Jack speaks with Stuart Langley, head honcho and bearded brains behind  The Disappearing Dining Club, a supper club that combines pop up dining, party planning and (sometimes) throws in a little urban exploration for good measure. One of their mottos? “Restaurant food in surprising spaces” – which seems about right… 

Founded in 2010, they’ve grown quickly –  mainly through word of mouth and reputation, having come up with some pretty odd (but not too odd) eating experiences that people tend to tell their friends about. You’ll find The DDC hidden in plain sight, often in various London spots, and increasingly further afield (most recently popping up in Devon, Dorset and Manchester). A restaurant, this is certainly not.

So, what would the DDC do with a functioning army tank, how hard is it to start your own supper club, where do the ideas come from and how do they find new venues to work with? Find out all this and more as Stuart answers/endures our questions…

Full name: Stuart Langley  

Role: Founder 

DOB: 12/11/76 

Birthplace: Staffordshire 

Current Affiliation: Disappearing Dining Club

Twitter Handle: @DiningClub

Website: www.disappearingdiningclub.co.uk

J: What or where did the original idea for the club come from? Could you give us a an outline of it’s origins and how it got to where it is today?

S: It developed from a drunken conversation at the Big Chill festival in 2010.  A chef friend of mine suggested we worked together on a supper club at her house, I thought that would be fun, but that doing something a bit bigger might make us a bit of money too.  So I came up with a name, got a friend to design the logo, set up a Facebook page, and Disappearing Dining Club was born.

We did a deal on an unused kitchen, turned a take away into a one seater restaurant, borrowed an empty pub and threw our first Dinner Dance, then borrowed a gallery, then borrowed a nightclub, and three years later we have a restaurant, host three of our own dinner parties a month, and look after private dinners in countless photo studios, galleries, coffee shops, fashion stores, a launderette, furniture warehouses, car parks, rooftops, homes and, well, just about anywhere.

 

Word of mouth has allowed us to grow our business organically, based on actual demand.  We’ve grown with our customer base, which has meant our business has been affordable to run at all times.

We had a particularly big, significant Dinner Dance, back in 2011, which I was very very unhappy with.  Even though we got good feedback from many of the guests, I felt it was hugely below the standard I wanted.  It was really upsetting, after putting in so much work, that the end result wasn’t good enough.  In many ways though, it was an essential experience that we came out of much much stronger.

The spaces we work in.  The ingredients we use.  The simple, unfussy, flavour-led food that we enjoy.  Fred Bolin, my business partner and Head Chef is Swedish, classically French schooled, was trained in Italian food by Giorgio Locatelli, and ran a Michelin starred restaurant in New York.  His wife is Brazilian and he’s lived in London for 18 years.  Our food is a  little bit of all of these things.

I am always looking for new spaces, and try and work with as many new places as we can.  We write our menus with the style of the venue and the most seasonal ingredients in mind. 

NYE 2012/13 was a winner.  We pre-sold 700 tickets for a dinner party, canapé party, and for the late night party.

I work from around 8.30am/9am either from my home in Borough, Back in 5 Minutes (our restaurant on Brick Lane), or a handy coffee shop in East London.  I try and spend the first half of each day at my laptop, and the second half of the day in meetings with venues and people who want DDC to cook for them.  In between these times I’m cycling between meetings or on the phone.  

I try and do as much work as I can Monday to Friday, so I don’t end up working every weekend too.   I try and go to every dinner party we do though, even if it’s just to say hello or help set up the room, but if we have 5 or 6 dinners happening at the same time I can’t always manage it.  I also teach monthly weekend courses for the Guardian on food business start-ups, which has been a lot of fun.

Elegantly unfussy seasonal ingredients and flavours you want to eat.

That we will always take you somewhere special for dinner – and not just in London – also now in Devon, Dorset & Manchester.

I eat all food.  I like eating with my hands.  I don’t really understand peanut butter (but if you make me, I’ll still eat it).

Our third Dinner Dance.  We had 90 guests and I didn’t know a single person. All 90 of them were actual, genuine customers who had put £50 each, directly into my bank account, without knowing where they were going or what they’d be eating.  At that point I knew we might have something.  We’re doing alright but we haven’t ‘made it’ yet.  I’ll let you know if that ever happens.

We would turn our dojo into a 70s/80s NYC style restaurant & disco.  We would teach our kitchen and floor staff a form of martial arts that looks a lot like waiting tables/working in a kitchen.  At night they would fight crime.  One team in chef whites, the other team in waiting staff black.

Private dining room for 2?

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