Grub With Pgh – New Website Plans Family Style Meals for Strangers

I first learned about the website GrubWithUs sometime last fall. Their tag line – eat with awesome people – caught my eye. GrubWithUs is a service that organizes family style dinners around restaurants and/or topics. Is dining with a group of strangers awkward? It could be, but it look like GrubWithUs has had some success making in work.  Check out this post from a San Francisco food blogger, The Crude Dame, who attended two GrubWithUs dinners and only had nice things to say.

Here is how GrubWithUs works:

• You pick a meal – either by a specific restaurant or by the type of people you would like to meet.
• Sign up for a meal – you prepay for your food an gratuity.  The sooner you sign up, the more you save.  So if you are the first person to sign up – you get a bit of a discount because you are taking a risk on who else might show up.
• Print out your ticket, which also serves as your name tag, show up at the restaurant and meet new people.

I have been patiently waiting for GrubWithUs to add Pittsburgh to their cities list.  They had been organizing some good looking meals in cities like Chicago and DC.

Last week GrubWithUs sent out an email which details some upgrades they have made for 2012.  First on the list – the ability to organize a meal in any city. So we have organized the first GrubWithUs dinner in Pittsburgh.  I picked a time and a price range and GrubWithUs does the rest.   The first meal is scheduled for Sunday, January 15, 2012 @6pm.  The location is still a mystery.  Once enough people sign up – GrubWithUs will confirm the location.

Join GrubWithUs: Use this link to sign up for GrubWithUs and you will get a $5 credit towards your first meal.

Sign up for the first Pittsburgh GrubWithUs Dinner:

There are still a few seats left for the dinner this Sunday.  There are 6 people signed up this far.

First Pittsburgh GrubWithUs Dinner
Sunday, January 15, 2012 @ 6pm
Location TBA
Cost from $22/person
Sign up here

Create your own GrubWithUs meal:

You can use the GrubWithUs platform to organize a dinner with friends – take the headache out of splitting the check by having everyone pay online first. Or organize another open meal here in Pittsburgh.  Visit grubwithus.com/create-a-meal to create your own meal on GrubWithUs.

Related articles

• GrubWithUs Now Wants To Plan YOUR Group Meals (And Do All The Legwork) (techcrunch.com)
• Get tips from Y Combinator alumni at GrubWithUs dinners (venturebeat.com)
• Tale of Two Dinners (crudedame.wordpress.com)