Telling Tales
May 2006
Image credit: George Pimentel
Table d'Haute
Six smartly dressed 30-somethings are debating the finer points of French military strategy, Muskoka fêtes and Britney’s breasts over limoncello and artisanal cheese at the Niagara Street Café. They could be close buddies cutting loose at the end of a long week—that is, if they hadn’t just met. The group has been hand-picked by Luke McCann, the charmingly boyish founder of the spanking new Urban Supper Club, which stages dinners for Toronto’s shiniest social butterflies. McCann came up with the idea after spotting an untapped niche in this city’s notoriously cliquey social scene. USC assembles a group of strangers at different boîtes around town. A yearly membership fee, plus the cost of dinner, gets you monthly meals with a rotating guest list. Potential candidates are referred by members.“I ask myself, would I want to get stuck next to this person at a table?” If the answer is yes, they’re in. So far, McCann’s master list includes socialite stylist Nicholas Mellamphy and it-girl marketing maven Kerry Connelly. The group assembled this evening (a dinner to test-drive the concept) includes Jack Dancy, one of the founders of custom travel outfit Trufflepig, and Holt Renfrew PR manager Kate Chartrand. As dinner winds down, the BlackBerrys emerge to chart the next move. “This was fun, but I don’t know if I’d join,” says Dancy afterward. And yet there’s something inevitable about it all. We’ve already customized our condos, cars and coffees; it was only a matter of time before we customized our friends. —Sara Wilson
TEST Originally published May 2006
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May 2006
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