You are up to your elbows in jumbo shrimp. You’re shelling and that makes a mess. You’re eating with your hands, and that really makes a mess. You are surrounded by people you don’t know, talking about stuff you don’t always grasp. “What,” asks a voice in your head, “am I doing here?”

Wok+Wine is an experiment in social chemistry. Peter Mandeno, one of the founders, wanted to see what would happen if he brought together people with diverse perspectives and divergent interests. What would happen, he asked, if you put a VC, a material scientist, a fashion designer, a teacher, and an author at the same table.

Good things, apparently.

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