When Emmett Weis moved from Oklahoma to Long Beach with his wife three months ago, he found himself feeling very alone. Searching for a way to meet new people, his wife stumbled upon the Long Beach Food Club on Instagram, and they decided to give it a try.
The Food Club describes itself as “like a book club but for restaurants.” In practice, that means every two weeks, founder Sherwin Souzankari chooses a different eatery for the club to explore. He picks the spot from his ever-growing list of restaurants he wants to try or has been suggested to him. Every meetup location must meet certain criteria: It needs to have enough space to accommodate a large group, it has to be in Long Beach, and it can’t be a chain.
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“I want to support people that actually live here, have families here, and have been pillars of the community for some time,” Souzankari said.
He wants the restaurants to be involved in the process as well, and discusses the club meeting there with the owners before deciding…