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A dining club (UK) or eating club (US) is a social group, 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, 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 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 is known to select it ...
, 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, similar groups are called eating club is a social club. 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, though other universities including Stanford University, Davidson College, Mount Olive College, and Reed College 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 The Hibernian Catch Club is a dining and catch musical club founded c.1680 in Dublin, Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Brita ...
(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 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 {{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 ...
(1720) * Society of Dilettanti (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 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 is known to select it ...
(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 (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 Stre ...
(1812) * Société des douze (1823) *Geological Society Dining Club (1824) * Raleigh Club (1827) *
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 ...
(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 established ...
(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, 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, ...
(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 Fou ...
(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 focu ...
(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, Univers ...
(1890) * Tiger Inn (1890) *
Colonial Club Colonial Club is one of the eleven current eating clubs of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1891, it is the fifth oldest of the clubs. It is located on 40 Prospect Avenue. A private social club for underg ...
(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 (1897) * Stock Exchange Luncheon Club (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 (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 social and dining club established in 1917. The clubhouse is the Hôtel Perrinet de Jars at 33 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, France. It adjoins the ...
(1917) * Coningsby Club (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 b ...
(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 intuiti ...
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 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 ...
'',


See also

* Eating clubs at Princeton University * Final clubs at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher l ...
* Gentlemen's club *
Stanford Eating Clubs {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 The Stanford Eating Clubs, also known as the Toyon allEating Clubs, were founded in 1892, making them the oldest student-managed group on the Stanford University campus. Originally organized by students to provide ...
* Supper club * Syracuse Eating Club


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