This Club Does Private Takeovers of SF’s Buzziest Restaurants

Everything else looks lame by comparison

July 17, 2018 9:00 am EDT

The worst thing about dining out in S.F.? Besides the inevitable $1,000 tab?

Access: everything’s booked, two months in advance. And typically, the chef does not stop by your table for a Q&A session.

But a new private club has solved for both of those, and they just launched in San Francisco.

Tasting Collective (2 images)

Introducing Tasting Collective.

Here’s how it works: members pay an annual fee of $165. Tasting Collective hosts an eight-course, family-style meal at in-demand restaurants every couple weeks or so; last weekend saw two seatings at Hawker Fare.

One ticket is $50. If you want to bring a non-member guest, their ticket will be $75. Drinks are extra, as are taxes and tip.

In our eyes, that’s an absolute steal for the chance to sample the chef’s best and receive a tableside visit from them to chat about their food.

And best of all, everyone’s seated together. Forced socializing is sometimes the best socializing.

Get on it.

Meet your guide

Diane Rommel

Diane Rommel

Diane Rommel has written for The Wall Street Journal, Outside, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Travel + Leisure, Wallpaper and Afar, as well as The Cut, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and McSweeney’s. She once drove from London to Mongolia, via Siberia.
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