10 reasons why people paid to eat in my lounge

 

Last year, I set up and ran a secret supper club from my lounge.

We served dinners 4 nights a week to 12 people around a handmade table, each night with a different chef and  menu. Our tickets would sell out 2 or 3 months in advance. Anecdotally, we were one of the fastest sell-out supper clubs. How did I do it?

Why were diners willing to pay in advance for a dinner in an unlicenced property – somebody’s home –  before they knew the location of the dinner or anybody who will be there?

It was down to how we built the Brand. Here are some lessons – applied and learnt.

1. Be Transparent – Secret Supper Clubs by their very nature are underground and discreet. For guests to trust us to look after them – and to trust that I would not run away with their upfront payment (!) –  I had to be as open as possible without losing the magic of the secret club. I put my name and business on the line to build trust in what I was doing – I put up my company website, my twitter and facebook links, as did my business partners in this project. I put as much information about ourselves as possible, with bios and pictures of all of us. We had to be accountable.

2. Be Professional. Full House had to be money-making in order for us to cover our high costs. Our tickets were over £50 per head which is not cheap, considering that does not include drinks. To command this price,  we had to run Full House like a proper business. We had a logo made by Christian at SignalNoise, we bought a domain name, and I built a website for the business using Squarespace. We had business cards and letterheads printed, and we had our own Full House cookie cutter made by Lily Vanilli. Our menus were branded and we had press releases sent to journalists. Full House was a business in every way… but the license! Which was precisely our appeal.

3. Be unique. We were not the first supper club on the scene. That title belongs to ms marmite. But to draw in the crowds, we had to be unique. One way we did this was through our interiors. This was designed by my friend and business partner Matteo Bianchi, he and his team renovated the space so that it would look like a place of playful rebellion; Victorian toys sat alongside futuristic lighting, a sense of discovery through red velvet curtains, and a feeling of performance in praise of cooking, whilst diners sat on reclaimed Cinema Chairs.

4. Create Hype and a Brand Story With the successful launch of anything, the ability to create hype is key. Everyone loves a how-it-all-began story, whether to do with a business, or even how a couple met; we love to know how great things are created. What was the spark? What was the sequence of events? I blogged the concept from the first day I saw the space, and began to build a fan base. Think of films you love, and you will  know just how compelling a story of overcoming challenges, of beating the odds, of being up against time, and of pulling it off, really is! Then think how exciting it would be if that was all LIVE!  I blogged and posted pictures of progress over the short period we had to renovate and launch the club. Below are some pictures of the work-in-progress.

6. Partnerships – As an avid reader of business books, networking and building partnerships is said to be one of the keys to success. You simply do not have time to go and find each customer individually. Instead, look for businesses who already engage with your audience. We made partnerships with chefs, foodie  fan groups, bloggers, kitchen equipment suppliers, photographers, and food suppliers, and involved them from the start. In turn they would get free dinner tickets while they spread the word of our supper club to their circles – and thus a snowball effect came into play.  This strategy helped us cut down our start-up costs. In exchange for exposure of their products and services, our photography, drinks, lighting, tiles, furniture, were all sponsored.

7. Quality The food that we served had to be better or as good as a restaurant; it could not feel like home-cooking. The chefs all had to cook to a certain level to cook at Full House; either fully trained or had been cooking professionally for a long time. The quality of our food made sure that we had loyal repeat custom, which I loved, as it felt like I was having old friends over for dinner. Some guests would block-book for weeks and bring different friends with them every time.

8. Service. At the start of each evening, I would memorise all the names of guests and worked out a careful seating plan, making sure I would introduce the right people to each other and to be able to call the guests by their first name. Our tables were custom built to seat 12 people exactly – this was the maximum number of people I felt that myself, a chef and 2 waiters could look after with ease; so that service was impeccable.

9. Push the Boundaries  The more events we did, the more I wanted our events to be more than just a dinner club. They had to be memorable. For instance, our collaboration with Caroline Hobkinson called Blitzspirit saw us making menus from replica ration books, building an air-raid shelter into the lounge,  playing sirens, and have a surprise singer in the garden who sang “When Will We Meet Again”, and a 5 course dinner inspired by the period.

10. Leave on a High. We said we would do a six-month pop-up, and we extended it by another 6 months as the demand was just so high. By the 9th month, supper clubs were starting up everywhere (of varying quality, and many were sponsored by Corporates) and I also began to feel exhausted from running the club in the evenings and trying to keep my business running during the day.  Being quite a trend-follower, my gut was saying that the ‘Pop-Up’ had a shelf life, and I wanted to get out before the hype ended.

When I announced ‘The End’, there was lots of messages of disappointment from our loyal fan base, but I knew it was the right thing to do. A week after the lease ended, I shut the door on Full House and began a new challenge. Now, the space is a home to a couple I have never met. I wonder whether they know what the space was used for before..! It reminds me of just how temporary and momentary life’s joys can be – and that is exactly why the ‘Pop-Up’ trend is/was(?) so exciting. Now I crave permanence and longevity. Still…it tasted great at the time.

Here are some press clippings from The Sunday Times Style, Stylist Magazine and the Evening Standard. We were also in Glamour Magazine, Closer, The Times, the Zaggat Buzz and many more.

Creating ‘Full House’ is probably one of the proudest things I have ever done.