Dinner Lab coming to Chicago

I saw that Dinner Lab was coming to Chicago http://dinnerlab.com/chicago/joinus.html, curious if anyone has used dinner lab in one of the other states that they are located or know anyone who has. It seems a lot less pretentious than The Second City Dinner club, but im still unsure what the caliber of chefs they have are, and how the food/service is.

If anyone has been to one of these or know someone who has I would love to hear about it. The pricing seems very reasonable.

Am I mistaken or are you spending $175 for the privilege of being able to go to $50-70 dinners later?

I agree; I do not see the appeal. Perhaps if one resided in a city with limited excellent dining opportunities but Chicago has such a plethora of amazing restaurants, wonderful culinary events, high quality pop up and underground dinners, collaborations among different restaurants, wine and special event dinners at restaurants, Sunday Supper events etc. that I just fail to grasp why someone would pay $175 to be able to pay more to attend these dinners. Unless these dinners are really phenomenal and unique this seems like a poor value to me and a totally unnecessary expenditure.

The $175 also only accounts for you and a guest. You cannot send two separate people in your stead.

I was considering it for a while, but ran into those limitations, and realized as gonzo said, probably not worth using some of my limited dining budget on that.

While I understand that the $175 joining fee is unreasonable. If they are able to get quality chefs the fact that they offer dinners for 50-85$ all with a minimum of 5 courses inclusive of a pre cocktail hour, and beverage pairings, tax and tip, I feel like the dinners themselves are somewhat subsidized. But that also goes to my question, im not sure what type of talent they will be able to acquire and what the quality will be, hence my hesitation to jump in no questions asked.

It seems the be cheaper to join in some other cities - $100 in Austin - and I think they say you can book meals in any city? Guessing they go by your home address?

Had the same reaction of why would I do this given what is available in Chicago - I am guessing the appeal is in the club-y nature? that over time you get to know the other 300 members as you go to dinners together?

It would help if they were more forthcoming about the chefs they work with.

Siun wrote:It would help if they were more forthcoming about the chefs they work with.

I'm guessing that if they had anyone of note solidly lined up, they would.

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bhovsepian wrote:While I understand that the $175 joining fee is unreasonable. If they are able to get quality chefs the fact that they offer dinners for 50-85$ all with a minimum of 5 courses inclusive of a pre cocktail hour, and beverage pairings, tax and tip, I feel like the dinners themselves are somewhat subsidized. But that also goes to my question, im not sure what type of talent they will be able to acquire and what the quality will be, hence my hesitation to jump in no questions asked.

I just took a closer look at their website and they state they use "undiscovered chefs." They also seem to use odd locations (they give examples of a motorcycle shop, the roof of an abandoned building and the floor of a paper mill).

While I imagine they sometimes have good dinners, unestablished chefs cooking in obscure locations (apparently often lacking kitchens) for a large number of people sounds even less enticing than paying $175 for a ticket to Next's steak menu.

My friends belong in NYC....other cities have sold memberships in hours. Chicago is a slow start. They did it for one year in NYC and enjoyed it very much.

So has anyone been since this launched earlier this year?

I went to one event early on, a crawfish boil. The venue was great with a live band and a very fun time, however the food was mediocre at best. It turned into a binge drinking fest as it is an open bar and really the only way you can recoup your money. I will not be renewing my membership this year. None of the menus aside from one have sounded good. All of the menus contain food that is able to be prepared in mass quantities with limited kitchen resourecs.

I went to the Brooklyn Brewery collaboration dinner and it was excellent (which you could attend without being a member). It was a tasting-style menu so I think it was probably a lot different than the crawfish boil. I think the chef, Daniel Espinoza is very promising, but the membership fee is still a deterrence to me especially since I despise communal-style dining and found some of the members I sat next to extremely annoying.

Haven't heard a thing about this from anyone. I missed the thread on here but haven't heard even a single person talk about this. I'd rather overpay for a known commodity than overpay for a ? meal in a ? place.

two days ago Chicagoist had an article about Dinner Lab, and chef Daniel Espinoza. Apparently the concept is not just members-only pop-ups:

"Dinner Lab is a “social dining experiment” hosting pop-up meals across the country. But another thing they do is incubate the careers of talented up and coming chefs...Dinner Lab’s incubation of up and coming chefs isn’t just providing coaching and venues for cooking, they also plan to help them open their own restaurants. To decide which of their chefs will be the first for this project they sent them on tour this year and narrowed down the field based on diner feedback. Espinoza is one of three finalists. They are getting ready to present their restaurant ideas to investors."

http://chicagoist.com/2014/12/12/introd ... _wants.php

Shasson wrote:two days ago Chicagoist had an article about Dinner Lab, and chef Daniel Espinoza. Apparently the concept is not just members-only pop-ups:

"Dinner Lab is a “social dining experiment” hosting pop-up meals across the country. But another thing they do is incubate the careers of talented up and coming chefs...Dinner Lab’s incubation of up and coming chefs isn’t just providing coaching and venues for cooking, they also plan to help them open their own restaurants. To decide which of their chefs will be the first for this project they sent them on tour this year and narrowed down the field based on diner feedback. Espinoza is one of three finalists. They are getting ready to present their restaurant ideas to investors."

http://chicagoist.com/2014/12/12/introd ... _wants.php

Yes. Written by mgmcewen who posted above, #12, in this thread.

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Is the incubator idea common knowledge? I didn't see it elsewhere in the thread.