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

social group In the social sciences, a social group can be 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 ...

, 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 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" ...

, 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, with a previously male-only membership but now open to both men and women. History The ...

, The Bullingdon Club, and The 16' Club.

United States

In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, similar groups are called eating club is a

social club A social club may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation, or activity. Examples include: book discussion clubs, chess clubs, anime clubs, country clubs, charity work, crimin ...

. 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 research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

, though other universities including Stanford University,

Davidson College Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after Revolutionary War general William Lee Davidson, who was killed at the nearby Battle of Cowan� ...

, Mount Olive College, and

Reed College Reed College is a private university, private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor style architecture ...

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 Penn Club of New York City that has reciprocity with India House Club at

1 Hanover Square 1 Hanover Square (also known as India House, Hanover Bank Building, and New York Cotton Exchange Building) is a commercial building on the southwestern edge of Hanover Square in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It ...

List of dining clubs

''This list is incomplete.'' ''Date of founding in brackets'' 18th-century, or earlier, foundations * Hibernian Catch Club (c. 1680) *

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. They met at the Trumpet tavern in London and at Water Oakley i ...

(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 clu ...

(c. 1705) *

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 (1720) *

Society of Dilettanti The Society of Dilettanti (founded 1734) is a British society of noblemen and scholars that sponsors 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 is ...

(1732) * Divan Club (1744–1746) * Friendly Brothers of St Patrick (before 1750) * The Kensington Club (c. 1750-60) * The Club (1764) * Lunar Society (1775–1813) * Bullingdon Club (1780) *

Beaver Club The Beaver Club was a 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 together, at stat ...

(1785–1830s) 19th-century foundations * Nobody's Friends (1800) * Canada Club (1810) *Trinity College Dublin Dining Club, London (c. 1810) *

Grillions Grillion's is a London dining club founded in 1812. It was founded by the British diplomat Stratford Canning as a meeting place free from the violence of political controversy. The club had no premises but met at Grillion's Hotel on Albemarle Str ...

(1812) * Société des douze (1823) *Geological Society Dining Club (1824) *

Raleigh Club The Raleigh Club was a dining club founded in 1827. It met at the 'Thatched House', a tavern in the St James area of London as an alternative to the Travellers Club. It was founded by Sir Arthur de Capell Brooke as a place where real exploring tr ...

(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 late 19th-century England. Thomas Henry Huxley was the initiator; he called the first meeting for 3 November 1864. The club met ...

(1864–1893) * Myrmidon Club (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 (c. 1875) * Ivy Club (1879) * United and Cecil Club (as the Constituency Union in 1881) *

Cottage Club The University Cottage Club or simply Cottage Club is one of eleven current eating clubs at Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. It is one of the six bicker clubs, along with The Ivy Club, Tiger Inn, Cap and Gown Club, C ...

(1886) * Cap and Gown Club (1890) *

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

(1890) * Colonial Club (1891) *

Omar Khayyám Club ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate o ...

(1892) * Castaways' Club (1895) *

Ye Cherubs (Queens', Cambridge) Ye or YE may refer to: Language * Ye (pronoun), a form of the second-person plural, personal pronoun "you" * The Scots word for "you" * A pseudo-archaic spelling of the English definite article (''the''). See '' Ye olde'', and the "Ye form" se ...

(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 wh ...

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

Quadrangle Club The Princeton Quadrangle Club, often abbreviated to "Quad", is one of the eleven eating clubs at Princeton University that remain open. Located at 33 Prospect Avenue, the club is currently "sign-in," meaning it permits any second semester sophom ...

(1901) *

Coefficients In mathematics, a coefficient is a multiplicative factor in some term of a polynomial, a series, or an expression; it is usually a number, but may be any expression (including variables such as , and ). When the coefficients are themselves ...

(1902) * Princeton Tower Club (1902) *

Terrace Club Princeton Terrace Club is one of eleven current eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Terrace Club was founded in 1904 and is located at 62 Washington Road. It is the sole Princeton eating club located off P ...

(1904) * Square Club (1908) * Chatham Dining Club (1910) *

The Other Club The Other Club is a British political dining society founded in 1911 by Winston Churchill and F. E. Smith. It met to dine fortnightly in the Pinafore Room at the Savoy Hotel during periods when Parliament was in session. The club's members ov ...

(1911) * Cercle de l'Union interalliée (1917) *

Coningsby Club Coningsby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, England, it is situated on the A153 road, adjoining Tattershall on its western side, 13 miles (22 km) north west of Boston and 8 miles (13 km) so ...

(1921) * Ratio Club (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 King Edward II of England. In recent years, parties run by the society have ...

(1977) *

Strafford Club Strafford may refer to: Places In the United States: * Strafford, Missouri, a city * Strafford, New Hampshire, a town * Strafford, Pennsylvania * Strafford, Vermont, a town * Strafford County, New Hampshire Other * Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of ...

(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, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career, ...

. * ''The Twelve True Fishermen'' is the name of a fictional club in the eponymous short story by

G. K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...

in which his detective

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

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 writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in ...

story '' Poison à la Carte'',

References

External links