Cate, who has experience in the hospitality and catering industries, and Sarah, owner of The Byre and self-confessed foodie, knocked their heads together to see what they could do to bring quality food and social connection to the town, while championing local ingredients and produce. Their love of simple ingredients and cooking to create exciting, wholesome dishes, and the need for more opportunities for people in the community to come together, share stories and make friends, was the driving force behind The Byre Supper Club.

The first dinner took place at Merchant House, one of Launceston’s oldest historic buildings, in November 2025.

Sarah said: “It was a really special evening lit with candles, and everyone was really excited about it. To do it somewhere like Merchant House, with all its history, was amazing. It’s like a little hidden treasure of Launceston.”

Using local businesses for various ingredients, including Fi’s Farm Shop for vegetables, Let’s Get Naked Refill for grains, Philip Warren Butchers for meat, and Coombeshead Farm for bread, Sarah and Cate put together a delicious menu for the evening, featuring sourdough and whipped butter; a wild mushroom lasagne; Warrens’ sausages; smoky Provencal veg, seasonal greens and a bean salad, followed by saffron bread and butter pudding with apple and pear compote, and finished with Cornish cheese and port.

Their vision was to scatter sharing plates up and down a long table in Merchant House for people to dig into.

“It’s about using local and sharing food,” Sarah continued. “We didn’t want everything to be plated up perfectly and placed in front of each person; it was a feast plonked on the table for people to help themselves to. We wanted to bring people together, who wouldn’t necessarily have sat around a table together usually, to strike up conversations.

“Merchant House was a really great venue for winter. We want it to be a rolling thing and to bring more and more people together slowly and gradually. The biggest thing for us is that it’s community-minded, and kept local for local people.”

Sarah, who cooks mostly vegetarian food at home, is passionate about bringing a taste of home to the supper club. She added: “I love cooking; it’s the actual making and creating of it that I enjoy. Taking time, enjoying the process and coming together around a table. I also love using local produce, but cooking dishes from around the world - food from all over, but bringing it home.”

Aside from providing good food, at a time when high streets are struggling, Sarah and Cate were keen to establish something that would encourage people to show up for their communities: ‘a feast of connection’.

Sarah, whose lifestyle, book and stationery shop The Byre has been a central part of Launceston’s business community since it first opened in 2017, said: “We live our lives through social media so with this in mind, the gatherings make it a special time spent together rather than a really expensive night out. In my view, it’s so important that we still communicate with each other, and I love that through supper club we can bring together people who are championing Launceston.”

You can find The Byre Supper Club on Instagram to get in touch and find out about future events.