Dinner Lab ran pop-up dinners in 30 cities — $10.5M later, it shut overnight

Dinner Lab began in New Orleans in 2012: a members-only supper club that threw five-course dinners with an open bar in unusual spaces — warehouses, churches, empty stores — with up-and-coming chefs. Members paid an annual fee plus $60–90 a dinner, and filled in detailed surveys rating every course; the plan was for memberships to cover overhead while the meals turned a profit.

The company scaled to 30 cities and raised $10.5 million, but every new concept was, in its own words, like opening a restaurant from scratch — an ever-changing grind of staff, sourcing and venues that made consistent margins nearly impossible. The survey data that was supposed to become a second business never monetised: most restaurants already had menus they were happy with.

On 14 April 2016 Dinner Lab announced it was shutting down immediately, halting all events; 43 people were laid off. The company had never turned a profit and could not raise the funding it needed after the first quarter of 2016.