Hey everyone! I was a long time member of chowhound and have been mostly lurking here for some months because I recently moved to SF! I read about so many wonderful restaurants to try, and some I have gone alone, but some seem like it would be better to share lots of dishes with others. Do any of you know of any great dining groups to join where I can eat and meet people? 
The old chowdown mailing lists are still there, but haven’t been active in a while.
San Francisco: sfchowdown@yahoogroups.com
East Bay: ebchowdown@yahoogroups.com
Penninsula: svchowdown@yahoogroups.com
North Bay: nbchowdown@yahoogroups.com
You might have to write to the list maintainer, mswine@onebox.com, to get on the list before posting. I organized a chowdown in Berkeley last September via the lists.
There’s a lot happening at other websites. I’m a member of Meet Up, and several folks in the particular group I belong to are members of three or four different Meet Up groups.
You can get an idea of some of them here - I did a search within 25 mi of Oakland, and the list has some interesting sounding SF groups. You’ll want to see how active the group is, btw, because organizing dinners is a fair amount of work, according to the host of my group!
Meet Up search: http://www.meetup.com/find/food-drink/?allMeetups=false&radius=25&userFreeform=Oakland%2C+CA&mcId=z94601&mcName=Oakland%2C+CA&sort=default
Another fun concept is Feastly, at https://eatfeastly.com/. Feastly now has a permanent SF location which chefs can use for a fee, or chefs are free to use their own homes if they wish. These are not restaurants, but people who like to cook or possibly float the idea of getting into the business. You’ll be dining with people who like to eat adventurously, and food is always a good way to ‘break the ice’ and meet folks.
Hope that helps!
Thanks so much! 
