Issue #89: How to host a great dinner party
Featuring best practices (& playlists!) from the co-founders of Hot Girl Supper Club
Written by . Edited by .
Here’s what I’ve learned about hosting: The best dinner parties aren’t the ones with the perfect menu or gorgeous table setting — they’re the ones where people feel comfortable enough to ask for seconds, open up about their bad day, and linger over the last bite of cake.
This realization didn’t come easily. The first time Sam and I (Aja) hosted a dinner in our tiny Cambridge apartment, I had what can only be described as a complete meltdown over our lack of table mats. “Text them and tell them we feel sick,” I said to Sam. Our guests were arriving in 45 minutes.
Fortunately, Sam talked me down — and by the end of the night, I heard myself saying, “That was so fun! We should have people over more often.” Eight years and many get-togethers later, we’ve mastered the small dinner party.
The week after the election, our friend (and talented Washington Post writer)
told us she was craving community and connection. As luck would have it, Hot Girl Supper Club was hosting a dinner…
I connected with the three best friends behind DC’s hottest supper club — Tatum West, Kate Manning, and Colin Danly — on how they host regular dinner parties for anywhere from twenty to forty guests.
Here are the five tips I took away from our conversation (including a ritual I’m definitely borrowing for my next party), and three playlists from the HGSC team that’ll set the ideal vibe.