After years of welcoming guests to supper clubs at their home, husband-and-wife duo Andrew Smith and Devoney Mills opened Isla, a communal dining experience in Merion Village. Built around warm hospitality, Isla has deservedly earned accolades since its summer 2025 opening. We chatted with Smith and Mills about the origins of the restaurant, what diners can expect, and the amazing connections that have resulted from great meals together.
Can you fill me in on a little background, and how you started with the supper club in your home? What led you to eventually opening Isla as a stand-alone restaurant?
Our good friend, the late Dan Murphy, had suggested we start a supper club just after we purchased our home. He had been to a few in other cities and thought it would be a great way for us to scratch that creative itch, as we both had recently left the food service industry. We took his advice, and hosted 14 guests in our home, three to four nights a week, once a month. Isla is inspired by our supper club and the relationships that were built over seven years of hosting in our home.
For those who are new to Isla, how do you describe the restaurant? What do you hope diners experience at a dinner there?
We feel that Isla can best be described as a dinner party in a restaurant. In addition to food waste utilization, food seasonality, and using local ingredients, we focus mainly on the human connection, and hope that our guests leave having made some new friends.
How frequently do you host dinners, and does the menu rotate with the season?
On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, we do a seating of 14 guests at 6 p.m., another seating of 14 at 7:30 p.m., and a seating of six at our chef’s counter, also at 7:30 p.m. There are no time constraints, as our restaurant seats 34. Guests are encouraged to stay as long as they would like.
What roles do each of you play, respectively, at each dinner?
Andrew runs the kitchen during each service and walks each table through the background of each dish they are about to eat. Devoney manages the front of house and ensures that each guest feels at home. She also runs the day-to-day operations as well.
Knowing your combined experience in hospitality, how did you arrive at a restaurant focused on communal dining versus a traditional restaurant?
The communal aspect came for us through our supper club. Hosting 14 guests at one table, we did assigned seating and got to play around with seating guests next to others who shared common interests. In doing so, we watched a lot of friendships grow. We have a lot of supper club guests who have become friends and are now attending one another’s weddings and other major life events, as well as traveling and taking trips together. It was this that drove us to open the restaurant. We felt this need to push that out into the public and are seeing the friendships continue to blossom.
A local chef and his wife were in recently to celebrate their anniversary and enjoyed chatting with the couple seated next to them – so much so, that when the four of them left, they ventured on to grab a drink together. Two couples who met at Isla, during our opening month, recently all came back in to eat together and told us they have hung out multiple times. We also had a solo diner who exchanged phone numbers with a group we seated him next to, and on their way out the group told me that they “loved” him and had “adopted him” into their friend group. It’s a beautiful thing to nurture and see happening in our space. It’s why we do what we do, why we opened the restaurant. I think, through this, we both feel as though we have found our calling.
Is there anything else you think readers should know?
Our menu is nondescript to ensure that we can continue to utilize waste and work with smaller producers. It changes sporadically so you will most likely see the majority of the menu change every three weeks (but never all at once). Our wine list is very food friendly and reasonably priced. We don't offer pairings as it distracts from the communal aspect we are trying to achieve. We accommodate the vegetarian and pescatarian diet but not vegan. Food allergies are also accommodated but not preferences.
Isla
116 E. Moler St.
Columbus, OH 43207
isla614.com
@isla_rasc
