Breaking Bread at E’s Supper Club
Hospitality radiates at this whimsical Gen Z supper club without a smartphone in sight.
On a Saturday night in April, I drove east of the city to have dinner at a home I had never been to, with people I had never met. I was heading to a supper club put on by 24-year-old Ellis (a.k.a. E) who’s been hosting E’s Supper Club since August 2024. E’s Supper Club is an intimate pop-up dinner party hosted in various spots around Nashville and fueled by Ellis’s passion for good food, aesthetics and bringing people together.
Ellis was inspired to launch a supper club while living in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 2024, while looking for spaces to make friends in her new city, outside of work and church. Ellis is not alone. Supper clubs have been on the rise, especially in New York City, since the 2020 pandemic. Ellis says, “We have a really lonely generation. We’re all on our phones all the time.” Compelled by her love of food and a generation-wide need for connection, Ellis decided to start her own supper club when she moved back to Nashville, her hometown.
When asked where she draws inspiration, Ellis effuses, “I freak out about beautiful meals. I love what food does, which is bring people together. So, the combination of being filled up spiritually and gastronomically excites me and gives me life.”
With the table set in a chic barn, Ellis warmly welcomed each guest like an old friend. After a half-hour of mingling and cocktails, she rounded us up for a reading from Liturgies for Wholeness: 60 Prayers to Encounter the Depth, Creativity, and Friendship of God in Ordinary Moments, by Elizabeth Moore and Audrey Elledge.
As you take your seat at the table,
warmed by comradery and candlelight,
may you come as you truly are,
without shame or reservation,
leaving all performance at the door.
As you ease into the comfort of food
and the candor of conversation,
may the weights and worries you have carried here
slip easily off your shoulders.
As a non-religious person I was a little surprised, but not completely put off. The prayer didn’t require anything from listeners but to be present in a moment with others. I felt both welcome and a bit nervous about who I would be seated next to. Would we have anything to talk about in what Ellis calls an opportunity to “get out of your routine and off your phone?”
My social anxiety quickly melted after meeting Nora and Leighton, best friends in their late 20s and members of the same church. We talked about careers, hobbies, dating apps, religion and spirituality. I imagine if we spend more time together we could have honest, enlightening and constructive conversations about more sensitive issues — a refreshing idea in a time when polarizing topics are off-limits at many family meals.
When she debuted her supper club, Ellis wore hats of host, chef, server, designer and marketing team. She now partners with chefs who do the cooking, while she handles the rest. In the kitchen on this particular evening was 27-year-old Jon Ezzo, chef at East Nashville’s Kisser by day and E’s Supper Club by night. The spring-inspired menu featured asparagus with guanciale, pecorino and preserved lemon, pistachio-pesto gemelli, pork chop with gremolata and green beans and olive oil pound cake with berry-herb jam. The supper was full of Ellis’ whimsical touches, from the invitation on Instagram to the place cards and menus.
“It’s the people who come that really make it,” Ellis says. “Yeah, the food’s good, and yeah, the experience is nice and the table’s pretty. But it’s the people that make it what it is.”
Other than a phenomenal meal, I came away from E’s Supper Club with something I would have never imagined: a glimmer of hope for the future of this country. I met a diverse group of people in their 20s, many of whom are Christians, living in the Bible Belt of America. And they are more openminded and openhearted than the media would have me believe. We are operating in the same world with completely different belief systems, and we were able to not just sit at a table and coexist, but to have meaningful conversations and even become friends.
Ellis isn’t reinventing the wheel, but she is reminding us of its existence and necessity. “Eating together is one of the oldest and most human things we can do,” Ellis says. “Somewhere along the way, we lost sight of its power. E’s Supper Club is a simple invitation to remember.” She has created a safe place to break bread with others who come to the table with different worldviews and beliefs, in pursuit of friendship and community.
For more information on E’s Supper Club, follow Ellis on instagram @essupperclub and check out her website essupperclub.com
Photos by Natalie Mantzell