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 The 16' Club, commonly referred to as The Sixteens, the College Sixteen or simply 16, is a private dining club for male members of St David's College, Trinity Saint David. It is the only remaining undergraduate dining club at the university ...

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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, 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, criminal ...

. 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 research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, though other universities including

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

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 The University of Mount Olive (UMO or Mount Olive) is a private university in Mount Olive, North Carolina. Chartered in 1951, the university is sponsored by the Original Free Will Baptist Convention and accredited by the Southern Association of ...

, and

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

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 The Penn Club of New York (usually referred to as The Penn Club) is an American private, social club located in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Its membership is restricted to University of Pennsylvania alumni, students, f ...

that has reciprocity with 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 *

Hibernian Catch Club The Hibernian Catch Club is a dining club, dining and Catch (music), catch musical club founded c.1680 in Dublin, Ireland by the Lay clerk, vicars-choral of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Christ Church and St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, St. Patr ...

(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 ...

(before 1705) * Beefsteak Club (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 {{See also, Round Table (club) 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 s ...

(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 b ...

(1732) *

Divan Club The Divan Club was a short-lived dining club in 18th century England, with membership open to gentlemen who had visited the Ottoman Empire. The club took its name from the Turkish " divan". The club was founded in 1744 by John Montagu, 4th Ear ...

(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 Alexander ...

(c. 1750-60) * 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 philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 ...

(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 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 Rege ...

(1800) *

Canada Club Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world ...

(1810) *Trinity College Dublin Dining Club, London (c. 1810) * Grillions (1812) * Société des douze (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 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 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 establish ...

(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. *

(c. 1875) *

Ivy Club The Ivy Club, often simply Ivy, is the oldest eating club at Princeton University, and it is "still considered the most prestigious" by its members. It was founded in 1879 with Arthur Hawley Scribner as its first head. Ivy is one of the "Big Four ...

(1879) *

United and Cecil Club The United and Cecil Club (U&C) is a British dining club with close links to the Conservative Party. Formed in 1949 following the merger of the United Club and the Cecil Club, the club is the seventh-largest donor to the Conservatives, and focus ...

(as the Constituency Union in 1881) * Cottage Club (1886) *

Cap and Gown Club Cap and Gown Club, founded in 1890, 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 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 T ...

(1890) * Colonial Club (1891) * Omar Khayyám Club (1892) *

Castaways' Club The Castaways' Club is a dining club for retired 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 Lieutenant or Lieutenant Commander ...

(1895) * Ye Cherubs (Queens', Cambridge) (1895) *

The Chinese Club The Chinese Club () is a private member's club in Central, Hong Kong. When it was first founded, its members were exclusively Chinese, many of whom served as compradors in Western mercantile firms. History The Chinese Club was established in 189 ...

(1897) * Stock Exchange Luncheon Club (1898–2006) 20th- and 21st-century foundations * Nova Scotia Club (1900) *

Princeton Charter Club The Princeton Charter Club is one of Princeton University's eleven active undergraduate eating clubs located on or near Prospect Avenue in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Club history The Princeton Charter Club was organized in the fall of ...

(1901) * Quadrangle Club (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 Princeton Tower Club is one of the eleven eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, and one of seven clubs to choose its members through a selective process called bicker. Tower is located at 13 Prospect Avenu ...

(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 ...

(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 over ...

(1911) * Cercle de l'Union interalliée (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 (1977) * Strafford Club (1995)

Fictional

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

The Three Hostages ''The Three Hostages'' is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels by the Scottish author John Buchan, first published in 1924 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. Hannay had previously appeared in '' The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1915), his most famous ...

'' by John Buchan. * ''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 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 intui ...

solves the riddle of the disappearance of the club's silver. * The annual dinner of ''The Ten for

Aristology Aristology is the art or science of cooking and dining. It encompasses the preparation, combination, and presentation of dishes and the manner in which these dishes are integrated into a meal. An Aristologist is someone who studies or takes part ...

'' 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 Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West ...

story ''

Poison à la Carte "Poison à la Carte" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella by Rex Stout, first published in April 1960 in the short-story collection '' Three at Wolfe's Door'' (Viking Press). Plot summary A group of gourmets, who call themselves the Ten for Aristolog ...

'',

References

External links

Discussion on "What are eating clubs"
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20051025030312/http://etc.princeton.edu/Campus/chap11.html Historical article on Princeton's eating clubs {{DEFAULTSORT:Dining Club Lists of organizations