Table Talking

My singles social group virginity was lost last night to my first Table Talk event and what a thoroughly pleasant evening it was.  The venue for last's nights experience was  Carrington Place.  The food was tapas including fried lavish bread with salsa, vegetarian samosas with plum sauce, mini spring rolls with chilli sauce, goats cheese and caramelised onion tarts, vegetarian pizza with roasted pumpkin, Margherita pizza followed by a plate of assorted desserts including chocolate fudge brownie, lemon tart, mango sorbet and fruit kebab and coffee.  The cost for the evening was $35 plus the $5 Table Talk booking fee so not an inexpensive evening.  The ambiance of the establishment was divine with its pressed metal ceilings and old world charm meets funky new interior furnishings including a rather impressive looking chandelier in the main bar.  The location with a beautiful off-the-water breeze blowing in through the large opened windows and doors looking out onto the wide flat streets, old pubs and shop buildings, and nose to kerb parking in the main drag is reminiscent of Queensland country town.   Carrington was once a rough and tough working class inner suburb of Newcastle. Nowadays it is a much sought after address for the city chic set wisening up to the suburb's charms of terraced housing, an old pub on nearly every main CBD street corner (although one has been converted to a boarding house establishment), excellent government bus service and its proximity to the inner-city which is just a brisk stroll or cheap(er!) taxi ride over the Carrington bridge.

We were seated at tables in the main bar according to our age groups and with equal numbers of men to women.  I was seated at the younger persons' table, at my mere 43 years of age it gives you the picture that while Table Talk Dining caters for all adult age groups it tends to be more commonly frequented by older clientele.  Our host, Heather, who was very warm and welcoming has been running the show for 18 years and has seen the boom years when Table Talk had up to 700 members to the now leaner years of approximately 250 members thanks in equal parts to internet dating sites, "free" single social groups and the skyrocketing costs of living.  My table consisted of two familiar faces (thanks for 'holding my hand' Super Mario and Lord of the Wetlands) and three new faces.  Conversation and laughs flowed reasonably easily and freely keeping in mind that discussion on religion, sex, custody issues and polotics (sic), as outlined on the typed guidelines table card, is frowned upon and discouraged.  As is the use of mobile phones.  Table Talk also upholds strict dress code rules which is something I find quite delightful in this day and age of people being completely clueless in appropriately dressing for the occasion.  Last night's dress code was smart casual.  They also have an after five, dressy casual and formal dress codes.  

What I found refreshing about this organised members-only singles social group is that Heather keeps the events equally proportioned on the number of men to women front. So there will never be an event that a single woman will rock up to where the single women outnumber the men 20:1. And while that is a great scenario for single men it is a highly disappointing situation for single women!  Heather does stress that Table Talk is not a dating or introduction agency and whether or not someone chooses to pursue a possible romantic prospect outside of the Table Talk arena is completely up to the persons involved.  However, going off their website's success page and feedback Table Talk certainly appears to have been the instigator to a lot of pairing up, weddings and even a few babies here and there.  I can personally guarantee that these successes are true as I have a two nieces and a nephew all thanks in part to Table Talk Dining.  Something thing I was relieved to discover was there is no wearing of dorky name-tags at Table Talk Dining, apparently at the formal dinners they will put name place-cards on the tables however on all other occasions singles are left free to introduce themselves as adults can ... or at least should!

So in summary my singles social group evening was a success and I would highly recommend Table Talk to anyone living on the Central Coast or in the Newcastle area who is single or finding it hard to meet people, widowed, separated, divorced or new to the area.  Table Talk has two groups, one based on the Central Coast and the other in Newcastle and members are free to choose events to attend from either group and there is also the occasional event which combines both groups.  Heather also organises long weekend getaways, a one week Australian-based holiday usually over the first week of January each year and one to two overseas trips a year for interested members.

Ciao

Boo