The year Philly dined with strangers: How supper clubs and shared meals helped build community in 2024

On an August evening, Alisha Kuriakose walked into Loco Pez in West Philadelphia to dine with two strangers she met on Facebook.

This was the University City resident’s first outing with Philly Gals and Pals Dinner, a women-only Facebook group with 57 members dedicated to dining with strangers. A transplant from New York, Kuriakose joined the group to meet new people. “What’s a better way to make friends than share a meal with strangers?” she thought.

“If I make friends here and we all connect at a dinner, it’s a very easy activity to continue doing — and if I went to a dinner and I didn’t really have that much fun, then it wasn’t a huge commitment either,” Kuriakose said.

Throughout 2024, Philadelphians, from longtime residents to newcomers, embraced similar food-filled gatherings. Supper clubs, app-organized meetups, and casual dinners in homes, bars, and restaurants brought people together in a citywide trend of dining with strangers.

The timing isn’t surprising. Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped how people connect, the need for community remains strong, especially among Philadelphians, said Sydney Sturge, administrator of Philly Gals and Pals.

In February, local therapist Shayna Rudd told The Inquirer that the pandemic had significantly disrupted people’s ability to form social connections. While U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s warnings about a “loneliness epidemic” brought national attention to the issue, a 2024 Gallup report showed that 52 million Americans were still grappling with loneliness — an increase since the start of the year.

“We don’t heal in isolation,” Rudd said. “We do our individual work, but we heal in community.”

Philadelphians took that to heart, finding new ways to connect — one meal at a time.

For Sturge, a 23-year-old remote worker in West Philadelphia, the Philly Gals and Pals group became a safe, inclusive space for women of color to plan casual meetups. Members posted dinner ideas and coordinated plans in the comments.

Sharing a meal is “a very human thing” that appeals to everyone, she said. Sturge hosted three dinners and attended other outings facilitated in the group.

“Breaking bread really is such a beautiful thing,” Sturge said. “Going in you already know at the very least you’re gonna enjoy a nice meal, which I think is very comforting and reassuring — you’re going to get something good out of it regardless and hopefully meet people that you like as well.”

Apps also played a role in Philadelphia’s social scene this year.

In April, when the app Timeleft added Philly to its roster of more than 275 cities, it ensured Philadelphians like Morgan Steffy didn’t have to dine alone on Wednesdays. The app pairs like-minded strangers for dinner and drinks every week based on its algorithm.

Steffy, a 30-year-old software engineer from West Philadelphia, attended her first Timeleft dinner in October at El Rey in Center City. She’d downloaded the app to meet people organically without the pressure of dating or joining a sports league.

“In your 30s, you might still have your high school and college friends, but there’s a good chance you’ve all kind of dispersed by that age,” Steffy said. “So, it’s sort of a new chapter. The nice thing about Timeleft is that it’s never someone just inviting all their friends — it’s this third [-party] thing that everybody goes to which feels really special.”

At El Rey, Steffy met a Temple University doctor, a nomad who works in health-care technology, and a developer for a finance firm. Everyone had come to the restaurant that night for the same reason: to dine with strangers.

For others, 2024 was a year of finding connection through chef-driven supper clubs.

Denise Scobee, a 60-year-old South Philly resident, has been dining with strangers for years with groups like Outstanding in the Field and Tasting Collective. More recently, she’s been a regular at Habibi Supper Club, an underground Lebanese supper club by local chef Miled Finianos.

“I like to eat; I just don’t like to cook,” she said. “[And] I do enjoy talking to other people — it’s part of the fun.” Scobee attended four dinners with Finianos this year.

What makes supper clubs like Habibi special is the opportunity to build connections with local chefs. “They tell you more about themselves personally [and] their inspirations for the food,” like Finianos, whose warm and welcoming personality is at the center of his dinners, she said.

“We crave connection and intimacy, and nothing is more intimate than sharing a meal with someone,” Finianos said.

“What I love about Philadelphia is how it reminds me so much of Lebanon,” he added. “We’re not shy about anything. We make ourselves present and known; we connect with people easily. And when you cross that with a beautiful setting and delicious meals, you’re hooked and you want to experience them all.”

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Shelby Sturge’s last name.