Paul Feig gives us his step-by-step guide to hosting the ultimate cocktail party.
Time: 7 o’clock
People can trickle in and leave early if they want. Not that they will, if you get it right!
To drink: Martini a must
It’s risky to pick a specific spirit but you can say ‘it’s a gin party!’ Or something like that. Then you can have the variations on those drinks, for example gin and tonic, gin and soda and martinis.
Ideally though, settle on three drinks that are very different:
Martini
Manhattan
Negroni
Then mixers with the main ingredients.
Snacks: Pizza!
Sometimes when we go to parties and they have that really fancy finger food that comes around I’m always a little ‘oh’. But with pizza, it’s ‘oh my god I’m so happy’. Comfort food! An adult party with kids’ food. Anything in that world that’s fun and makes you go ‘oh I used to have this’. Pigs in blankets, little pizzas, a cone with fries..
If you don’t feed them, they might not hate you the night of the party, but they’re gonna hate you tomorrow morning. Don’t build your house on sand.
Music: Old timey classics
I like Xavier Cugat, Frank Sinatra - you don’t want your party to be like ‘we’re pretending to be in the 50s’, but at the same time, let’s bring back the glory days of what these things were.
August, 2023
