The Kit-Cat Club (1696-1720)
Nothing brings people together like pie. The Kit-Cat club took its name from the mutton pies, called Kit-Cats, baked by innkeeper Christopher Catt, that were permanently on the group’s menu. Pies were washed down with drinks accompanied by toasts made to the most charming and beautiful ladies of the time. In time-honored tradition, conversation turned from ladies to other topics of interest for the aristocracy of the times. This often included art, literature, religion, and politics. While political discussion today is a conversational land mine, such discussion by the Kit-Cat club led to discussions of liberty, religious nonconformity, and helped shape the political structure of the Whig party, impacting British politics for over one hundred years. Not bad for a slice of mutton pie.