The Chicago Home Dining Survey
What does a dinner party really cost in Chicago? How many people fit around an apartment table? What stops people from hosting at all? Nobody has counted. We are counting.
Fifteen questions, about four minutes, no name required. Hosts, guests, and anyone who would like to host but hasn't yet.
Take the surveyWho it's for
Anyone in the Chicago area who has hosted a dinner at home in the last year, gone to one, or wants to. A potluck in a Rogers Park two-flat counts. So does a ticketed supper club in a Pilsen loft, a Friendsgiving for twelve, and the dinner you keep meaning to throw.
What we ask
Hosts get questions about how often they host, how many people come, what a dinner costs per guest, whether guests chip in, how people are invited, and what makes it hard. Everyone else gets two questions about what stops them from hosting and what they would pay for a seat at a stranger's table. Everyone gets the last two. The full question list will be published with the results, word for word.
What happens to the answers
The results go up on this page in mid-January 2027, free to read, share and cite. You will see the number of people who answered every question, medians and ranges rather than tidy averages, and where in the city the answers came from. We do not ask for your name. Email at the end is optional, and it is only used for what you tick: the results in January, and separately, word when you can host or find dinners on TableFolk.
How to read it
This is an open survey, shared by people who host and the people they invite, not a random sample of the city. We will say exactly how it was shared and how many people answered, so you can judge the numbers for yourself. If you host, the most useful thing you can do after you finish is send it to your own guest list.
Four minutes now, and in January the first real numbers on how Chicago eats at home.
Take the survey