Dining club


A dining club or eating club is a social group, typically requiring membership, that meets for dinners and discussions on a regular basis. Some dining clubs have collegiate affiliations, such as the Bullingdon Club at Oxford University or the Princeton University Eating Clubs.

United Kingdom

A dining club differs from a gentlemen's club in that it does not have permanent premises, often changing the location of its meetings and dinners.
Clubs may limit their membership to those who meet highly specific membership requirements. For example, the Coningsby Club requires members to have been a part of either OUCA or CUCA, the Conservative Associations at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge respectively. Others may require applicants to pass an interview, or simply pay a membership fee.
Early dining clubs include the Pitt Club, the Bullingdon Club, and the 16' Club.

United States

In the United States, similar social clubs, especially in collegiate contexts, are known as eating clubs. Eating clubs date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are intended to allow college students to enjoy meals and pleasant discourse. Some clubs are referred to as bicker clubs because of the process of bickering over which applicants to accept as members. Replaced largely by the modern fraternity and sorority system, eating clubs are now limited to a few colleges and universities, most prominently at Princeton University, though other universities including Stanford University, Davidson College, the University of Mount Olive, and Reed College have the presence of eating clubs.
The term dining club is also used in the United States, often to refer to private groups formed for socialization and the enjoyment of unique or elaborate dishes.
Dining clubs often have reciprocity with other dining clubs across the nation or even worldwide. Some are able to arrange reciprocity with other private social clubs with more facilities besides dining such as overnight guest rooms and a gym. Examples of such social clubs include the Penn Club of New York City, which has reciprocity with the India House Club at 1 Hanover Square.

List of dining clubs

This list is incomplete.
Date of founding in brackets.
18th-century, or earlier, foundations
19th-century foundations
20th- and 21st-century foundations

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