The Dinner Parties Happening Inside Restaurants

Surprise and delight while dining with total strangers.

- ALEX JUNG

A FIZZY ALCHEMY can occur when unfamiliar faces gather around a table of food and wine: Are we becoming... friends? Maybe it's for just one night, but on that night, the dinner is divine and the conversation crackles. Dept of Culture, chef Ayo Balogun's 16-seat restaurant in Bed-Stuy where he puts on a four-course tasting menu showcasing the Nigerian cooking of his youth, conjures the kind of magic that is ordinarily found only at dinner parties. The first time I went, last year, was on a triple date-old friends meeting new lovers-and ever since, I've been looking for other places that might capture the same frisson.

So this Valentine's Day, I convinced my boyfriend to spend a night with strangers. I had learned of