It's pretty clear that the Little Luxton cafe in Gordon and The Men's Table are a match made in heaven.

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Both are about connecting people and making them feel a part of their community.

Dad-of-four and former Anglican chaplain Nate Swift opened the Little Luxton in the Gordon Community Centre three-and-a-half years ago, in collaboration with Anglicare and the Lanyon Valley Anglican Church.

Before then, he'd run a mobile coffee service, starting seven years ago, which got him out into the community, meeting people every day.

The cafe is now his business and he finds more than a few similarities between it and his work as a chaplain.

"The role of a chaplain is to be available to people to support them through life's ups and downs," Nate said.

"And, weirdly, as a barista at a local coffee shop, you kind of do this thing where you see people regularly, they tell you if they're having a bad day or a great day, you find out when their family members are sick or have died. You do walk though life's rhythms with people from behind the coffee machine, I think.

"Thankfully, three-and-a-half years later, I still feel like it's doing what I hoped it would do and I love it and I'm more convinced rather than less convinced it's a great space for us to be in."

'Sharing the highs and lows of life'

The Men's Table, meanwhile, started in 2011 and has gone national. They are self-organising local groups that meet once a month for dinner, in a safe, friendly environment, sharing the highs and lows of life.

Men who go to the catch-ups have said they feel more connected to their communities, see an improvement to their mental health and wellbeing and believe that it was a safe space to share. More than 150 men in Canberra regularly attend The Men's Table across the ACT.

An "entree" night like the one at the Little Luxton on Tuesday is a chance to find out what The Men's Table is all about.

"I actually came across The Men's Table at an event organised by Hands Across Canberra and the Snow Foundation," Nate, 38, said.

"It was a one-day workshop where they got together a bunch of community organisations to brainstorm, 'How do we tackle loneliness in Canberra?'," he said.

Tackling social isolation in Canberra

Nate said the reason the Little Luxton came into being was to give people a place to gather.

"The whole purpose of the cafe is to facilitate community connection and the reason I am so passionate about that is it's a way of addressing the social isolation that exists in our society at the moment," he said.

"Part of me is tempted to blame everything on social media but it's not that simple

"I think the ease of access to entertainment on our phones and in our living rooms does have something to answer for us, in terms of it keeping us from not getting out and bumping into people and having conversations."

Nate says The Men's Table resonated with him as it used the age-old practice of gathering over a meal to encourage people to connect.

His wife Tara, a public servant, is a big supporter of the cafe, baking a lot of the home-made goodies and being another friendly face.

Nate says the local cafe has become a touchstone for people in their community.

"I think there's been a shift towards people looking for their locally-owned, family-run coffee shop that's in their part of town, they get to know the owner, they bump into people they know," he said.

"It's sort of almost this romantic ideal of village life that I think people are craving again because we realise we've lost some of that as our city gets bigger and busier."

To book your spot at The Men's Table at the Little Luxton cafe in Gordon at 6.30pm for 7pm on Tuesday, go to: themenstable.org/entree-act/

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