Return of the supper club

The sofa-lined Supperclub in Amsterdam is coming to London.

10 April 2012

Groucho Marx may not have wanted to be a member of any club that would have him, but if it included lobster, Chateaubriand, champagne and high-kicks, I doubt even he could have resisted.

Last year soirées were the thing, this year it is going to be supper clubs, as wily entrepreneurs have realised that we are bored with downing daiquiris on empty stomachs all night in homogenous bars. We want food, drink and entertainment and, if we're single, we want a seductive arena in which to meet new people.

One of the largest and most exciting supper clubs to launch in the capital will be Le Pigalle on Piccadilly, next month. It is the brainchild of Vince Power and the focus will be on live music combined with good food served at tables.

Le Pigalle - named after the flamboyant Parisian red-light district - will be housed in an old Forties tearoom and cinema that used to screen the controversial film Emmanuelle, and there will be a band playing until 4am every night of the week.

Power, who sold his Mean Fiddler group last year, reckons he's seen a gap in the market: "I wanted to open something original, where you could have dinner, watch a band and have a dance," he says.

"It goes back to the romantic idea of the Forties. I love old black-and-white movies and they were often set in dinner clubs, with a band playing in the background, so I wanted to recreate that. Our waiters, for example, will wear beautiful Forties suits."

Given the popularity of Forties-style dresses at London Fashion Week, he's onto something. Power will also encourage impromptu performances. "When I organised the B square B ball last year Damian Lewis got up and sang. It depends on who's in town at the moment - Van Morrison maybe, or Anna Friel, who has a lovely voice - just friends I can call on."

Vince will also team up with Milly von Westenholz and Mat Whitley, who host cult cabaret evening Medium Rare at Bush Hall in Shepherd's Bush.

Together they will host decadent variety shows with cocktails and dinner in an Art Deco ballroom Power owns in Bloomsbury (The new, hip All Star Lanes bowling alley is in the basement).

Professional kitchens are being fitted and there's a belle époque bar which will serve Forties cocktails - it will open in May.

"We thought it would be a great idea to combine dinner, dancing and a show," says Whitley. "We wanted to serve great food, with a bit of a spectacle," adds von Westenholz. "It is a onestop shop. [The problem is] if you go to the theatre, do you eat at 6pm or 10pm? You want to be able to chill with your friends and be greatly entertained."

They have already been running a mini supper club in Clerkenwell's Zetter hotel since October, called Minute Steak, at which there are live auditions for Medium Rare, serving, of course, steak and chips. "We have all kinds of people," they say, "from Mesopotamian storytellers to contortionists and puppeteers".

Although the food is great (they have used chefs from Chez Christophe, Brindisa and Conran), they insist that it is about hearty, communal eating (fondues, whole pots of coq au vin) rather than haute cuisine.

But in another new supper club called AvivA - in the Baglioni hotel, in Knightsbridge - the emphasis is on luxury. At the end of last month they held their first event, set on a huge trestle table, serving sirloin steak and saffron risotto while a sultry Latin jazz band played in the background.

Sam Pemberton, the brains behind it, feels there is an important social element to supper clubs: "Ideally, you want to sleep with the person on your left and work with the person on your right," she proclaims.

"You can take a table with a few friends, or hire the whole place out. I just had a call from a ladies' cigar club, wanting to take the whole club for the evening. I want it to be a home from home."

A fan of the concept is the hairdresser Nicky Clarke, who was there with his son, Harrison: "I really enjoy meeting new people, we all live so far from each other in London, and this is a way to all meet in a civilised environment and share good food and wine."

Man-about-town Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe agrees. "Well, it's an obvious progression - I am a big fan of dining with friends, and it beats clubbing all night."

Indeed, it seems only logical that someone would have taken the social concept one step further and started a dating supper club. Tamsin Lonsdale runs Supperclub London, and holds events for all age groups in venues around the capital, including the members' club Adam Street and Annabel's.

She set it up after finding it hard to meet a boyfriend: "The guys you see on a night out on the town aren't necessarily the ones you want to go out with," she sighs.

"I looked around my circle of friends in relationships and saw that most had met at dinner parties, so I thought I'd combine the two. It goes back to the root of traditional entertainment, when people gathered around tables to eat and chat."

Without a doubt, one of the most bizarre evenings out in Europe is the Dali-esque Supperclub in Amsterdam, a freakshow with delicious food (crucified guinea fowl served by transvestites, anyone?) and frequented by the likes of Britney Spears, Pink and David Bowie. The interiors have huge sofa beds that accommodate 50 or so. Happily, this is set to come to London this autumn and the owners have just secured a venue in the City.

It seems supper clubs are set to become all the rage. As one guest told me at AvivA, it represents a cultural shift: "It's not only a throwback to Thirties and Forties glamour but it is intellectually and socially interesting to have to interact with strangers; we live in a trivial age and something like this brings people together."

Le Pigalle
215-217 Piccadilly, W1, 020 7287 3834, www.lepigalle.co.uk. Opening in March, 6pm-4am.

Medium Rare Bush Hall
310 Uxbridge Road, W12, 020 8749 7781, www.mediumrare.tv. Next events, 15 March and 2-6 May.

AvivA
60 Hyde Park Gate, SW7, 020 7937 9099, www.avivalounge.com. Its supper club is open Tuesdays to Thursdays.

Supperclub London
Varied venues, www.supperclub london. com. Events for different age groups. Next available events: 7 March (for 23-35-yearolds) at The Ifield, SW10; 9 March (for 35-49s) at Beach Blanket Babylon, W11. Contact Tamsin Lonsdale on 07812 538352.

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Return of the supper club

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