Hosting a party the 80/20 way
Nothing is more adult to me than throwing an “effortless dinner party”. You know the kind.
“Everyone knows how to make good coffee and gourmet dinners at home without having to shop for specific ingredients” - Sloane Crosley
In San Francisco, these dinner parties are generally brought to you by: Heath Ceramics, Butcher Block Countertops & a star attraction carnivorous dish (think: smoked lamb served inside a pumpkin). Needless to say, we have some extremely generous & gracious friends.
I started to feel like these dinners were out of our league, which slowly resulted in us never having anyone over. Not cool. I decided the only solution was to just get over my hosting anxiety, so I created my own philosophy the “80/20: Good Enough” rule & it changed my view on hosting! Since then we have thrown some pretty solid 80/20 get-togethers.
A few tips I have learned along the way for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation.
House Slippers: Invest in a good pair of house slippers it will show that your fancy footwear is not only limited to the outdoors. Fancy indoor clothes always struck me as the next level of luxury.
Test Kitchen: If you are cooking dinner for your guests, saying you are running a “test kitchen” has worked for us. It displays a level of culinary adventure and sets no expectations for how the food turns out!
Themed Ingredient: I lean on my cultural background here quite a bit. I pick something that is not an everyday item and PLAY IT UP. It also distracts from any potential mess that may come out of the test kitchen. My go to items include:
Pomegranate seeds/Persimmons: Put EVERYWHERE: In drinks, on vegetables, in a salad.
Cardamom: Grounded cardamom sprinkled strategically on select dishes adds an impossibly elegant touch.
Rose Petals: Place in your salad, put on your cheese board or even in the hallway entrance. Everyone loves roses.
A Few Superfluous Items: My dad once told me “Beautiful things are not practical” and for the most part he is right. Many beautiful things don’t make sense, so be sure to invest in some impractically gorgeous items. A few of my favorite unnecessary things:
Small spoons: These miniature spoons blow people away, the fact that you own an item whose only purpose seems to be to dabble cardamom honey on to your rose petal baguette is something I feel proud of.
Large Bowls: I am talking about a “where in the world would we store this thing?” big. These can be filled with cut bread/crackers or a collection of seasonal fruit, while doubling as a centerpiece.
Oversized Pillows: With chairs comes great expectations from your guests, such as: A salad & dinner fork, cloth napkins (remember a city dwellers nightmare if you have no washer and dryer) & matching glassware. Investing in a few oversized pillows for your guests to sit on will give them an undeniably authentic experience in the art of being grounded, that they won’t even notice they are drinking out of a glass jam jar.
Overflowing Bookshelf: This allows guests to focus on something, in the event they do not know anyone at the party. I recommend keeping the books out of order as this will inject an element of surprise as they browse your eclectic collection. My husbands “Biology of Spiders” book is strategically placed next to a copy of “Napoleon’s love letters” will leave a lot to the imagination. Mine is already going wild!
Chill friends: This is the only area I say you cannot go 80/20 on. You gotta be all in here 100. These folks won’t care about your cutlery or main dish, they just want to have a good time with you!
Keep it real,
N & B
Our 2018 "Holiday Photo” this was also used for our Christmas Party Invitation.
