Welcome to another episode of Dinner Stories: The Triumphs and Travails of hosting! In this month’s episode, join me for a French Bistro-themed dinner party!

After the success of last month’s Dinner Story, my Pistachio Dinner Party, I was so excited to continue on with the series! In this post, learn how I planned and hosted a French Bistro dinner party, with details about my menu, decor, drinks, and music!

THE THEME

I’ve always loved French food and culture, so this theme came to me easily. When I studied abroad in Toulouse in the summer of 2012, I saw firsthand the beauty of Southern France. At the end of my trip, I then got to witness the charm and bustle of Paris. In honor of that experience, I wanted to recreate the ambiance of a French bistro with simple, delicious French food and a laid-back vibe.

In most of Europe, dining is centered around community and conversation as much as it is around food. Dinner isn’t a thing to be rushed through – it’s meant to be savored with friends and family. For this party, my dear friends Kevin and Scott came, who attended my first dinner party as well. I also invited my dear friend Berett, her husband Dan, and their sweet baby boy Jack, who was honestly the star of the show. He was just so cute and fun to have there, and we had a lot of laughs about how much he loved our ceiling fan!!

THE TABLESCAPE

We have a beautiful hand-made dining table in our home, courtesy of my husband Jon. He built it back in 2019, and we painted and stained the table ourselves. So going tablecloth-less for this dinner party was an easy choice, considering most of the cafés I went to in France did not have tablecloths (that’s more of a fine dining thing).

For the plates, I found the perfect French-inspired plates at Marshall’s ON CLEARANCE! What a lucky find! I had thought about sourcing authentic French bistro plates on eBay, but the prices were absolutely astronomical. Besides, these plates came out so charming and cute! In addition, I used my regular hosting sets of marble napkin rings, crystal wine and cocktail glasses, and napkins. I also was able to thrift some beautiful marble candlesticks for my simple white tapers.

For the flowers, I wanted a display that was simple and elegant. I mixed white and pink roses, peonies, and waxflowers. For a pop of yellow, I included Craspedia, which was just the right amount of whimsy without being too distracting.

THE FOOD

As with any dinner party, the key to everything is timing. Unfortunately, many classic French recipes can be complex and time-consuming, so I made a few hosting-friendly shortcuts!

For the amuse-bouche, or appetizer, I made a simple crudité platter with French radishes, white asparagus, haricots verbs, and other spring vegetables. I served it with a homemade remoulade ranch made with Dijon mustard, cornichons, and herbs.

For the salads, I made a simple riff on Salade Parisenne, a French bistro staple made with lettuce, cubed cheese, mushrooms, new potatoes, and hard-boiled eggs in a French vinaigrette. Since my husband and I don’t like mushrooms, I skipped those. And since egg prices are so high, I skipped those too! But neither of those ingredients were really needed – this simple salad really shone on its own. I made a quick vinaigrette with red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, good olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little honey. Everyone loved it!

For the main, I knew I wanted to serve Croque Monsieurs, a bistro classic. But instead of making six full sandwiches, I thought it would be perfect to serve them as tartines, or toasts, instead. I toasted pieces of sourdough bread and topped them with Maille Dijon mustard and béchamel, then layered on ham and freshly-grated gruyère. I broiled those in the oven until they were toasted and crispy, and served them to my guests. They ended up being perfect!

For dessert, I initially planned on just making profiteroles, a French pastry made with pâte à choux dough, served with chocolate ganache and ice cream. But it’s not a Well and Full dinner party unless I decide to tack something on at the 11th hour, so I made a simple tarte au chocolat as well. I’m so glad I did, because it ended up being my favorite dessert of the night. The profiteroles also came out amazing, and I served them with Van Leeuwen’s vanilla bean ice cream and honeycomb ice cream.

THE DRINKS

Obviously for a French dinner party, I served French wine. The first wine of the night was a lovely Sancerre from the Loire valley – one of my favorite types of wine.

Jon, my bartender hobbyist husband, made two cocktails for the night. First, he made Boulevardiers, which are a classic French drink made with bourbon, sweet vermouth, and Campari. He also made French martinis, which are made with pineapple juice, Chambord (black raspberry liqueur), and vodka. I should clarify that French martinis did not originate in France, but I felt they were on theme enough by the name alone ;) Besides, the Boulevardier traces its roots all the way back to 1920’s Paris, so they balanced each other out!

With dessert, I served Veuve Clicquot champagne as a special treat. A champagne cannot legally be called champagne unless it is from the Champagne region in France – the rest is just sparkling French wine. So I wanted to be sure to have an authentic French champagne for my party!

THE MUSIC

For the party, we listened to a playlist of French jazz songs, some of which I’ve been listening to since my days in high school French class! Sympathique by Pink Martini is one of my favorites.

THE PREPARATION

The key to any successful dinner party is planning as much as possible beforehand. Of course, you can’t account for everything that will happen. But if you fail to plan, you plan to fail! (is what my EMT instructor told us during our class!)

THREE WEEKS BEFORE

• Decide on a theme

TWO WEEKS BEFORE

• Plan out menu
• Look for inspiration on Pinterest
• Order/buy dinnerware or hosting items that I need

ONE WEEK BEFORE

• Test recipes that I haven’t made before
  • Here I perfected my profiterole recipe to make sure it would come out perfectly for the dinner party
• Write down everything I need to do
• Make a grocery shopping list
• Make a task list
• Start cleaning my house

TWO DAYS BEFORE

• Buy groceries
• Tidy house, vacuum, etc.
• Make sure all dishes are washed and ready

ONE DAY BEFORE

• Buy flowers
• Make simple syrup for cocktails
• Wash napkins in the laundry
• Last-minute house cleaning

THE DAY OF

• Set the table
• Arrange the flowers (this can also be done the day before)
• Allocate time for one more last-minute grocery store run (but this time I didn’t actually need to!!)
• Mise en place – getting all ingredients/element prepared so that they’re ready to use when my guests arrive
• Cook everything!

THE TRAVAILS

Of course, this dinner party series is subtitled “The Triumphs and Travails of Hosting”. Here’s where I had my travails – I didn’t prep enough! I wanted to make everything fresh for the party, so I barely did any food prep the night before. This led me to me serving dinner way later than I had hoped for. Luckily my guests had snacks and drinks to munch on, but next time I will make sure that I’m doing enough beforehand. Of course it would be ideal to cook all the food on the day of, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices in order to feed your guests on time!

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P.S.

For more plant-forward recipes, dinner parties, and New England lifestyle inspiration, be sure to follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok! If you make a recipe, please tag me in the photo and use the hashtag #wellandfull so I can see! I love seeing your creations!