About The Black Urchin Supper Club Experience:

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Hello & Welcome,

Supper Clubs vary immensely from region, country, cuisine and chef but concept is always the same. It's a culinary underground dining experience, where you have a set menu showcasing the chef's culinary skills. The drink options vary from BYOB to mixologists to wine pairing. It can be someone in a tiny apartment with seating for 2 or 4 guests to a large and impressive event space serving 200 diners. Chefs can range from home cooks wanting to make a little extra cash and offer up their living room for strangers seeking something different, to world famous chefs serving a large number of diners.

My first Supper Club was  in 2009 in my East London apartment serving 20 guests. I quickly became one of London's popular underground dining experiences. I never looked back since. I was offering the foodie scene something unique and that is what caught peoples attentions. It wasn't just that I was doing gourmet Caribbean dishes, it was how I did them and the high quality of the ingredients I used in my cooking. 

A decade and a half later I have returned to my home country and still retain the same standards in my cooking. However, today a lot has changed, my culinary skills. have improved and are more refined , they are more focus and spans more cuisines.

I started running Supper Clubs here in Barbados back in 2021 on my return home. The environment was new territory for me, even though I am a Bajan, I spent over 2 decades in Europe. There is a cultural difference in dining out and as an entrepreneur and chef, that is a huge factor I had to take into account if I was going to be successful in Barbados. Nevertheless, I was confident I have something special to share. In everything there is trial an error.

I wanted to offer an underground dining experience concept to a market almost completely new to it. How can I do that successfully? It took time and learning. I realise that unlike our European counterparts who when going out to eat, would just dress in something comfortable according to their dress style or trend. If it's a Supper Club, they would grab a bottle of wine or few beers and head out to enjoy a different experience. They don't mind, the more quirky and strange the better, that's the intrigue. It could be an apartment in a counsel estate, a basement space, a church, an abandon building with art installations or a tiny cafe by day converted to host an underground dining experience by night. They don't mind rocking out alone and meet new friends are telling some friends about it and saying let us try this out. The place can be a mishmash of plates, cutlery, furniture and decor. That is considered cool and part of the vibe, if it so happens to be that. It's more about the food, the opportunity to try something new and possibly meet new people.

Most Barbadians on the other hand, want to dress up very nicely, go somewhere fancy, and treat going out for dinner as a serious occasion. Sometimes it is not about the quality of the food but the place they are going to. Nothing wrong with that. I believe it is because unlike Europe where going out to dinner even 3 days a week is affordable for even the low income earners, so it's not treated so special. In Barbados, going out for a simple meal is very expensive because ingredients' costs are outrageous even for the simplest of products. So, you would treat going out as a special occasion. I totally get that. 

I want my fellow Bajans and visitors alike to feel special and experience something different when they choose to book us for a culinary experience. I want to make each feature stand out. An idea I had always played around with is utilising luxury villa spaces for my Supper Clubs . This is now what we are going for with our more exclusive Supper Club events. Starting this October you can either book a seat at our exclusive Secret Supper Club for smaller groups or our more luxury Supper Club experience hosting up to 25 guests. The experience is also available for private groups.

Thanks You, 

Chef/Host Barrie