Tips for hosting a chic, safe, outdoor dinner party

Hosting an outdoor dinner party with your trusted social bubble or a fully vaccinated group of friends is considered safe as long as you follow the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For those who are unvaccinated, the CDC continues to recommend masking, except when eating or drinking, as well as maintaining a distance of 6 feet, even outdoors. If you are vaccinated, small gatherings are considered low-risk by the CDC, and vaccinated people can visit with other fully vaccinated people both outdoors or indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing.

“I think that casual is key; keep it simple,” Chicago entertaining expert and author Marc Sievers said about when it comes to hosting guests for a summer dinner party in our new normal.

Sievers recommends serving all of the food yourself so that multiple people aren’t handling the serving utensils, or go with single-use, biodegradable tableware that doesn’t have to be taken back inside your home.

“I love packaging each course in individual takeout containers of different sizes. Then you give each of your guests a gift bag or reusable tote. It’s like their own picnic in a bag; they get napkins, single-use utensils and maybe a split size bottle of wine or bubbles,” he said. “I think that people feel much more secure eating from their own container versus a large bowl of pasta salad that’s being handled by multiple people.”

If your guests are staying two or three hours, they will most likely need to use the bathroom, so do a little advance work and set the rules to make everyone more comfortable.

“We have a powder room that’s available to guests,” said Sievers. “There’s a little table there that’s set up with hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, and I ask guests to please wipe down the handles of the sink, toilet and the door.”