In January of 2007, the ethnic dining club Eat the World made its debut in New York City.
The mission of the club is to discover and enjoy authentic ethnic restaurants in a comfortable environment, providing the opportunity to meet new people. 

Eat the World is different from  most dining clubs in that only ethnic restaurants are considered.  The club provides attendees with the opportunity to learn about the cuisine of a particular country by sampling a fairly extensive variety of dishes.  Every month, I work with the restaurant owner to prepare a set menu featuring classic dishes from the restaurant’s figurative homeland.  The dishes are served family style to encourage tasting all of the entrees.  Venue suggestions often come from friends and members kind enough to share their favorite restaurants in the city serving the cuisine of their ethnic heritage. 

Depending on the restaurant, the owner or manager may visit our table and tell us about the cultural aspect of the food from their country and how they came about opening the restaurant, but most of the time this information is communicated to me beforehand or after our event over a phone interview.  Some of the stories are particularly interesting.  For example, chef Krzysztof Drzewiecki’s dream was to open a fine dining restaurant that Polish people would be proud of.  After working for years in Nobu’s kitchen in Tribeca, he realized his dream by opening “King’s Feast” in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

At the end of the evening, every attendee completes a detailed survey on the tastiness of the restaurant’s dishes, its ambiance, and its seeming authenticity. The results from the surveys are compiled and shared with the attendees in a follow-up email. One of the group’s main goals in 2008 is to build a website and get a blog up and running where the survey results for each restaurant may be accessed. 

Eat The World truly provides the opportunity to meet new people.  The club has gained momentum over the past year and claims an email list of 200,  with new members being added every month.  Regular attendees make up only about 25% of the group each month. Most  attendees join us for an event two or three times a year.  We see new faces every month. The male/female ratio for the events varies from month to month, but is typically 70% female and 30% male. Many friendships have been forged over the course of the last few months including one marriage.

One of my favorite aspects of the club is the opportunity it provides to broaden one’s horizons.  It was surprising to me how many had never tried jellyfish in Chinatown. Yet I was more astonished by the great number of people that took a liking to pork knuckle at a German restaurant. The Nigerian restaurant we tried in Chicago was particularly memorable because everyone tried goat for the first time together.  

FOUNDING GROUND:
Eat the World began in Chicago.  After gaining a popular following over two years, the dining club moved to New York City with three of its members.  We have heard rustlings of a Chicago ETW resurrection, but no progress has been made as of yet.

TO FIND OUT MORE:
If you are interested in learning more about Eat The World or would like to add your name to our email list, please send your name and email address to marycheely@hotmail.com.  If you have a restaurant that you would like to suggest for a future event, your suggestion will be most welcomed.

Mary Cheely is a Chicago native who enjoys traveling, great friends, and good fun.  She currently lives on Roosevelt Island.