The article covers 'A Thirdspace Project', founded by Jungshi Imti in Hyderabad after he felt the lack of communal 'third spaces' post-university. It highlights the supper club's food-led experiences like themed dinners and collaborations that centre Naga cuisine and cross-cultural menus such as Naga x Telugu and Naga x Bengali nights. The piece discusses formats like potlucks, 'Cook With Me' sessions, and intimate apartment gatherings, along with a 0% commission pop-up shop that supports small artists and homegrown sellers.
Four years ago, Jungshi Imti, a marketing professional who also runs a fulfilling passion project, moved to Hyderabad for his Master’s degree. He says the first three years in university were “one of adventure, self-discovery and meaningful interactions around forests, lakes and fauna,” but things changed once he graduated. “I lost my whimsy when I moved out of hostel and found no third spaces that could nurture it,” he notes. So he decided to build one himself that “gives time and space to myself and the many underrepresented food communities across the city,” he shares.
That idea slowly became 'A Thirdspace Project'. “Fun fact, the whole thing started with an Instagram story I posted asking people if they’d be interested to join a supper club,” he notes. The initial guest list of two has now expanded into a growing network of 1800 people in Hyderabad.
"This vision found a catalyst in Supper Clubs but have become experiences beyond food - merging art, music and a return to the many things we forego on our way to growing up."Jungshi Imti
A Third Space Project that began with Naga dinners soon expanded into different themed collaborations across Hyderabad. “All my collaborators are people who I have previously met and connected with and the key deciding factor is always a willingness to share the warmth of a home and a shoulder to lean on,” he shares. One of the early menus, ‘A Slice of Childhood,’ marked the final set of private dinners in Jungshi’s Yusufguda apartment, where he cooked dishes that had intimidated him for years, including sticky rice that requires exact measurement and smoked meat that can easily turn stringy if mishandled. ‘Homegrown Comforts’ took the form of a potluck, where guests brought secret family recipes from their own kitchens and shared them around the table.
He later organised ‘Small Talk & BBQ,’ described as a winter penthouse gathering in Jubilee Hills, where he teamed up with someone he first met through his own supper club; together they created a Naga x Telugu menu that was planned, scraped and reworked a hundred times before being finalised, with the evening positioned as a space for conversation with a big appetite, complete with pouring partners. The Naga x Bengali collaboration titled Sorshe was an ode to Bengali women who got him hooked on Old Monk and as “an absolute celebration of all the food that comes before and after a bottle of that old man,” he says, tying the menu to shared cultural references.
Across brunches, supper clubs and collaborative dinners, the menus featured sticky rice with smoked pork and bamboo shoot, anishi with chicken, temerem mayong, perilla salad, pork with entsurep, pork with gongura, roasted chicken with king chilli oil, chicken in bamboo shoot, fermented fish chutney, Naga dal, roasted pumpkin salad and roselle tea, with some events including an “Amuse Bouche” course. He also introduced smaller “Cook With Me” nights where friends, strangers and families cooked the entire meal together from rice to tea.
"I hope people take back a recipe to cook, share and include in their everyday life. I hope people rediscover the parts of themselves they have not taken care of in a while and meet people who can be a villager in this village together."Jungshi Imti
Alongside these gatherings, Jungshi’s apartment has a 0% commission shop that gives artists, small business owners and thrifters an offline space for organic interactions. “Much like hangouts back home in the northeast, where every home will have at least a hustler or two trying to sell you something from spices, pickles, secondhand clothes, to lottery tickets and sometimes even a chicken or a white rat” he notes. A part of The Shop always travels with him to all collaborative dinners “except for when I have to pack half of my house to set up a venue,” hes says.
With communal tables, handwritten menus, and the preparation of traditional dishes in cozy apartment setups and outdoor terrace dinners, Jungshi aims to create a sense of belonging through food and warm experiences of community in a hyperdigital, disconnected, often isolated world. “You must know the warmth of watching the sunset with your friends, that absolute feeling of being in a moving car with blaring music and a great view? or just moments where you felt absolutely sure about how you are at the right place at the right time?” he says. “A feeling like that is what I hope people go back with. I know everything else will fall into place. I honestly trust the universe more than myself.”
Follow 'A Thirdspace Project' here.
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