The restaurant business has always been a tough nut to crack. Inflation makes it even harder. The National Restaurant Association estimates that menu prices have risen over 26% across the board in the last four years just to maintain margins. And this has inspired some rising chefs to offer a type of dining that had its heyday in America in the 1930s: the supper club.
At 11:30 a.m., Amanda Shulman sliced apples in her 26-seat Philadelphia restaurant. The open kitchen isn’t much bigger than a parking spot. The dining room is no-frills: mismatched wooden spindle chairs, naked tables, a wall of framed Belle Epoque posters. Think the vibes of a college town coffee shop. So it might be a surprise when Shulman reveals tonight’s menu.
“Duck filled triangoli with chicken jus butter and saba and fried sage,” she rattled off. “Seared monkfish with saffron beurre blanc…”
This is a restaurant called Her Place Supper Club, and it’s one of the most coveted dinner reservations in the city. Five nights a week, Shulman cooks a set menu of about seven courses — no substitutions.
As Shulman tells it, the restaurant’s supper club model came about by accident. She got a lease for this beat-up former pizza shop in 2021.
“My little brother made me a website,” Shulman said, “and I sent it to, like, my 12 friends.”
Pay $50, her email said, and come eat whatever I’m cooking.
“The link got leaked,” Shulman explained, “and then at 8:30 a bunch of strangers walked in. And I was like, ‘Oh, OK. We have a restaurant now. This is happening.’”
The idea was to make Her Place like a dinner party for friends, and it’s led a charge of new supper clubs around Philly.
“I would say at this point, there’s probably at least a dozen in exactly the same format as Her Place,” said Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LaBan. “It has been massively influential for such a new restaurant.”
Supper clubs are popping up more and more in big cities. They’re a way for restaurants to buffer against uncertainties.
“The financial success of a restaurant begins with its top line,” said Michael Kaufman, a restaurant industry lecturer at Harvard Business School. “The first stop you have is cost of goods. Managing your labor is your next important stop.”
Supper clubs set all these numbers precisely. Pre-paid reservations lock in a restaurant’s gross. A fixed menu lowers food cost, since you know exactly how much you need. Scheduled seatings make staffing efficient, avoiding peaks and valleys of service.
But the modest size of the restaurant means that it’s not a growth model, Kaufman pointed out. “It will not be a sufficiently profitable company that she could continue to run this and retire.”
Still, the accolades for Her Place have opened other doors for Shulman: a traditional restaurant, My Loup, which she co-owns with her husband Alex Kemp Roussy, as well as a forthcoming cookbook.
On a Tuesday evening, dinner at Her Place starts with Amanda clinking a glass to quiet the crowd.
“Welcome to Her Place,” Shulman said. “I’m Amanda. And if you’ve never been here before, this is a special restaurant.”
Standing in front of the dining room, Shulman told her guests what they were about to eat.
