The New Rules of Dinner Parties

My favorite part of a good dinner party is the brief moment near the end, when everyone’s still sitting down but stomachs are full, plates are empty, and drinks are dwindling. A rosy glow falls over the table and the mood eases from conviviality to the gauzy atmosphere of sentiment. I feel a warm kinship with my fellow diners, as if we’re bound together by our meal.

Okay, maybe that’s the wine talking.

But I have fiercely missed that sort of night. As people gradually dine indoors again as the weather gets chillier, my coworkers and I are taking the opportunity to rethink dinner partying. We’re asking the big questions: Can you turn your cheese board into the main dish? (Yes.) How do you clean stuff? (Enlist your guests.) And how many bottles of wine do you need? (It depends; we’ve got a calculator.)

Get even more dinner party rules:

Of course, we’ve collected our favorite low-lift party recipes, from a really big salad to a samosa tart. And in case you need some conversation topics for the table, we’re sharing some vital perspectives on what dinner parties represent, who they’re accessible to, why they can change lives, and how they’re evolving from spaces of status to acts of mutual care.

So come sit at our table. We’ll lay out the new set of dinnerware and put on some tunes, but we’re probably not fluffing all the pillows before you all arrive. —Karen Yuan, lifestyle editor