About
American Supra
American Supra brings the Georgian toasting feast into American life. Through shared meals, teaching and support for hosts, we help people become guests and hosts again.
First, we were guests.
In the 1990s, long before he founded First Things Foundation, John Heers was working in the Republic of Georgia after its civil war.
Families with very little opened their homes to him. They brought out food and wine, offered toasts and honored him as their guest. This was the Supra, Georgia's toasting feast.
John had gone there to help. At their tables, he was the one receiving. They gave a stranger their best and made him feel at home. Their hospitality helped shape the work that followed.
The work came home.
Abroad, our field workers learn the language, live alongside their neighbors and help local people secure support for projects of their own. The relationship comes before the project.
In Appalachia, we tried the same approach. The people we met already had ideas and the drive to pursue them. Our small organization was not adding much through the kind of entrepreneurial support that had made us useful abroad.
We encountered another kind of poverty: the loss of life together.
A person can have a good job, a full calendar and a comfortable home, yet have nowhere they are known and received. Material comfort does not give us a shared life.
When we hosted Supras, people sat with relatives they had not seen in a long time. They ate, talked and gave thanks together. The hospitality we had received in Georgia became something we could offer here.
At home, we needed to open the table and help people become neighbors again. Hosting became part of the mission itself.
Why the Table
A home in Greenville.
Keipi Restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina, is the Home of the American Supra.
Guests return, are remembered by name and bring someone new. Cooks, servers, hosts and toastmasters make that welcome possible, and set the table again when the guests leave.
It is where First Things keeps practicing what it teaches.
If you find yourself in Greenville, we’d be glad to have you at the table.
Come join us at Keipi (opens a new tab)
From one table
to another.
American Supra carries this work beyond the restaurant. We help hosts gather people and teach others to serve the table.
Through Art of Tamada (opens a new tab), people learn the craft of hosting and leading a feast: preparing, reading the room, guiding the toasts and giving others space to speak.
That learning can travel into homes, churches, restaurants and other places people gather. The setting can change. The work remains: offer your best, receive your guests with honor and put the neighbor before yourself.
Become a Tamada
Open your
table.
Friends you rarely see.
Family with something to celebrate.
Neighbors you have yet to meet.
Start with the people you want to gather. We’ll help you bring the Supra together.
