Brussels meal-sharing scheme Meetsies looks to expand

A new dining concept in Brussels is helping expats and Belgians make friends with like-minded food lovers over a shared homemade meal.

Since launching in June, Meetsies has signed up about 30 amateur chefs who have hosted more than 100 dinners around the Brussels region. The organisers are now looking for hosts in other cities - and they have expanded to include a takeaway service as well.

Co-founder Ségolène Martin says the aim is to provide an alternative for busy city-dwellers who get home from a long day's work, have no desire to cook and eat alone, but have had enough of restaurants, their cost and the lack of social interaction there.

"We bring people together - both expats and non-expats - around the pleasure of cooking and eating," she says. "Dinners are an intimate way to make contact and meet."

She says the "sharing economy", which has proved popular in areas like transport (Uber) and accommodation (AirBnB), can also work for food: "This is a way for people to get more familiar with the concept of sharing food."

Hosts draft a menu, source their ingredients, set a price and submit their event details to Meetsies, who offer advice on welcoming guests and promote the event on their site and weekly newsletter.

Guests book online and pay upfront. They also receive some advice by email: turn up on time, don't drink too much, and respect the scheduled finish time. After the evening is done, the host receives a rating out of five from each of the guests, who in turn are rated by the host.

Zoe from Ixelles, for instance, is offering guests a Japanese dinner for €17.75 per guest, while Karl, near Turnhout, is preparing some rib-eye steak. On the takeaway front, Sheila in Ixelles offers a €12 meal from her native New Orleans including Creole red beans and rice with sweet cornbread.

"We bring together people who live in the same commune or work in the same street but have never had the opportunity to meet before," Martin adds. "It's just magic when you share something, people just relax."

Prize draw: Win €20 off a Meetsies meal
The Bulletin is offering five readers a pair of €10 vouchers to spend on a Meetsies meal-sharing experience for you and a friend. To enter the draw, simply enter your name and email address below. We will notify winners on Monday 16 November.