Small Dinner Party Home Away from Home
Inviting friends or clients to one’s home is such an intimate way to entertain. Creating a truly memorable event is always a challenge and can’t always be accomplished comfortably or conveniently at home. Whereas the Chicago apartment or home can be grand, entertaining especially for business at home is sometimes awkward, maybe too intimate, with the distraction of teenage kids, pets, and less than sometimes photo shoot worthy furnishings and landscaping.
Our clients often ask us for alternative ideas as to where to entertain with the same warm and intimate feeling of a residential event. At times these venues are under the radar locations, at other times they are in plain sight.
Here are a few unique solutions we’ve come up with for unique intimate dining~ away from home:
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Venue Six10
Who would think that a small dinner party of 20-30 guests could be accomplished so well in what is generally thought of as a “large venue space”. The trick, we find, is to discover nooks and corners and carve out a smaller area within the larger venue. Here our EC stylist, Kenneth Woodman.
in coordination with Debra Wiesenhaus, Art of Imagination whose team created the canopy and Tablescapes Party Rental all together took an open and airy white room with fantastic views and transformed the space into a perfect intimate area for entertaining 20-30 people.
We can imagine offering and serving a wonderful communal style dinner at these low tables or a Modern Indian Celebration menu or platters of Middle Eastern world delicacies or even, a combination of all. For a mixed age group, we would alternate low tables with pillows alongside more traditional cabaret tables with four chairs and highboys for standing and leaning. The original “hi-low” presentation is what we would offer with this eclectic seating arrangement .
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AD 1917 Dinner Party
The EC private dining room is perfect for entertaining away from home with all the feeling of home. Here we catered a special birthday to honor a Man of the World. Our guest of honor travelled for business and pleasure and we wanted to coordinate each course and item with one of his touchstones. Starting with passed hors d’oeuvres from South East Asia, we moved onto a local seasonal salad, then to a Roman inspired Gnocchi with Buffalo Mozzarella, then Sea Bass wrapped in banana leaf from a southern region of India, then Lamb Loin with Spinach Mousse and Israel Cous Cous (he spends a month in Tel Aviv each year), and onto Blackberry Sorbet with Prosecco and decadent birthday cake (locally from fave Chicago baker) and handmade old fashion butter cookies (our EC baker’s specialty).
Because our guest of honor is a wine aficionado, he was able to bring in the Italian wines he had been collecting over the years for his guests to enjoy, at no additional charge.
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Party Room All Ages Party
Sometimes even the most casual small party is best left to the party room, especially when there’s a piano there as well as tables, chairs, and small kitchen available. We love working in the party rooms of Chicago buildings because often their charms are so overlooked until we, and the décor company, easily transform with color and vibrancy. Here we worked with florist, Jim McGuire, to give this family a party room holiday party to remember.
Another nice feature of a party room is ability to provide your own alcohol as well as flexibility in end time. More time to have fun with friends, family and colleagues.
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Entertaining, whether at home or away, is an extension of your style. In essence, your guests want to enjoy you as much as the event. We can help effortlessly, your place or out.
See you at the next event! Let us know if you need help finding a space!