A Table for Eight: A Real Guide to Hosting Evenings That Bring People Together

When you’re hosting, the first decision is always the same: your budget. It determines how much you cook, how much you order, and how far you want the evening to stretch in terms of prep and effort.

Last Saturday, I put together a small dinner for eight, and I’m outlining exactly what I did so you can recreate something similar in your own home.

If you want to see how it came together, check out this reel of the evening that I created

For a group of eight (three couples + us), I’ve learned that a mix of restaurant dishes and a few homemade items works best. It keeps the workload reasonable and the menu balanced without overspending.

Step 1: Build a Menu That’s Manageable

For this dinner, we went with Mexican food. I ordered the 10-person taco kit from Jaime, which included:

• 1 tray of chicken

• Tortillas (I requested additional 5 gluten-free)

• Cotija cheese

• Two salsas

• Lime wedges

+Additional sides

• 1 quart vegetarian beans

• 1 quart vegetarian red rice

• 1 pint vegetarian elote

• 1 half tray of their famous kale salad

This covered the essential items and saved a lot of prep time.

To round it out, I cooked a few simple sides at home:

• Sautéed peppers and onions (3 bell peppers + 2 onions)

• A Mexican-spiced cauliflower dish (2 small heads)

+Guacamole from Costco

This combination — a bunch ordered, some homemade — is one of the easiest ways to create variety without spending the whole day cooking.

Step 2: Keep Appetizers Simple and Inclusive

Before dinner, I served three different cheese on a cheese board, gluten-free crackers, grapes, sliced fruit and guacamole & chips.

Everything being gluten-free helps guests with restrictions, and it makes your appetizer table less complicated. Trader Joe's is a great spot to pick up simple cheese and GF crackers.

I also decanted a beautiful red wine and chilled a white so that I was ready to serve a drink almost immediately.

Step 3: The Activity — A Margarita Challenge

We always include one activity. It gives the evening some structure and encourages people to interact beyond their usual conversations. For this dinner, we set up a margarita-making challenge.

The rule: Everyone had to use a 'secret' ingredient: Calabrian chili oil.

FYI: Mexican chili oil is hard to find unless you make it. Calabrian chili oil is easy (I bought mine at World Market). The flavor works surprisingly well with tequila.

Guests were paired with someone who wasn’t their partner to make it more fun and more social. We introduced this activity an hour after our party started.

What I like about this kind of activity is that it uses alcohol without making it the whole story. Guests are tasting and experimenting, not drinking just to drink. And if someone wants to stay alcohol-free, a zero-proof tequila option keeps them fully included.

What You Need for an 8–10 Person Margarita Bar

Alcohol:

• 1 bottle blanco tequila

• 1 bottle mezcal (optional, if you want a smoky margarita)

• Orange liqueur such as Cointreau, Triple Sec or Grand Marnier

• A zero-proof tequila (optional)

Mixers:

• Fresh limes (people can cut / squeeze)

• Agave or simple syrup

• Watermelon juice (fresh, optional)

• Salt (smoked, or tajin)

• Ice (in an ice bucket)

• Mint or basil from the garden (optional)

Tools:

• 3–4 cocktail shakers (from T.J Maxx or Amazon)

• Small plastic see-through shot glasses (40–50, from Amazon)

• A cutting board + knife + citrus squeezer + zester

• A shallow flat dish for the salt / tajin

• A couple of jiggers (alcohol measuring cups)

• A few sturdy glasses and utensils to mix in

We gave everyone about 30 minutes. Some drinks leaned smoky, some leaned citrus, and some were experiments in how much chili oil is actually safe to use. That variety is the fun part.

It was exciting to taste everyone's version of a chilli margarita!

Step 4: Dinner Setup That Keeps It Easy

While the margarita activity got going, I started to heat the food in the oven. Once the activity concluded, we moved straight to dinner!

Dinner stayed on the kitchen countertop — not the dining table — for a practical reason: it keeps things casual and smooth. When everything is on the table, people spend half the night asking someone to pass something. When dishes are on the counter, everyone can get their food, go back for seconds, and avoid the awkwardness of reaching across the table.

The dining table itself was kept simple with glass plates on placemats, dinner napkins, water glasses and a jug, silverware and nothing extra. The set-up was ready before the party started.

Step 5: Dessert That Starts Conversation

Dessert was:

• Five Mini fresh fruit tarts, tartlets and mini cakes from Whole Foods

• Van Leeuwen Earl Grey ice cream. It sounds unusual, and it is, but everyone tried it. That alone made it more engaging than a standard dessert. It also gave people something new to talk about.

Hosting like this isn’t about perfection. It’s about giving people a place to relax, talk about their actual lives, and spend time together outside of work and routines. We avoid politics, religion, and work talk because those topics drain the energy in the room. Instead, the night naturally moves toward food, travel, books, families, and the small updates that don’t make it into group texts.

The combination of a simple menu, one shared activity, and a group that feels comfortable—that’s what makes the night feel meaningful.

And if a little chili oil is involved, even better.