The Napkin Wave, just one of the festivities at Hand Made’s dinners. (Photograph by Dave Brown)

Imagine a Western al fresco dinner party. Add, say, 3,000 more people, an all-white dress code, and a hush-hush location and you’ve got Hand Made Events, whose enormous pop-up picnics are like the polished, hipster version of the 60s’ hippie be-ins. The modern take, known as a flash mob, is less political (and less fueled by LSD) and instead celebrates Western foodiness and a penchant for vintage duds.

At 5 o’clock tonight, more than 3,000 people will gather in San Francisco for one of the last dinners of the season. The menu is all DIY and BYO: you bring food, booze, and pretty much everything else; Hand Made supplies tables and the location, which remains a secret until 3 p.m.

An L.A. dinner. (Photograph by John Trice)

It’s the sheer romance of it all that gets me: The mysterious location, the sea of people dressed in white, the possibility of meeting someone new and fascinating, and the idea that, post-dinner, everyone disappears into the night, leaving no trace behind.

Live outside the Bay Area? Hand Made is based in SF but has hosted dinners in L.A. and San Diego and has big plans for the future, including dinners in locations as far east as Brooklyn and Miami.