Last night, Wednesday 25th March 2020, a bunch of residents from Liverpool’s waterfront and city centre came together for a dinner party with a difference – the whole thing happened online, as an antidote to the first week of imposed self-isolation in the UK’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

With gorgeous, freshly-cooked paella arriving throughout the evening from local restaurant Lunya, it was a truly fabulous experience. “I don’t think I’ve laughed this much since this whole ordeal began,” said one particpant, after 90 minutes of bubbly chatter between the new-found neighbours.

Everyone who took part really appreciated the initiative, and we were all delighted to be able to support Lunya on this first event, especially after reading Peter Kinsella’s incredibly moving letter to the Prime Minister, which had inspired this “Big Neighbourhood Dining Table” project in the first place.

One of the participants, Sheila Jones from the Waterfront, said afterwards:

“Thanks a million – our first virtual dinner together was so lovely! It makes a big big difference to see and talk to a group of other human beings in real time, and especially living alone as I do. The food was fantastic too.”

There was some local publicity about this event in an interview on BBC Radio Merseyside and a journalist from the Daily Mail also rang to find out more information.

The next meal together will be Wednesday 1st April at the same time of 6.00pm and it will be our first Scouse Night courtesy of our friends at Skaus.

The third event in our Big Neighbourhood Dining Table series will be hosted by Casa Italia and will be an Italian Night on Wednesday 8th April. Make sure you take part and keep the momentum going for supporting each other and our local independent restaurants.

Please feel free to get involved and take part in what is a unique and unusual social experiment during a period when we are all invited to creatively reach out to be good neighbours and citizens.

If you have a contact at a particular local independent restaurant please let us know so we can involve them in this project. Email to chair@engageliverpool.com.