Let’s face it: life in the city can be lonely, but one Toronto-based business is doing its part to bring back the art of connection by throwing curated, cozy dinner parties where the guests are a group of perfect strangers.
Despite only launching Bon Vivant, a concept which throws private and public dinner party events around Toronto, this past September, founders Gabrièle (Gabs) Legacé and Lauren Chin are already making a splash.
“I think we really bonded over our love of hosting and bringing people together,” Lauren tells blogTO.
While the two were classmates and friends while studying business at Queen’s University, the business was born post-grad, when Gabs and Lauren reconnected over coffee and quickly began to dream up what would eventually blossom into Bon Vivant.
Working in the corporate world since graduation, Lauren as a senior analyst for an insurance company and Gabs in events, Lauren tells blogTO that she began to feel like a “creative outlet to pursue [her] passion” for hosting and event planning was missing and, thus, Bon Vivant was born.
The women host private dinner parties as well as public events at various venues in the city, wherein a group of strangers gather around a table — impressively designed by Gabs and Lauren — with the goal of “sharing hearty meals and meaningful chats around a dinner table.”
“In a world where screens often keep us apart, we wanted to create a space where the Toronto community could connect in a more authentic, personal setting,” a description on the business’ website reads.
It’s also about meeting new people.
“When I moved to London, UK, I didn’t know anyone,” Gabs tells blogTO, “and I wanted to meet people organically, but it’s really hard.”
So, after seeing similar concepts in cities like Sydney and New York, Gabs and Lauren decided to bring the “dinner with strangers” idea to Toronto, gearing it towards the 20s and 30s crowd who, Gabs says, frequently find themselves in new cities after graduation or a new job, and are in need of good company.
A night at a Bon Vivant event always starts with the cocktail (or mocktail) of your choice in hand almost immediately once you walk in the door.
“We find that’s the main thing we can do to really ease those anxieties,” Gabs tells blogTO.
“When you have a glass, it’s so much easier to mingle.”
You’ll then be set free to meet and greet with your dinner companions for the evening, ultimately settling around an immaculately dressed table, where a heap of St. Lawrence Market sourdough bread and a mountain of whipped honey butter await you.
“We have little conversation cards on the table with topics that we find are not icebreakers, but actual, full conversation starters,” Gabs says.
Then, you’ll tuck into a three-course meal — their most recent event included a blood orange, fennel and burrata salad followed by chimichurri steak frites and tiramisu coupes — where your connections will continue to deepen, because everyone becomes more pleasant when supplemented by good food.
To make matters even more impressive, in addition to managing the business and marketing side of Bon Vivant, planning each event, designing and creating tablescapes, Gabs and Lauren are also the chefs behind the operation despite their own admissions that neither are professional chefs.
“We are home cooks, I guess you’d say,” Gabs tells blogTO, “but we do a ton of prep; […] any dressings, sauces, marinades, anything like that we do before, so come the time, it’s really just assembly.”
In all, the entire experience lasts around three hours and, at the end of it all, you may just walk away with a new best friend.
“What we love about the public dinners is that they’re all strangers, and we’ve seen real friendships that have formed,” Lauren tells blogTO.
“We saw two girls that went to a public dinner post on their socials this week that they went to dinner together,” she adds, “it wasn’t just an ‘oh yeah, you go to dinner and then you part ways,’ people actually made friends from it.'”
“So that’s been pretty cool.”
Despite all the effort required in running each event — Lauren and Gabs tell blogTO that they typically spent the majority of each event in and out of the kitchen, managing each and every unique detail — they’ve still already managed to catch some moments of magic during their run.
“While we’re focused on the actual process of hosting and preparing the food and everything, we can’t necessarily be in the room with them to be facilitating and seeing how things go,” Lauren tells blogTO.
Slightly nervous during their first public event and sequestered from their guests while they cooked away in the kitchen, though, Lauren and Gabs experienced an event that told them they were going in the right direction.
“We were both in the kitchen, and we just heard the room erupt with laughter,” Lauren says, “and we knew in that moment like, ‘okay, wow, this is really working.'”
“This is the whole purpose of Bon Vivant,” Lauren adds, “bringing people together and forming new connections.”
After another successful public dinner party coming to pass on Jan. 11, Gabs and Lauren are hard at work planning their next one, which, they tell blogTO, will be a ‘Galentine’s’ event in February.
If you’re interested in finding out, first-hand, what Bon Vivant is all about, keep an eye trained to their Instagram (@bon.vivant.to) as they release the details on their next event.
