It’s no big secret that I love dinner parties (and going out for dinner, and making and eating dinner in general) — eating with my friends is my favorite thing. For my 30th birthday, just less than 2 months before lockdown, I hosted my first dinner party and had so much fun that I proclaimed that I’d be having one for all of my birthdays moving forward (lol).
Since then I’ve put together dinners at restaurants, event spaces, and at home to celebrate anything from birthdays to breakups to regular old Friday nights. Next week I’m actually hosting a Pasta Girlfriend dinner and book giving at Angelini Osteria with my friend Jordan of Seen Library but unfortunately by the time this newsletter reaches you I think tickets will have sold. But the excitement around it just further proves my point: dinner parties rule and we should all be having them!
Having people over is especially fun — I really prefer the long, rambling conversations that move from the table to the sofa over the course of several hours over feeling rushed to leave at the end of a 90 minute reservation at a restaurant. I also think that really simple things like lighting a candle in the entryway or using pretty napkins at the table make people feel cared for and considered, like you put effort into giving them a nice experience. It doesn’t have to take a lot (but it can be fun to make it a whole production, too.)
For this month’s Side Order I intended to go all-out on dinner party gear: glassware, silverware, fun bowls, napkins, napkin rings, regular bowls, cocktail glasses, water glasses, decor suggestions…you can probably see where this was going. So in an act of self preservation, I’ve decided to focus on table linens and I’ll get to the rest in future issues. Linens really are the base of it all anyways, and they make the biggest impact, so it just makes sense.
I’ve added some notes on styling, inspiration, discount codes, and more below, so read on and let’s get to setting the table!!!
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