Dinner Lab Breaks the First Rule of Fight Club

Dinner Lab, a supper club started by a former Teach for America/ Carver High instructor, Brian Bordainick, is gaining recognition for its experimental approach to New Orleans dining. NOLA.com reports that Bordainick operates the dinner pop up as a private club (that's open to the public) with mobile dining locations. The focus is on global cuisine eaten in random places, most of them gutted or under-construction, and the whereabouts of which aren't revealed until the night before the event. A recent dinner at an old paper mill in the St. Claude area included a police detail out front "providing security" with blue lights flashing. The neighbors must have loved that.

The dining venue is usually lit by candles, with most buildings having no electricity or proper restrooms. A travel kitchen is set up in each location for the chefs, who range from Domenica line cooks to home pros. "It's sort of like Fight Club meets food," Bordainick tells Susan Langenhennig, "but without the violence."

Bordainick? who is actually joined in this venture by a slew of local guys: ubiquitous Dirty Coast T-shirt company guy Blake Haney, chef guy Francisco "Paco" Robert, tech guy Ravi Prakash, financial guy Bryson Aust, and attorney guy Zach Kupperman? plans to soon focus the business on a membership-only website that asks you to build a profile listing your level of adventurousness in terms of food, venue and price, so menus can be tailored to guests' liking. In terms of the future of Dinner Lab, says Bordainick, "We want to be like your Pandora station for dinner."

· Dinner Lab, an underground supper club [Nola.com]