For Evan Hanczor, it started with a book and a meal. In May 2012, he and restaurateur George Weld hosted a five-course dinner inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises at their Parish Hall restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, capping off a weekend-long Food Book Fair. The feast soon inspired a reading series, Tables of Contents, that has since spawned a cookbook, a journal, and a writing residency.
“We did a few more of those classic dinners, inspired by Their Eyes Were Watching God, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Tender Buttons,” Hanczor says. “Then, in 2016, we started the reading series with a few friends. We thought it would just be a one-off. It became a more or less monthly thing from then on.”
Table of Contents found its first home base at Williamsburg culinary staple Egg, which was founded by Weld in 2005 and later added Hanczor as a co-owner. The restaurant shuttered in 2020, and the series now moves around, often partnering with local independent bookstores for on-site book sales. The series has hosted scores of monthly dinners, which seat 60–70 guests, “inspired by the syntax, imagery, and feelings of a selection of scenes from a single book,” per its website.
Each event in the dinner series features readings from three authors, accompanied by three small bites—each inspired by one of the passages—and followed by a panel moderated by Hanczor. Authors who have taken part in the series thus far include such standouts as Alexander Chee, Angela Flournoy, Terrance Hayes, Marlon James, Eileen Myles, Torrey Peters, Emma Straub, and Michelle Zauner.
What happens when you’re eating a dish inspired by a particular passage from a book? Hanczor points to a moment during a dinner featuring a reading from Carmen Maria Machado as an emblematic example. “She described a baby’s fontanelle as having the texture of gnocchi,” he says. “And the chef made these simple buttered gnocchi that, without the context of that comparison or reading, would be pretty tasty but emotionally unremarkable. But eating them with that image in your mind really changed the whole experience of the dish.”
Mikey Friedman also had high hopes for combining community events with great books and good food. The founder of the reading retreat Page Break says his series sprang from a simple question: “What if we could do an entire book club in a weekend?”
The idea, Friedman explains, was that “it would be easier to commit to a relaxing weekend in upstate New York and knock it out—and to reserve that time to really dive deep into the book. Then the gears started turning. I’m a huge N.Y.C. restaurant nerd, and the idea to incorporate book-themed dinners was always part of the concept.”
The series has held 15 events since its 2024 launch, featuring books that have ranged widely in style, from Morgan Talty’s Fire Exit to Stephanie Wambagu’s Lonely Crowds. Each retreat is limited to 15 attendees, and they regularly sell out. For the retreats’ food components, Friedman says, “sometimes I look to match the chef to the book, so their cuisine aligns with the story. Other times, I just reach out to chefs I admire and have followed on Instagram forever. They’re always excited for the challenge.”
Innovation begets imitation: last year, authors Alex Bleeker and Luke Pyenson celebrated the publication of their anthology Taste in Music: Eating On Tour with Indie Musicians, with a few release events that involved custom menus. At the Brooklyn cookbook store Archestratus, “We landed on party subs from Court Street Grocers,” Pyenson says. “Who doesn’t love a party sub?”
For an event in Bolinas, Calif., the authors took a less traditional approach, enlisting Lily Chait, one of the book’s contributors and a chef who has toured with the likes of indie pop star Phoebe Bridgers, to man the galley.
“Lily’s spread was incredible,” Pyenson says. “Tons of local produce from this farm, all laid out beautifully on what could be called a ‘grazing table.’ It was a real instance of the book coming to life—you could really experience what Lily talks about in her essay in the book.”
Both the culinary and literary worlds prize a sense of community, and Page Break and Tables of Contents are no exceptions. Each consistently seeks new ways to engage with the wider book and food community. Page Break, Friedman says, donates 3% of its revenue to nonprofits with a focus on “literacy, food sustainability, education, or community-building,” including Shared Plate Funding Circle, Behind the Book, and NDN Girls Book Club.
Tables of Contents, Hanczor says, has partnered with a nonprofit group, the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, to develop a writing residency. “I knew there were these cottages that farm apprentices would live in during the season that I suspected were empty during the winter,” he explains. “So I asked Kathleen Finlay, the organization’s president, if she might be down to explore trying a pretty small-scale artist residency using one of those houses when it was out of use.”
Among the past residents was Giada Scodellaro, who used her time there to work on her debut novel, Ruins, Child. The book won the 2024 Novel Prize, which comes with a $10,000 purse and publication by New Directions in the U.S., Fitzcarraldo Editions in the U.K., and Giramondo in Australia. “It’s cool to see something that renowned come out of it so quickly,” Hanczor says.
In other words, the convergence of food and literature can be a deliciously special place. Literary awards are just proverbial icing on the cake.
