Big Dinner Party in a Small NYC Apartment

Hosting 11 friends for a festive meal took some creative thinking

Lizzi Hayes didn’t let a minuscule apartment prevent her from inviting over 11 of her closest friends for Galentine’s Day.

Forget about the rules dictating three feet of space around a dining table for good party flow. In a 400 square-foot apartment, all rules are meant to be broken.

Lizzi Hayes (who also happens to be my daughter) decided to throw a Galentine’s Day party at her Lower East Side apartment last year. The guest list totaled 11, not including her. Her railroad-style apartment is roughly 9 1/2 feet wide and the living/dining area is 24 feet long.

How she did it was a combination of borrowing, rearranging and good planning (with one last-minute Hail Mary thrown in, which I’ll describe later).

Lizzi’s dropleaf side table (foreground) is set for 8; the table in the back is the foldable kind, borrowed from a friend and dressed in a vintage tablecloth.

Preparing the Apartment

Typically the guest count at Lizzi’s place is four—tripling that number was challenging. “The main issues I had were table space, having enough chairs… and having somewhere to serve food,” she says.

A little rearranging was in order and the first thing Lizzi did was clear the living room. She moved her coffee table next to the front door and opened up her side table with both drop leaves. Fortunately her velvet tufted couch was the perfect bench for five guests; just seven seats left to find. Lizzi pulled in her home office chair, a side chair from the living room, two folding chairs and then two more chairs from a neighbor. “For my chair, the stepladder had to do,” she admits. “But I didn’t sit down that much anyway.”

Rose-patterned china from her great grandmother and delicate pink champagne coupes made it a special occasion. Lizzi laid down a long paper tablecloth and wrote everyone’s names for seating. The crayons stayed out so guests could doodle while she finished cooking.

The coffee table ended up being an ideal buffet station for the baked potato bar Lizzi planned. She prepared a cheeseboard too, laid out artistically on her small kitchen counter.

Tip: One of the best features of old servingware, glassware and linens is that they can be mismatched and it only adds to their uniqueness and glamour

A few hours before her party, Lizzi realized she was woefully short on silverware. For this stylish event, plastic was taboo. In a panic, she hurried out to see if any of the neighborhood thrift or antiques stores might have some that she could afford. Sure enough, she landed on a silver mine of odd pieces for just $1 apiece at her local Housing Works thrift shop. “I was so thrilled I almost cried,” she says.

The Menu

For the first course, Lizzi chose several unique recipes from her favorite chef, Alison Roman. From Roman’s cookbook Nothing Fancy, Lizzi made labne with sizzled scallions and chili oil that was the hit of the evening. It was accompanied by roasted carrots, white beans and green beans.

An array of simple accompaniments to hot, fluffy baked potatoes are laid out on the coffee table that was pulled near the front door.

The main course was a baked potato bar, filled with salmon roe, trout roe, dill, chives, sour cream and lots of butter. Guests took turns getting up to fill their plates and the conversation and laughter flowed. “They loved being invited to someone else's home and doing something different on the weekend vs. the typical (and often expensive) restaurant or bar night-out,” Lizzi says.

It was a tight squeeze but Lizzi made it work. For a space this small, buffet-style dining is the way to go.

According to Lizzi, the dinner party is back in force for men and women in her age group and she’s happy about that. “As I outgrow my early twenties I still want to be social, but in a space that feels warm and safe and allows for better conversation and meeting new people,” she explains.

The best part of hosting, she says? Being invited in return.