School of Communication seniors Melanie Ahn, Talia Hartman-Sigall and Lili Tarnopol were just acquaintances when they sat down for coffee this Fall Quarter. By the end of their chat, inspiration had struck.

When discussing their love of hosting, the group planned to organize an upscale dinner party for their friends, Ahn said. Late into Winter Quarter, Ahn saw a post from WAVE Productions inviting students to pitch their “spevent” to the board. 

The three’s special event was selected for production by WAVE and turned into The Supper Club, which held its first interactive dining experience April 27, and has gone on to host four dinners in total, each with around 14 guests.

At the dinners, attendees were randomly seated to encourage connections with strangers, acquaintances and friends, Hartman-Sigall said. 

“We were talking about freshman year in the dining halls, you kind of just had to walk up and sit at the table that you knew somebody vaguely at,” Hartman-Sigall said. “(We) wanted to recreate that experience of connecting with people who you might not otherwise have connected with over a meal in a sort of more elevated way than what may happen in Allison Dining Hall.”

They received just over $2,000 from WAVE and various departments to produce the event. Every penny was spent, Hartman-Sigall said.

After receiving funding, the trio secured a venue: a VRBO house on Monroe Street. Needing a space that would allow for the three-person jazz band they wanted, a kitchen that could hold three cooks and was within their price range was a difficult task, Ahn said. 

Their largest endeavor was tackling the menu, Ahn said. They wanted the menu to feel accessible, but also higher end, Ahn said. 

“We weren’t going to make foie gras, but we also weren’t going to make spaghetti,” Tarnopol said. 

Ahn said they crafted the menu that drew from nostalgic meals and flavors. The sweet potato and kimchi in goguma cones is a classic Korean pairing she grew up with, she said. 

The chicken entree was a recipe from Hartman-Sigall’s grandmother, one she would make every Passover.

“Food tradition is huge in my family. For us, getting to pass that down, and getting to have our families watch us take on that tradition has been really special,” Hartman-Sigall said.

The meal was intended to feel like the start of spring, Tarnopol said. The butter was shaped like flowers, cookies were tea-infused flavors and the guests were encouraged to wear their best spring attire. Everything was homemade, down to the syrups in the drinks and the smoked salmon.

The three course meal transitioned from appetizers that required mingling, to a seated individually plated entree, to family-style dessert. The setup symbolized the shift from acquaintance to friend that they hoped would happen throughout the night.

The event was open to students involved in theatre. Students filled out an interest form and invites to the dinner were decided by a randomized lottery.

Tarnopol said the team was excited to hold the dinner for Northwestern’s Student Theatre Coalition community because the theatre world is often pitted against one another. 

“We wanted to see what we could create in a setting where the theatre community was not competing with each other, but, instead, taking care of each other,” Tarnopol said.

Guests were required to put their phones in baskets and conversation cards were placed at each end of the table to encourage connection. Tarnopol recalled hearing one group transition from talking about grief to “Star Wars.”

Hartman-Sigall said she thought the guests found safety in the fact that they were mostly strangers.

“The feedback we’ve been getting is that people have been waiting for something like this,” Tarnopol said. “This is something they’ve been wanting and romanticizing for such a long time. We gave them not only space to do it, but permission to do it and encouraged it.”

Ahn said the trio relied on their experience in theatre and creating shows to craft the evening. Ahn, the set designer, designed the invitations, menu and aesthetic elements of the night. Hartman-Sigall, the director, cooked and organized the petition. Tarnopol, the lighting designer, set up the space and baked everything from bread to tiramisu. 

While the process felt similar to putting on a show, the response was different, Ahn said.

“When you go to see your friend’s show, it’s about your friends who were in it or who worked on it, and you’re just kind of one of the audience members,” Ahn said. “This was so tailored specifically to every guest. Every single person mattered to them and I think when people left, they really felt that, and felt lucky and grateful to have gotten that experience.”

Communication freshman and member of WAVE Ryan Samii attended The Supper Club’s second dinner. 

Samii said he sat next to an engineering professor. He enjoyed the opportunity to get the perspective of someone outside of StuCo and even the student circle. 

“I really enjoyed having a dinner where I did not have my phone and to be able to just connect with people that I hadn’t (or) that I had seen around, but had never really gotten the chance to talk to before,” Samii said.

Ahn, Tarnogol and Hartman-Sigall will graduate this spring and hope to pursue careers in the arts. Their parting gift to each guest was a goodie bag with conversation cards and cookies in the hopes that moments of The Supper Club will extend beyond the dinner.

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