A dining club (UK) or eating club (US) is a

social group In the social sciences, a social group is defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. F ...

, usually requiring membership (which may, or may not be available only to certain people), which meets for dinners and discussion on a regular basis. They may also often have guest speakers.

United Kingdom

A dining club differs from a

gentlemen's club A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally established by males from Britain's upper classes starting in the 17th century. Many countries outside Britain have prominent gentlemen's clubs, mostly those associated with the ...

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 An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" re ...

, or simply pay a membership fee. Early dining clubs include the

Pitt Club The University Pitt Club, popularly referred to as the Pitt Club, the UPC, or merely as Club, is a private members' club of the University of Cambridge. It was formerly male-only, and has admitted women since 2017. History The Pitt Club was ...

, the

Bullingdon Club The Bullingdon Club is a private all-male dining club for Oxford University students. It is known for its wealthy members, grand banquets, and bad behaviour, including vandalism of restaurants and students' rooms. The club selects its members ...

, and

the 16' Club The 16' Club, commonly referred to as The Sixteens, the College Sixteen or simply 16,Secret Societies: From the Ancient and Arcane to the Modern and Clandestine, by David V. Barrett, is a private dining club for male members of University of ...

United States

In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, similar

social club A social club or social organization may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation or activity with in an organizational association known as a Club (organization), club. Exampl ...

s are called 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 Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, though other universities including

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Davidson College Davidson College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina, United States. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after American Revolutiona ...

, the

University of Mount Olive The University of Mount Olive (UMO or Mount Olive) is a private university in Mount Olive, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1951, the university is sponsored by the Original Free Will Baptist Convention and Higher education accreditati ...

, and

Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...

have the presence of eating clubs. 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 One Hanover (formerly known as India House, Hanover Bank Building, and New York Cotton Exchange Building) is a commercial building at 1 Hanover Square, on the southwestern edge of the square, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in Ne ...

List of dining clubs

''This list is incomplete.'' ''Date of founding in brackets.'' 18th-century, or earlier, foundations * Hibernian Catch Club () *

Kit-Cat Club The Kit-Cat Club (sometimes Kit Kat Club) was an early 18th-century English club in London with strong political and literary associations. Members of the club were committed Whigs (British political party), Whigs. They met at the Trumpet Tavern ...

(before 1705) *

Beefsteak Club Beefsteak Club is the name or nickname of several 18th- and 19th-century male dining clubs in Britain and Australia that celebrated the beefsteak as a symbol of patriotic and often Whig concepts of liberty and prosperity. The first beefsteak c ...

() *

October Club The October Club was a group of Tory Members of Parliament, established after the 1710 general election. The Club was active until approximately 1714. The group took its name from the strong ale they reportedly drank.Pat Rogers, �October Club (' ...

(1711–1714) *

Society of Knights of the Round Table The Honourable Society of Knights of the Round Table, also known as The Knights of the Round Table Club, is a British society which exists to perpetuate the name and fame of King Arthur and the ideals for which he stood. It meets at the Lansdow ...

(1720) *

Society of Dilettanti The Society of Dilettanti (founded 1734) is a British society of noblemen and scholars that sponsored the study of ancient Greek and Roman art, and the creation of new work in the style. History Though the exact date is unknown, the Society i ...

(1732) *

Divan Club The Divan Club was a short-lived dining club in 18th century England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, an ...

(1744–1746) *

Friendly Brothers of St Patrick Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States ...

(before 1750) *

The Kensington Club The Kensington Club is a private all-male dining club for students of the University of St Andrews. History The details of the foundation of the Kensington Club are opaque. The Club’s own histories maintain that the Club was founded by Alexande ...

() * The Club (1764) *

Lunar Society The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophy, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly b ...

(1775–1813) *

(1780) *

Beaver Club The Beaver Club was a gentleman's club, gentleman's dining club founded in 1785 by the predominantly English-speaking men who had gained control of the fur trade of Montreal. According to the club's rules, the object of their meeting was "to bring ...

(1785–1830s) 19th-century foundations *

Nobody's Friends The Club of Nobody's Friends is a private dining club with origins in the High Church tradition of the Church of England. It is one of the oldest of the London dining clubs and frequently meets in Lambeth Palace. Its motto is ''Pro Ecclesia et Reg ...

(1800) * Canada Club (1810) *Trinity College Dublin Dining Club, London () * Grillions (1812) *

Société des douze Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy p ...

(1823) *Geological Society Dining Club (1824) * Raleigh Club (1827) *

(1835) *

X-club The X Club was a dining club of nine men who supported the theories of natural selection and academic liberalism in Victorian era, late 19th-century England. Thomas Henry Huxley was the initiator; he called the first meeting for 3 November 186 ...

(1864–1893) *

Myrmidon Club The Myrmidon Club is a dining club elected from the members of Merton College, Oxford, and with a continuous history exceeding 150 years. Until recently, the club was single-sex, and an equivalent club for women, named the Myrmaids, was establishe ...

(1865) * The Whitefriars Club (1868)http://www.whitefriarsclub.org, and ‘Thursday… The annual dinner of the Whitefriar's Club was held at Radley's, Mr. Tom Hood in the chair.' ''London City Press'', Saturday 20 February 1869, p. 3. *

The 16' Club The 16' Club, commonly referred to as The Sixteens, the College Sixteen or simply 16,Secret Societies: From the Ancient and Arcane to the Modern and Clandestine, by David V. Barrett, is a private dining club for male members of University of ...

() *

Ivy Club The Ivy Club, often simply Ivy, is the oldest eating club at Princeton University. It was founded in 1879 with Arthur Hawley Scribner as its first head. Club culture The club is described by F. Scott Fitzgerald in '' This Side of Paradise'' ( ...

(1879) * United and Cecil Club (as the Constituency Union in 1881) * Cottage Club (1886) *

Cap and Gown Club Cap and Gown Club, founded in 1891, is an eating club at Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Colloquially known as "Cap", the club is one of the "Big Four" eating clubs at Princeton (the others are The Ivy Club, Unive ...

(1890) *

Tiger Inn Tiger Inn (or "T.I." as it is colloquially known) is one of the eleven active Eating club (Princeton University), eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. Tiger Inn was founded in 1890 and is one of the "Big Four" eating c ...

(1890) * Colonial Club (1891) * Omar Khayyám Club (1892) * The Astley Society (1895) *

Castaways' Club The Castaways' Club is a dining club for retired Officer Corps of the Royal Navy, warfare officers (previously known as executive or seaman officers) of the Royal Navy who left the service while still junior officers, typically with the rank of Li ...

(1895) * Ye Cherubs (Queens', Cambridge) (1895) * The Chinese Club (1897) *

Stock Exchange Luncheon Club The Stock Exchange Luncheon Club was a members-only dining club, on the seventh floor of the New York Stock Exchange Building at 11 Wall Street in Manhattan. The club was founded on August 3, 1898, and moved from 70 Broadway to 11 Wall Street ...

(1898–2006) 20th- and 21st-century foundations * Nova Scotia Club (1900) * Princeton Charter Club (1901) * Quadrangle Club (1901) *

Coefficients In mathematics, a coefficient is a multiplicative factor involved in some term of a polynomial, a series, or any other type of expression. It may be a number without units, in which case it is known as a numerical factor. It may also be a ...

(1902) * Princeton Tower Club (1902) * Terrace Club (1904) * Square Club (1908) * Chatham Dining Club (1910) * The Other Club (1911) *

Cercle de l'Union interalliée The cercle de l'Union interalliée, also known as the Cercle interallié, is a private sports, social club, social and dining club established in 1917. The clubhouse is the Hôtel Perrinet de Jars at 33 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, Fran ...

(1917) * Romney Street Group (1917) * Coningsby Club (1921) *

Ratio Club The Ratio Club was a small British informal dining club from 1949 to 1958 of young psychiatrists, psychologists, physiologists, mathematicians and engineers who met to discuss issues in cybernetics., p. 95. History The idea of the club arose ...

(1949–1958) *

Piers Gaveston Society The Piers Gaveston Society, or Piers Gav for short, is a dining club founded in 1977 at the University of Oxford. It is named in honour of Piers Gaveston, favourite of Edward II of England, King Edward II of England. In recent years, parties run ...

(1977) * The Squares (1979) * The University Club (1987) * Strafford Club (1995)

Fictional

* ''The Thursday Club'', a monthly dining club, features in the novel '' The Three Hostages'' by

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, British Army officer, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. As a ...

. * ''The Twelve True Fishermen'' is the name of a fictional club in the eponymous short story by G. K. Chesterton in which his detective

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective. He is featured in 53 short stories by English author G. K. Chesterton, published between 1910 and 1936. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuition and ...

solves the riddle of the disappearance of the club's silver. * The annual dinner of ''The Ten for Aristology'' is the scene of a murder in the 1960

Nero Wolfe Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery (fiction), mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Principality of Montenegro, Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a ...

story '' Poison à la Carte'',

References

External links