Daryna Kulya

Last Tuesday I hosted a Grubwithus meal in Toronto.

Grubwithus is a startup in Venice Beach, California that created a platform for building friendships over meals. The idea is very simple – choose your city, enter your interests and view meals happening near you. Meals are interest-driven or cuisine-specific – grub with designers, entrepreneurs, fashionistas or just enjoy your favorite food with awesome people!

Since the announcement about Toronto launch I knew that I wanted to host a meal.

Surprisingly, doing it was much easier than I thought – pick a date and time, specify number of seats at the table, choose a price range and finally list any dietary requirements. Grubwithus makes a deal with a local restaurant and informs attendees about it when the minimum seating requirement is met. This is quite exciting I should say – first grubbers at the meal are in for a surprise as they don’t know the restaurant when booking their seats. Reminds me of a popular European travel deal by Germanwings called “Blind Booking” – you are booking a flight to a secret destination which is revealed afterwards. The only aspect of the meal I was a bit hesitant about was the theme around it. But as the first meal in the city should be special, I decided to leave it open to everyone and not list specific interests or topics for discussion – was curious to see where the discussion would go :)

The group gathered at the table was very diverse, yet there was something we all had in common – passion for technology, travel and unique experiences. The conversation went from “tech talk” and career discussions to sharing great traveling stories and inspiring hobbies! The hosting restaurant offered their special menu for our enjoyment and judging by how many different dishes we tried, it surely felt like a buffet!

Pleasure meeting my fellow grubbers – hope you all had as much fun as I did! Thanks to Trimurti (www.trimurti.ca) for their hospitality and to Grubwithus for making an awesome meal with great people happen! Until next time – hope to see more meals in Toronto and will surely host another one myself soon.

If you have any questions about Gribwithus and how it works check their website – www.grubwithus.com or ask me in the comments below – I am an experienced grubber now :)