Ready to show off your cooking skills to your nearest and dearest? Want to get to know new friends or colleagues a little better in an intimate setting? Whether you want an elegant dinner party or a casual hangout, hosting a dinner in your apartment is easy with some planning and organization. If you’re searching for a 20-something’s guide to throwing down the best dinner party in Burlington, be sure to include these important tips.
Prep Well in Advance
Dinner parties can be a lot of work. Whether it’s a handful of friends or many, you should nail down the date and send out the invitations at least three weeks in advance. This gives you plenty of time to mull over menu ideas, determine an exact head count, and start perfecting those recipes.
Find a Date That Works
It’s important to have a few dates in mind to give your friends a choice for what works best for them. A simple online scheduling tool like Doodle or NeedToMeet makes it easy to coordinate busy calendars. In your invitation, ask everyone to include any allergies or food intolerances, if they follow a specific diet. While you can’t please everyone, this can help you determine a menu.
Choose a Food Theme
Choosing a food theme once you’ve established any food stipulations from the guests is a great way to gear your evening flavours. Maybe you feel like taking your guests on a culinary trip through Italy, Japan, India, or New Orleans. Choosing a theme is a great idea for adding some extra spice to the evening.
Picking a food theme can also help cater to the drink menu, music, and décor. For example, if you decided to serve up a Japanese or an Asian-inspired menu, serve up some sake-based cocktails to go alongside it.
Don’t Skimp on the Table
You can get creative and make enough room to have everyone sit around the table in your apartment. If you need to move furniture around, or squeeze in another chair or two then go ahead. But what matters is the table setting. Since the dinner table is going to be the focal point of the evening, you want to make it look fantastic. Think about your theme and how to appropriately lay out your table settings – maybe place some chopsticks for your sushi dinner – add some candles, and of course real cloth napkins – paper napkins will never do!
On a Budget?
If your budget is tight, consider hosting a potluck instead of doing everything yourself. Ask your guests to bring along an app, side dish, or dessert for the evening. Let guests know ahead of time if it’s BYOB.
When it comes down to serving up that dinner party that your guest will remember, it’s all about the menu, the table setting and of course, the company. So get the cocktails flowing, throw on some great music and remember to take time out to enjoy it too!
The perfect dinner party starts with the perfect apartment. Find your next home today using our Burlington apartment search!
