Dinner Lab introduced Clevelanders to its social dining experiment last Thursday and Friday, July 23 and 24 at smARTspace in the 78^th Street Studios. Known as a pop-up restaurant event where up-and-coming chefs present new menus and concepts and then gather feedback, Cleveland marks Dinner Lab’s 33^rd location in the country.

Chef Danny Espinoza of Chicago was the featured chef last week – offering diners his Anomar five-course modern Mexican menu. “”These are my roots as a Mexican and I am feeding it to you subliminally,” Espinoza said on Friday night’s menu. “My food is inspired by my grandmother. Tonight should feel like a party at her house.”

Anomar is in fact his grandmother’s name, Ramona, spelled backwards. Espinoza shared with the diners that he grew up watching her cook and began to take interest in how she made her food at age 15. “I’m not going to give you the smallest, cutest little thing,” he promised. “I want to leave here not full, but satisfied.”

Espinoza's menu included a calamari salad, a pork and jicama tostada, fried chicken with cilantro grits, mahi mahi with mole verde and cake with roasted peanuts, strawberries and goats milk caramel. Half of the future chefs be locally based and half from out of town.

Nearly 200 people have signed up for Dinner Lab memberships since the organization announced in April it was coming to Cleveland. Donna Debbs came Friday with a friend. “I think I’m like a baby chef at home,” the Glenville resident says. “I love food, meeting people and I wanted to broaden my network. Dinner Lab caters to a combination of things.”

Pat and Trudy Pauken became members because they love trying innovative food and socializing with new people. “We’re pretty adventurous food-wise, and we’re always open to new things and going to new restaurants,” says Pat. Trudy signed the pair up as soon as she heard about Dinner Lab. “I knew the concept, but you don’t know where it’s going to be and you don’t know the chef," she says. "I thought it would be fun going to different places.”

The memberships cost $125 per year and members can bring up to three guests with them. Each dinner is then an additional $50 to $65 per person and includes drinks. Members are informed of the date, chef and menu three weeks prior to the event, but are not told the location until 24 hours prior to the dinner.

Espinoza will soon be opening his own restaurant and was recently named to the Zagat Chicago 30 Under 30 list. The next Cleveland Dinner Lab is scheduled for August 18 and 19 and will feature chef Brooks Hart and his menu "Beer! Please! Drunk Food Redefined.".