A Night Out in Portage | Dinner with New Friends: Small Town Edition

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 do city life alone and build your community with us. This project is to host dinners in various cities to combat loneliness while supporting locally owned businesses.

These gatherings are based on table reservations via Opentable, Resy, or other platforms, and are not directly associated with the restaurant of choice. The listed restaurant is the location we are eyeing, granted we hit our minimum for the night.

This micro-event is intended to be for 4-6 people maximum. Check out our feature in Eventbrite's 2025 TRNDS report about embracing the micro-event trend.

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

Watch our interview on Fox 11 Los Angeles!

How does it work?

After you register, you'll be emailed an introduction message including a quick questionnaire regarding age, dietary restrictions, hobbies, and interests.

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

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

*If we don't meet our minimum number of registrants for the evening you sign up, please be open to joining us on another evening! We will complete table reservations after we hit our minimum signups, so you may reach out to us before signing up for or after you sign up to see our progress with registrations for the evening.

*If you sign up the day of the gathering and do not get a message from us in time, simply email ermantourageimpact@gmail.com, request a refund, or please be open to joining us on another evening.

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.

If you have any more questions, please contact ermantourageimpact@gmail.com!

Brought to you by event series Ermantourage.

(Become a monthly member via Patreon for community gatherings not listed on this calendar, giveaways, and for community chat rooms with local and global members!)