It’s the atmosphere that counts. It will remain in the memory of your guests at a meal at home

Small, private dinner invitations are the trend. Probably even longer. Five tips for hosts to create an atmosphere in which guests feel comfortable.

Atmosphere is mandatory. The food only the freestyle.

Conjuring up a menu like the ones served in a good restaurant is not possible for most of us – unless we order a restaurant box or hire a professional chef. The food is not crucial in a private invitation.

No matter whether it was a pasta dish or a five-course meal, whether the fish was cooked through or the grilled sausages were burnt – that is already forgotten the day after.

What remains in the memory, however, is the atmosphere of the evening.

5 tips for attentive hosts

1 The prelude

Perfectionists never finish. And not infrequently, a bowl frantically lands on the kitchen floor at the exact moment the doorbell rings. But no matter how far behind your schedule you are:

The moment guests enter your home, one hundred percent presence is required.

Don’t send your dog or the kids ahead to greet guests, but beamingly make your guests feel welcome, even at the risk of just burning something in the kitchen.

If this moment is not successful, you start with a backlog that cannot be made up.

Your guests may also have had a stressful day, flown over the freeway, or had to deal with a defeat.

An aperitif relaxes guests and hosts. Again, it doesn’t matter so much what you serve: Whether it’s lemonade or martini cocktails, a Negroni or a bowl of sake.

It is important that this part of the evening is well prepared. Glasses should clink quickly, and with alcoholic beverages, a little something to nibble on is always included to keep the alcohol down.

We have experienced invitations where the aperitif suddenly became the main course and the rest was almost completely cancelled. They were unforgettable evenings with good conversations.

For the sake of simplicity, we recommend champagne as an aperitif.

3 The flatterers

Candlelight is always magical. No one can escape the magic of burning candles. Depending on the size of the apartment or house, it can be a 1, 10 or 100 candles. Here, too, quantity is not the decisive factor. But no candle is exactly one candle too few.

Music creates illusions: The small one-room apartment becomes Speak-Easy with the right music in the background. The basement becomes a private concert space, reminiscent of a concert in a palace in Venice.

There probably isn’t a food truck in your patio. Therefore, cloth napkins are an important part of the atmosphere. The simple rule: outdoors paper napkins under the roof linen or cotton napkins.

From our point of view, personalization of cloth napkins by means of monogram can be gladly dispensed with despite COVID.

After all, your name is not Martha Stewart or India Hix, whose teams can be tasked with this.

5 Focus from start to finish

See Also

KINTSUGI: THE REPAIR OF THE MASTER CLASS

In the Kunstkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, which we recommend to every visitor to the city, you can see table centerpieces in which a small fortune was invested in earlier centuries:

Replica frigates made of silver, whose mini cannonballs could be fired at guests sitting across from them when they were bored at the table, elaborate etagères with gold tops that shone especially magnificently by candlelight.

A magnificent table centerpiece was a must in earlier times. Not without reason: If it is successful and/or extravagant, it may become the talk of the table and remain in memory.

Imagination is required: it can be an extravagant flower arrangement, it can be meadow flowers in former mustard jars. Both work great and show your guests that you have put some thought into it.

If your heart beats for abstract sea creatures in porcelain, we recommend Nymphenburg.

You give your guests not only insight into your home but into your soul.

You can serve even a plain pizza with these 5 atmospheric stylistic devices. No one expects you to eat at the level of a Michelin restaurant. Your guests will enjoy the evening at your home.

P.S.:

And if you’re planning a bigger celebration at home and are a little out of practice at it thanks to COVID. We have something for you: The GloriousMe Party Countdown.