Concrete Playground Meets Wok+Wine

Sometimes it can seem really hard to meet new friends. You float around your fish bowl meeting the same people all the time, and even though our generation is supposed to be all about 'social networking', sometimes it feels like the nicest thing in the world would be to hang out with interesting people who have completely new stories to tell you.

This is what Wok+Wine is about. Beginning in New York in November 2008, Wok+Wine was the brainchild of Peter Mandeno and Lizzie Shupak, who decided to gather a diverse yet small group of people together over 50 bottles of fine wine and 50 pounds of jumbo prawns. Since then the concept has exploded, with events being hosted all over the world.

This month Wok+Wine are returning to Sydney and have been lovely enough to partner up with Concrete Playground in the first ever Playground Perks event. We caught up for a chat ahead of their visit.

What was the inspiration behind Wok+Wine?

When Peter arrived in New York from Amsterdam, it was the fifth city that he'd had to start in from scratch.  And when you're starting in a new place, you know you need to meet diverse interesting people, for both social and business reasons, but it's pretty hard to break in without being pigeon-holed.  Yes, you could join the Art Directors Club, or the Expat Association, or start playing rugby or football, but if your aim is to just meet interesting people, it's hard to find them all at the same time.  So that's where Wok+Wine came from. A way to gather a diverse group of people together, and turn them from strangers into friends.

How does a normal Wok+Wine event usually work? How do you get the word out there?

The event formula is simple. We invite you to a mystery location; think art galleries, bike shops, warehouses etc, and all you know is that you'll be standing around a long communal table peeling prawns with your hands. We only serve one kind of food and one kind of wine, to level the playing field and take the decision-making away, so that you can just focus on the conversations.

We get the word out through our community, and through likeminded partner organisations like Concrete Playground.  We've deliberately steered clear of mainstream press and PR, and so we've grown organically. That said, we now have a community of 3000+ people around the world, so it's becoming pretty interesting.

It seems like the idea of community is a really important idea behind Wok+Wine. How are these events different to generalised 'social networking'?

"Social networking" is such a sterile term. And it also comes with an agenda. A friend in New York once told us that the reason Wok+Wine was so special, was because it was a 'no reason' party.  People have all kinds of excuses for being there, but there isn't a specific reason.  It's not an event about talking business, or for picking up a partner, it's just about meeting people and having authentic conversations.

What kind of food and wine can people expect from Wok+Wine?

You can expect heaps of jumbo prawns, heads and shells-on, with junks of artisinal bread to dip into the sauce, along with all kinds of wines from around the world.  We've done events with Craggy Range, Bear Flag, Chapel Hill, Mitchelton...Oh, and we've used Sake as well.

What kinds of people can you expect to meet on the night? Do people often come alone?

You can expect to meet people with interesting stories. You have to be a certain type of person to pay money up front, to go to a mystery location, and eat with your hands with a group of strangers. Those people tend to be adventurous, willing to take risks, creative and international.  As far as whether people come alone, it really depends on the culture of the city.  In New York and San Francisco, people are really willing to come by themselves, and say that coming with someone is actually a real pain. In cities like London and Vancouver, people prefer to come with someone else or a small group. We try to discourage large groups coming along, as half the fun is meeting new people. But most groups break up quite quickly, as new conversations are sparked around the table.

How do you choose where your events are going to take place, and what brings you to Australia?

We try to find venues that are a bit different, which are owned or managed by likeminded people. Some hosts approach us and others we come across out of the blue.  Like The Little Mule cafe in Melbourne. It's a hybrid custom bike shop and cafe, and we emailed them randomly to ask whether we could do an event in their space. They said "We love what you're doing, sure!" and let us in. As far as Australia goes, we're spending more and more time down under. We came last year and had such a great time that we thought we'd better come again!

To get an idea of how awesome this all looks, check out this time-lapse video of their latest event in New York.