100 Cities Project: Grand Rapids | Dinner with New Friends

When was the last time you did something completely spontaneous? Our series groups together complete strangers for a fun night out. That's right, you sign up, and we book the restaurant. We know life can get busy. Don't forget to spend time making new friends locally! Build your community with us while supporting locally owned businesses.

Each outing takes place at a different restaurant. These dinners are not directly associated with the restaurants, but are simply based on a table reservation via Resy, Opentable, or other sites. The pin on the map is not the location but a placeholder Eventbrite gives for the city, since we dinner is held at a new location.

This micro-event is intended to be for 4-6 people. If the evening you signed up for does not hit the minimum number of signups, please be open to joining us on another night with a fuller group. Check out our feature in Eventbrite's 2025 TRNDS report about embracing the micro-event trend.

Our feature on Fox 11 Los Angeles for our dinner meets.

Please see here for our coverage in Nashville Fox 17's Growing Nashville segment.

How does it work?

After you register, you'll be emailed an introduction message. We'll stay in touch with you leading up to the night of the dinner. Expect a Final Details email the day of.

*Your registration does not include your individual food and drink purchases. A paid ticket simply makes you more committed to actually showing up, plus a membership.

*These outings are intended to help people make friends. These are not singles gatherings.

*We are not limited to the dates on the page's calendar for dinner outings. For members, we will contact you periodically for nights out we plan.

*If you sign up the day of, there's a risk of already reach our maximum for the night, or not having enough interest to move forward with a table reservation at all. Simply email ermantourageimpact@gmail.com to for info prior to signing up if you have questions.

Our vision is simple: we take the no gimmicks approach to networking. No need for yet another app to take up space on your phone - just four walls and a roof and good food for people to connect :) We coordinate with you directly, human-to-human, not with AI or some app.

Brought to you by US-based event series Ermantourage.