We had lunch with the dining club that brings toddlers and busy moms to Michelin-starred restaurants - here's what happened

"I know this may seem chaotic to you," Melissa Elders tells me loudly over the sound of clanks, bangs, and screams. "But this is actually extremely relaxing for the parents here."

Elders, mom of two-year-old Serena, is sitting in Midtown Manhattan's Betony, a Michelin-starred restaurant that earned a three-star review from The New York Times' notoriously tough food critic Pete Wells in 2013.

Elders is the creator of a lunch club, Nibble and Squeak, meant for like-minded parents who are interested in food, but might not get the chance to dine out with regularity. Many of them hadn't gone out to eat much since the birth of their child, like the parents at Betony on the day I visited a Nibble and Squeak event.

"I was looking for activities to do with my daughter when I was on maternity leave, and there were loads of options for music, art, and movement, but I wanted to feel like I was doing something fun for myself too," Elders said. "I found that we were always grabbing lunch on the run, but not sitting down to enjoy a daytime meal together very often."

From there, her idea for Nibble and Squeak blossomed - she's now hosting two to three events a month in New York, and branching out to other cities across the US and in London. Ahead, see what happened at the two-hour Nibble and Squeak luncheon we recently attended at Betony.