is the brainchild of Brian Bordainick, an impressive young entrepreneur out of New Orleans. Back in 2011, he decided that he had an urge to get involved in the food industry, but no desire to open a restaurant. Growing up outside of New York City, Bordainick had many friends who were first-generation immigrants who introduced him to all sorts of ethnic food options around the city. He loved absorbing the cultures and food histories and was known for throwing epic events on his birthdays, where he would lead friends on multi-stop eatineraries to many different dining and drinking destinations.
When he moved to New Orleans, he was struck by the lack of many sorts of ethnic foods. In search of some good Indian food, for example, he made it a point to ask every Indian person he encountered where they went for their native cuisine. To a number, they all answered "at my house." So Bordainick saw an opportunity and invested $200 in his first pop-up dinner at a friend's vacant building. Despite requesting that the invite not be forwarded beyond his limited list of friends, the event sold out in three hours as people shared the info and showed up in droves.
Bordainick decided to emphasize up-and-coming chefs who worked as sous and line cooks in various New Orleans restaurants. To be able to pay a small staff to help put on the events, Dinnerlab came up with a membership structure where $100 per year allows access to the event calendar which is released every Wednesday. The size of the events is kept small to encourage interaction between the diners, and the cost of the dinners usually averages around $50 including food, drinks, tax and tip.
For the chefs involved, a Dinnerlab event can serve as an audition for their own space and provide valuable feedback for menu ideas. It is a lab, after all. Diners are asked to give feedback almost immediately after the event, and they have a very high response rate.
In the past year, the Dinnerlab concept has expanded to Austin and now to Nashville. The calendar is already crowded in New Orleans and Austin, with almost 80 events per year in each city. Individual chefs never cook more than a couple of times in each city per year to keep a healthy variety, but Bordainick does occasionally put together mini-tours between the Dinnerlab cities for chefs that like to travel.
The dinners are more like the original secret suppers where diners do not know the location until about 24 hours out, though they will find out before registering if the event will be more than a 15-minute drive from the city center, or whether they need to pack a jacket, like for a dinner held on a helipad.
