Cynthia Ibarra moved back to Dallas this summer for a new job after attending college in Phoenix for over four years. While she was back in her hometown, the city felt unfamiliar.
“I know people that I went to high school with, but [they’re] super spread out,” she said. “I also just finished my MBA and so I feel like my social life really took a hit because I was really focused on school and my work.”
In the first week of September, the 30-year-old saw a post while scrolling on Instagram for a Saturday night blind dinner party at Pane Vino Osteria in Addison. The invite called out to women “looking for more” – more depth, more connections, more belonging. For Ibarra, more meant deeper connections outside of her older co-workers. So a week later, she took a seat at the dinner party with 11 other strangers. Not only did the dinner expand her social circle, but it introduced her to women she never expected to have so much in common with.
“This is a very easy way to connect with a wide range of people that you may not meet in your normal day-to-day setting,” she said. “Two of the girls [here] are nurses, one is a librarian, another one is a psychologist.”
The supper club is the brainchild of 26-year-old Lian Colby. After returning home to Dallas from college, she realized the friendships that once grounded her had scattered as friends moved away.
“I felt very full in other capacities,” Colby said. “I think friends have always been the thing that grounds me, and that's something that felt like it was lacking that I needed to prioritize.”
So in July of 2024 she created the Dinner Series – a women-only supper club. Once a month, Colby invites a small group of six to 11 women to gather around a table in Dallas or Addison restaurants such as Vidorra and Frenchie. The goal isn’t networking or dating; it’s simply to meet new people and gain meaningful friendships.
“The dinner series is to help bring women together to create a safe space for women over dinner, over a meal, and hope to make women in Dallas feel seen, heard, respected – feel like they have a sense of belonging,” Colby said.
The idea resonated quickly. The first dinner invite Colby posted on Instagram filled within hours, and a waitlist of more than 100 women soon followed. Some regulars have attended 10 or more suppers. Colby said she still sees many attendees making plans together outside of the club.
That’s why 28-year-old Lauren Bayans keeps coming back. Bayans moved to Dallas in 2022 from Los Angeles and wanted to expand her friend group. What drew her to the Dinner Series was that it was just for women. So after attending her first dinner in 2024, Moore built a mini village of women excited to explore the depths of Dallas.
“We go to different places all around town that I probably wouldn't have heard of without this group,” she said. “I've tried Pilates for the first time with one of the girls that's here tonight which was really fun. I've definitely found a great community and even been introduced to people outside of this community, and I feel like it's just made Dallas a little bit smaller.”
26-year-old Sophie Moore attended her 10th dinner two weeks ago. Moore has used other tools like Bumble BFF to make friends but wanted to find something that was more personable. Now she finds herself at Thursdays on Tap at the Perot, Midnight at the Nash and having girl dinner with a new gang she originally met through the Dinner Series.
“It's a different experience when you meet someone in person and introduce yourselves,” she said. “And see if that conversation you can turn into getting the phone numbers, exchanging that, and going out and getting drinks for dinner and becoming friends.”
After a year of hosting monthly intimate dinners, Colby wanted to expand her reach, so she built an app.
Lilac is a friendship app inspired by Colby’s dinners. Like her dinners, it’s exclusively for women. The app will launch in Dallas before expanding to other cities. The app includes a discover page where users can swipe through nearby users. Each profile is built around curated prompts that highlight the user's personality and interests.
Colby sees Lilac as a bridge between online and offline life. She said there's a common observation between her fellow Gen Zers who feel digitally connected but not connected in real life.
“It feels very performative and superficial,” she said. “A lot of people lack depth in their relationship or their friendships, and they're looking for people that feel like home.”
With Lilac, Colby is encouraging women to maintain an online and offline presence. To avoid endless swiping, Lilac limits the amount of profiles shown to encourage intentional connections. Users can also join or create social events and groups built around shared interests.
“The way that you can easily meet people and narrow down based on the type of people you're looking for can be filtered through the lens of an app,” she said. “By using this app as a tool to meet people. But not as the place where everyone lives.”
Colby hopes Lilac will become as synonymous with friendship as Hinge is with dating. While it was designed with Gen Z women in mind, she believes it could also serve women in their 40s and 50s navigating new life phases.
“The epidemic of loneliness touches every corner of each demographic,” she said. “And so I want this to appeal to every age.”
The app is currently in beta and is expected to launch in early October. In the meantime, Colby continues hosting her weekly supper clubs, where women linger until the restaurants close, swap stories and slowly strangers turn into friends.
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