Are We Breakfast Club People Now?

As a community builder, I am always inspired to learn about cool, earnest ways to bring people together in person.

So it was a true delight to find Anne Helen Petersen's piece on The Los Angeles Breakfast Club in my inbox this morning, titled “How to Be a Joiner”. It also felt pretty serendipitous, as I am trying to crawl my way out of some work-related burnout. Anne interviews Bri Richard, the secretary of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club who discovered the club after her own bout of burnout:

This is a place where if you show up — not just physically, but by participating — you belong. You are treated like a beloved friend the moment you walk in for the first time. I think it’s important to recognize how rare and precious a thing that is today….

What that does to the rhythm of my week — look, for my entire life I didn’t think I was a routine or ritual person because I was raised Catholic and Sunday mass was, frankly, painfully boring for me. After a few weeks at the LABC, something shifted for me. But there is great comfort in the predictability of tradition and ritual — I just hadn’t found rituals that meant something to me until then. Breakfast Club traditions are silly, goofy, punny, campy, and often just not that serious. The only thing we take seriously is our guiding principle of friendship. Is that corny? Hell yeah. We are goofy as fuck and we love it. But it’s also incredibly earnest, because once you are immersed in this space where everyone treats you like a friend, it’s magnetic. So I guess I’m a routine person now? At least on Wednesdays.

This whole interview makes me incredibly jealous I don't live in L.A. or New York anymore, where I also had the luck of falling into Tracy Candido’s orbit and participate in her awesome event series, Lady Boss. These organized, fun but non-bar-centric chances for in-person connection seemed to be everywhere when I was younger and living in big cities, but hard to come by in my queer, 30-something mom era.

So thank you, Anne Helen Petersen and the LABC, for giving me the kick I need to start thinking about what kinds of community events I’d like to put out here in Montreal in 2025.

Anyone up for a Montreal Breakfast (or Lunch) Club?