange, a little surreal it was, and completely mesmerizing.
Vipin Goyal co-founded Side Tour, the site where you can sign up Rasanath Dasa's dinner. He said the company takes pains to find people who are more than just good cooks.
VIPIN GOYAL: It was people who we thought would be really remarkable for other people to get to know.
VENUGOPAL: The idea seems to be succeeding. Side Tour says some of its hosts make anywhere from 10 to $50,000 a year. And in the fall, the company was bought by Groupon. Meanwhile, Eat With is adding dining experiences in dozens of countries. Not that anyone's expecting home dining to replace restaurants, at least not in New York. After all, there are only so many New Yorkers who can cook, and are willing to play host in their tiny apartments. But that doesn't make the experience any less fun.
BERGMANN: Cheers.
(SOUNDBITE OF CLINKING GLASSES)
VENUGOPAL: For NPR News, I'm Arun Venugopal, in New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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