Back on the dinner party circuit

Pre-pandemic I loved entertaining. Like many others, I haven’t been able to do much of it over the past two years and change. This summer I’ve started dipping my toe back into some casual entertaining at home. It started with my partner and I being invited to some dinner parties and gatherings at hosted by friends. It has now progressed to us starting to entertain in our apartment.

I grew up in the Midwest and there are some challenges that are unique to hosting gatherings in a NYC apartment. Space is the obvious one. Unless you are wealthy your abode is most likely a studio or one bedroom. Finding space to entertain your guests can pose difficult if you don’t have a separate living room or if like me you do but it’s a multipurpose room. My partner and I live in a one-bedroom apartment so our main room is our tv room, dining area, and home office all in one. In the past, I had no qualms about getting creative with furniture and I have hosted dinner parties for groups as large as twelve.

For the time being though I’m keeping my gatherings smaller and so are most of my friends. This is in part due to the pandemic, I’m still not comfortable hosting a larger group in a small space. The greater factor though is honestly time. I work full time as does my partner and hosting others takes time and energy. Small supper parties for 4 to 6 people, including my partner and I is my current comfort zone.

This week I’ll walk through a recent dinner party I gave and share my planning timeline which helped keep the night stress free, I’ll share some great summer cocktail recipes, and some of my favorite products for entertaining in a small space.