Resurrect the low-key hangout
Dinner every Wednesday
Invite your friends to join and have a standing date each week. Meet new friends while you’re at it.
Drop in when you can
Open 6-10pm: come whenever, leave whenever, wear whatever. Think friend hang, not dinner party.
Contribute to community
Fixing isolationist American culture takes all of us—and some resources. Your monthly tithe fuels the gatherings and events that keep the cult alive.
This MLM has guaranteed rewards
See friends without the planning
A block on your calendar, and on all your friends’ calendars. No more endless texting, or guilt for forgetting to respond.
A tasty meal you don’t have to cook
Perfect for the mid-week slump. More fun than takeout, easier than cooking. No Yelp indecision or waiting for a table.
New friends, without the stranger danger
The best way to make friends is through friends. Invite yours, have them invite theirs, and surround yourself with new and interesting people.
Relieve stress, don’t just escape it
Doom scrolling and Netflix are easy, but they don’t make your life richer. Fight the isolating attention economy with a more fulfilling alternative.
Take a break from being the host
Are you the connector in your friend group? Always introducing and never introduced? Come by, kick back, and meet other catalysts like you.
An opportunity to create culture
Invent new customs, start sub-cults, be a part of creating the space you want to inhabit. This is a playground to bring your ideas to life.
Frequently asked questions
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Invitations to all our weekly Wednesday gatherings.
Inclusion in our private Friend Cult Slack channel, where members chat, share ideas, and plan events
Access to our Cult Festivities Fund™️, which cultists can use to pay for parties and events
The inside track on all our secret rituals
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Tithes are $35/mo. We’re trying keep Friend Cult accessible to a wide range of cultists.
The majority pays for community expenses: cult parties, an art fund, venue rental, and operational expenses to run Friend Cult.
A small slice pays modest wages to cult leaders for keeping operations afloat. Our goal is to build a sustainable cult, and ongoing free labor = burnout.
More details on our pricing here
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Each week we meet at different local restaurants — a tour of the delicious eats Oakland has to offer, and a way to support our fave small businesses.
Have a restaurant in mind? Send ‘em our way!
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We do our best to meet at restaurants that offer vegetarian/vegan options and accommodate different dietary restrictions.
We always let folks know the restaurants ahead of time, so they can check if it fits their needs.
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Stop by anytime during operating hours, Wednesday evenings from 6pm-close. Stay for just long enough to dine and dash, or linger for the whole evening. It’s up to you.
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At this time, our hangs can’t accommodate children.
Rest assured, we are actively plotting ways to welcome mini-cultists in the near future. Get ‘em young!
Tenets we practice
Choose Good Gods™
We worship at the altar of social connection, not social media. We invest in the relationships we care about, so we can live happier and die more fulfilled. Life is short and time is worship, so we’re mindful of the gods we devote our attention to.
Kill the Stranger™
As the saying goes, the stranger is the enemy of connection, and sharing is the enemy of the stranger. We kill the stranger in ourselves by genuinely sharing who we are and what we love. We kill the stranger in others by greeting them with genuine curiosity, never judgment.
Conjure New Culture™
We are the designers of our culture, not merely the consumers of it. We acknowledge that American culture is broken: it’s isolationist and individualistic. We can fix it by actively participating in an alternative.