Hearth & Hour
a supper club in the West Loop

Supper for twelve, by candlelight, once a month.

Chef Inés Calderón cooks five seasonal courses with Mexican roots and Midwestern produce, pours a natural wine with each one, and sits you beside eleven people you haven't met yet.

Choose your seat Book Inés for your home

Next dinnerSaturday, November 143 seats left

A long wooden table set for twelve with linen napkins, amber glasses and tall lit candles in a brick loft at dusk, the Chicago skyline in the windows
The long table, set for October.$165 a seat, wine poured
Guests laughing and raising glasses of orange wine across a candlelit table crowded with plates

You arrive a stranger. You leave with three new numbers and a jar of salsa macha.

Hearth & Hour started with one rule: no tables for two. Everyone sits at the same long table, dishes go hand to hand, and the person next to you is whoever Inés thought you'd get along with. She is usually right.

It is a real dinner, not a show. Inés cooks in the open kitchen at the end of the room, comes out to tell you what's on the plate and why, and eats the last course with you.

  1. Doors open. A glass of pét-nat by the windows while the light goes.
  2. Find your place card. Couples and friends get split up, kindly.
  3. Five courses over about two and a half hours, each with its own pour.
  4. Coffee, cajeta and the part of the night nobody wants to end.
Take a seat

The next three dinners

Every plate with a candle burning is taken. Tap an open one and it's yours to hold.

$165per seat5courses, 5 poursseats left

Tap an open plate on the table to choose your seat.

Or bring the long table home.

Inés cooks in home kitchens across Chicago, Evanston and Oak Park. She brings the groceries, the knives and the candles, and leaves your kitchen cleaner than she found it.

Private dinner

From $145 per person, 6 guests minimum

A four or five course menu written around your table: a birthday, an anniversary, the night your in-laws finally meet your friends.

  • Menu call with Inés two weeks ahead
  • Natural wine pairing, add $55 per person
  • Plates, linens and serving help available
  • Up to 16 guests in most homes

Cooking party

$95 per person, 6 to 10 guests

Two and a half hours with your hands in the masa. You cook three dishes together, then sit down and eat everything you made.

  • Hand-pressed tortillas from fresh masa
  • Salsa macha you take home in a jar
  • One braise or roast, depending on the season
  • Good for team nights and bachelorettes that hate bars

Ask about a date

Chef Inés Calderón, hair tied back and forearm tattoos showing, plating a dish with tweezers at a marble counter

Eight years on the line, and one long table of her own.

Inés grew up in Little Village, folding tamales on her grandmother's kitchen table every December. She spent eight years cooking in two of the city's tasting-menu kitchens, where she learned precision and missed the noise of a family meal.

In 2023 she borrowed a friend's loft, bought twelve mismatched chairs at an estate sale in Berwyn, and cooked the first Hearth & Hour dinner for eleven strangers and her mom. The chairs are still mismatched. The menus change with what's at the Green City Market and what her abuela would have done with it.

She shops on Wednesdays, cooks Thursday and Friday, and still writes every place card by hand.

Notes left on the table

I came alone because my friend bailed. By dessert I was planning a trip to Oaxaca with the couple across from me. We went in March.

Priya, Logan Square

That squash. I have tried to make it four times at home and it is never that.

Marcus, Bronzeville

We booked Inés for my dad's 70th. He talked about the mole for a week and he does not talk about food.

Rosa, Oak Park

Before you book

Anything else, write to hello@hearthandhour.com. Inés answers herself.

Can you work around dietary needs?

Yes. Vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten-free and dairy-free guests get their own version of every course if you tell us when you book. For serious allergies, email Inés before booking so she can tell you honestly whether the menu is safe for you.

Is it BYOB, or is wine included?

A five-glass natural wine pairing is included in the $165 seat. A non-alcoholic pairing of shrubs, house tepache and tea is the same price. The supper club is not BYOB. At private dinners in your home, bring whatever you like.

Where is the supper club?

A brick loft in the West Loop, a short walk from the Morgan stop on the Green and Pink lines. The exact address is emailed 48 hours before the dinner. There is a freight elevator, so the space is step-free.

Can I come on my own?

Please do. About a third of each table books solo. Inés writes the place cards herself and seats solo guests in the middle of the table, never at the end.

What is the cancellation policy?

Cancel up to 7 days before for a full refund. Inside 7 days, you can pass your seat to a friend or take a credit toward any dinner in the next six months.

Private dinners and cooking parties

Tell Inés the date, the headcount and the occasion. She replies within two days with a sample menu and a quote.

Weekends from January book up by early December.