A-KIN SUPPER CLUB

Manchester has no shortage of places to eat. A-KIN is interested in creating somewhere to stay.

The Manchester-based supper club, founded by Sean and Gasim, is part dining experience, part creative collective and part community, bringing food, music, culture and people together under one roof. Each event is built to feel like more than a meal. The food matters, but so does the soundtrack, the environment, and the people you’re surrounded by.

For Sean and Gasim, that sense of togetherness has been there from the very beginning. The pair had known each other for years, cooking at gatherings and bonding over food, while at the time, their individual careers led them in different but complementary directions. For Sean, this looked like years of DJing and events, while Gasim built his career in professional kitchens. For the duo, A-KIN became the natural meeting point.

In collaboration with FLANNELS, A-KIN brought its supper club to Manchester’s Side Street for an intimate five-course dinner. Candlelit tables, carefully curated plates, DJs and a room full of conversation brought the A-KIN spirit to life, creating the kind of evening made for good food, new connections and staying a little longer.

“It was literally just a conversation in Sean’s living room,” Gasim recalls. “We didn’t think too much of it at the time. We knew it was something we wanted to do, but we didn’t really know how to facilitate it.”

The idea was simple: host one dinner and see what happened. That dinner became another, then another. Friends and friends-of-friends gradually gave way to a wider crowd, and strangers began leaving with new connections. Even the name speaks to that idea. A-KIN comes from family.

“We’ve all been friends for 10 to 15 years, so working together on A-KIN naturally felt like a family,” Sean explains. “When we started putting the events out into the world, we wanted everyone else to feel that same sense of family.”

A-KIN arrived at a point when the way people were going out was beginning to shift. In the aftermath of COVID, Sean noticed that the nightlife crowd he knew were changing, and looking for something different. The appetite for a good night out was still there. What people wanted from it had developed.

A-KIN sits comfortably in that space between dinner and nightlife. There is a carefully constructed menu, followed by DJs and, increasingly, live music. Guests can settle in over dinner, stay for another drink or find themselves dancing and making connections long after the final course.

“We’re not trying to do the traditional sit-down restaurant experience,” says Sean. “We want everything to feel special and for people to be wowed by the experience.”

The result is relaxed without feeling casual. People dress up. The music matters. Dinner is given the time it deserves. There is no need to choose between going out for a meal and going out afterwards. Here, one naturally blends in with the other.

Food is the starting point.

After seven or eight years working as a chef, Gasim begins with the season. Menus develop around ingredients at their best rather than trying to force an idea onto the plate. It keeps the food grounded, while giving guests something they can take away from the experience.

“They might think, ‘I really enjoyed this dish. I know what’s in season, so I’m going to try and replicate it at home,’” he explains.

From there, culture, memory and the concept behind each event begin to shape the menu. Gasim’s Sudanese background influences his approach to cooking, with dishes spanning British and Middle Eastern profiles, while Sean’s Jamaican heritage inspires his creativity in the kitchen. The aim is not to reproduce dishes exactly as they already exist, but to interpret those influences in a way that feels distinctly A-KIN.

“It’s about asking how we can make it feel like an A-KIN dish and show our personalities through it,” says Sean. Their BRIT Awards dinner is a case in point. Each course explored a different culture within Britain, giving the evening a clear idea without losing the personality of the food.

That same attention extends beyond the kitchen. DJs have been part of A-KIN since the beginning, selected for setting the atmospheric tone of each event, but trusted with the freedom to bring their own sound. More recently, live artists and bands have joined the mix. Tables are styled with the same care as the menu, while each venue is adapted to create a different mood.

Nothing exists entirely on its own. Food, music, space and people all have a part to play.

A-KIN has never been particularly interested in staying within the boundaries of a traditional restaurant.

Events have taken the supper club into retail spaces, while a partnership with the FA around the England Women’s team during the Euros brought food, football and community together. Collaborations with other Manchester restaurants have put two kitchens side by side, creating menus neither team would necessarily have arrived at alone.

For Sean, doing things the difficult way is often part of the appeal.

“I love the concept of making things difficult,” he says. “There’s something really cool about doing something that people might think you’re not going to be able to do, and then making it work.”

One of the clearest examples came at Mackie Mayor. Usually defined by noise, crowds and constant movement, the Manchester food hall was transformed by A-KIN into an intimate BRIT Awards dinner for just 50 people.

“It’s such an iconic Manchester food hall, and it’s normally really busy and full of hustle and bustle,” Sean says. “To take that and make it small, quiet and calm for 50 people was really special.”

The contrast is part of what made it work. Take a familiar space, change its rhythm and give people a reason to experience it differently.

Manchester runs through A-KIN. Both founders have built their careers and creative networks in the city. Sean moved from Birmingham for university and found himself drawn into its music and creative scenes. Gasim’s years in Manchester kitchens gave him a network of chefs, suppliers and venues that now forms part of A-KIN’s foundations.

It is also a city where the lines between food, music, art and nightlife are rarely fixed. For A-KIN, that gives ideas room to move.

The audience has evolved with it. Early dinners were filled largely with people the founders already knew. Two years on, unfamiliar faces are increasingly part of the room, without changing the atmosphere they set out to create.

There is a particular kind of guest who seems to have found a home here. Someone who wants to dress up, have a drink and hear good music, but also wants to sit down and properly enjoy dinner with friends. Someone who might arrive alone and end up in conversation with the person across the table. That ease is intentional.

Community is not an extra layer added onto A-KIN, It is built into how the evenings work, and that is where the real craft lies. Knowing when the food should take centre stage and and how to platform the supporting acts. Knowing when to bring people together and how to give them space to feel at home. Creating a room that feels unique without making it feel exclusive.

Sean and Gasim have plans to take A-KIN beyond Manchester, with collaborations in different parts of the world and the possibility of a permanent home of their own. A space where they can shape everything, from what leaves the kitchen to what comes through the speakers. Wherever it goes next, the thinking remains the same.

A-KIN is built around good food, attention to craft and the simple idea that bringing the right people together can turn dinner into something more. It is the conversation around the table. The soundtrack as the evening moves on. The special connection you may not have made if you didn't come. The food may bring people through the door, but what A-KIN creates goes beyond the table.