Intimidated by serving drinks when entertaining

[iris lilies]

I have such a hard time figuring out what to offer people when we’re having Them to our house. Tell me your thoughts about this.

In Hermann we really have to start inviting people over for food and drinks. There are so many people we know here. I no longer drink much alcohol. I drink water. DH drinks ice tea. We don’t have an icemaker so ice is rather scarce but. I guess I could buy a bag of ice cubes and keep them in the freezeer.

I don’t have a hard time preparing food. Our house is clean. Our bathrooms are clean. We’re ready to entertain, but the drinks thing just stymies me.

You know how people often ask when invited “what can I bring? “I feel like saying to them “please bring whatever you want to drink.” Thus relieves my burden!

[Rogar]

Among my small social circle, including a group that meets a few times a year, I don't know of anyone who drinks hard liquor. It's either wine or beer. I think the assumed practice would be the host provides a red and maybe a white wine and some beer. Everyone drinks responsibly so there's no reason to have a large stock.

[Tybee]

One thing I used to do when I entertained (don't anymore) was have summer outside parties and fill two washtubs, alcoholic and non alcoholic, with individual cans/bottles so everyone could help themselves.

You can do same thing indoors, I guess!

[iris lilies]

One thing I used to do when I entertained (don't anymore) was have summer outside parties and fill two washtubs, alcoholic and non alcoholic, with individual cans/bottles so everyone could help themselves.

You can do same thing indoors, I guess!

when we lived in the city we had parties often, sometimes big parties. I don’t like storing all the liquor if it hasn’t been used. Isn’t it wrong to put beer on ice and then take it off ice it if it’s not used? I don’t know.

I used to have fantasies of taking all the leftovers downtown to the homeless guys who hung out and distributing all that liquor to them.

[iris lilies]

Among my small social circle, including a group that meets a few times a year, I don't know of anyone who drinks hard liquor. It's either wine or beer. I think the assumed practice would be the host provides a red and maybe a white wine and some beer. Everyone drinks responsibly so there's no reason to have a large stock.

no, I don’t intend to serve any liquor other than beer and wine. But I am just as intimidated by the non-alcoholic drinks. Do I buy sodas? If so, dark or light soda? Diet or regular? I have cans of the stuff sitting in my condo.

At our last party I did know that one of my friends drinks bourbon so I bought those tiny bottles of bourbon for him, and that was fine for him. Everyone else drank water or wine. No one touched the soda. So I end up with all these dumb cans of soda.

[nswef]

I don't entertain much at all, we have water and beer. I tell my sisters and friends to bring their own if they don't want beer or water. I don't have ice, either. But I put a jar in the refrigerator when people are coming.

[happystuff]

I would tell people what I'm providing and let them know that if they want anything other than that, they should bring it.

For example: I'll have water, ice tea, lemonade, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine and some beers. If there is anything else you want, feel free to bring it.

[Tradd]

Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite for soda. Anyone will be able to find something to drink in that. I’d add lemonade or iced tea for the summer.. I don’t drink alcohol, so I can’t help you on that. Big mixing bowls full of ice work to keep soda cold.

[KayLR]

What HappyStuff said.

[herbgeek]

I usually serve beer wine and flavored water. I throw various combos of fruit and herbs into a pitcher of water and chill overnight. Nice in one of those clear jars with the spigot on the bottom.

[catherine]

Yes, I typically do what happystuff said. There's no way I can read people's minds and guess which of the thousands of beverages there are that they like the best. BYOB makes everyone happy, but I would have just a couple of basics on hand: a white wine, a red wine, a couple of different beers, and water and coffee. I've seen a pretty big drop in soda consumption but seltzer water is pretty popular.

[jp1]

Our friends pretty much all drink wine and we do too so we always have plenty around. But for less alcohol inclined friends I’d have flavored sparkling water and maybe sodas if I knew that people drank coke or whatever. Sodas are cheap enough that I wouldn’t personally worry about tossing some at the end of the party.

As for beer, yes, once it’s been cooled it should stay cool until drunk. Many years ago we did the Budweiser factory tour and I got to be a ‘tasting expert’ at the end. They served up beer that had gotten hot versus beer that had been kept cool. There was an obvious dramatic difference.

[ejchase]

As for the non-alcoholic offerings, I often get some of the flavored sodas they have at Trader Joe's, Perrier in cans, and Le Croix sodas which anyone under 30 tends to like.

For the alcoholic drinks, I have beer, wine, and maybe some gin or vodka and tonic and limes. But I think it's perfectly acceptable to ask people to bring what they like to drink.

I'm big on cans for tonic and soda - that way, you don't have to pour a lot of fizzy stuff that's gone flat down the drain!

[Rogar]

On a hot summer day a big pitcher of cold iced tea sounds good on the non-alcohol list and a little more special than sodas. I understand some of the zero alcohol beers are pretty good these days.

[iris lilies]

Our friends pretty much all drink wine and we do too so we always have plenty around. But for less alcohol inclined friends I’d have flavored sparkling water and maybe sodas if I knew that people drank coke or whatever. Sodas are cheap enough that I wouldn’t personally worry about tossing some at the end of the party.

As for beer, yes, once it’s been cooled it should stay cool until drunk. Many years ago we did the Budweiser factory tour and I got to be a ‘tasting expert’ at the end. They served up beer that had gotten hot versus beer that had been kept cool. There was an obvious dramatic difference.
Thanks for confirming that Colbert needs to always be cold or should probably be dumped.

[rosarugosa]

Thanks for confirming that Colbert needs to always be cold or should probably be dumped.


Is that Stephen Colbert? :laff:

[iris lilies]

Is that Stephen Colbert? :laff:
How did beer turn into Colbert?

oh right,
“cold beer. “

that’s funny, I think I’ll leave it and not correct it.

[rosarugosa]

As an aside, I am intimidated by entertaining in general, so I don't do it.

[jp1]

I don’t mind entertaining since it forces SO to actually put stuff away. :) his normal mode of existing is ‘any flat surface is a good place to set this.’

[catherine]

I can honestly say I hate entertaining, but it comes with the territory married to DH. I am not good with details, I am super insecure about my housekeeping skills, and I can't stand all the decisions that comes with it. If DH weren't in my life, I'd only "entertain" people by taking them out to lunch.

[bae]

I partially put myself through my last couple of years of college bartending for alumnae reunions - typically in the mid-1980s I could make $6-8k+ in tips over the 4 day event. Rich drunken Ivy League folks tip undergrads like crazy during these events, especially if you let on that you are a scholarship student when they are deep in the cups. I can make most mixed drinks trivially, and well.

That said, at home, the choices I offer are:

- beer
- wine: red, white, generally from my own vineyard, or cheap stuff from Portugal or Argentina if I'm feeling stingy
- hard apple cider, local
- mead, house-made
- juices
- water
- the Special Choice Mixed Drink of the night. (Hint, it's always the same thing, gin & tonics, I don't have any time to fuss when people are over, and I don't stock hardly any hard alcohol in the house.). The gin is from a guy down the road from me who makes super-terrific award-winning gin, and I trade him my wine for his gin, so the cost is minimal to me.

[iris lilies]

Bae, I always liked the Washington red wines when I was drinking more.

[happystuff]

I can honestly say I hate entertaining, but it comes with the territory married to DH. I am not good with details, I am super insecure about my housekeeping skills, and I can't stand all the decisions that comes with it. ....I'd only "entertain" people by taking them out to lunch.

OMG - it sounds like you were writing about me! LOL. I took the part about dh out as my husband might hate it more than I do! I have been trying to get out of my comfort zone the last couple of years, though. I have some friends that actually come over for dinner and games, but they also are very well aware that I clean for a living and HATE housework! They are true friends who hold no expectations or criticisms.