Four starting points. Every one gets tailored to your guests, your kitchen and your budget.
Idea No. 01
Cat Couture
Fine dining and fine attire, for you and your cats.
A black-tie-optional dinner where the cats are the guests of honor. Tiny bow ties, a portrait corner, and a menu with a wink toward the fish course, without anyone feeding the cats from the table.
On the menu
Smoked salmon blinis with crème fraîche and chives
Little gem salad, green goddess dressing
Sole meunière with brown butter and capers
Pommes Anna
Vanilla bean panna cotta with berries
For the cats: a separate tasting flight of plain poached chicken and their favorite treats, cleared with your vet.
To drink
The Cat’s Pajamas: an elderflower gin spritz
A zero-proof version with elderflower and tonic
The Cellar pick Chablis with the sole: crisp, mineral, made for butter and fish.
On the table
Velvet runners and low, pet-safe greenery like cat grass
Place cards with each cat’s portrait
A photo corner with a tiny velvet throne
The little thingsNo lilies, anywhere. They’re deadly to cats, even the pollen.
The little thingsFlameless candles only. Tails and open flames don’t mix.
The little thingsOnion, garlic and chocolate stay on the human side of the table.
The little thingsA quiet room with water and a litter box, for overwhelmed guests of any species.
A cozy coven dinner: herbs, candlelight and a potion bar.
Inspired by every ’90s movie about witchy aunts and midnight margaritas. A greenhouse-meets-apothecary table, a cauldron that actually bubbles, and a potion bar where guests mix their own.
On the menu
Pumpkin and sage soup, served in little cauldron mugs
“Spellbook” focaccia with fresh herbs pressed into the top
Black lentil and roasted squash salad with pomegranate jewels
Mushroom bourguignon, or braised short ribs
Blackberry and bay leaf galette
The potion bar
Midnight margaritas, naturally
Color-changing gin: butterfly pea flower gin turns from blue to violet when the citrus goes in
A smoked rosemary old fashioned
Zero-proof elixir: butterfly pea lemonade, same color trick
The Cellar pick A dark, fizzy Lambrusco. It bubbles in the glass like the cauldron does.
A cauldron that shimmers
Food-grade dry ice in warm water makes the fog. Warmer water, more fog. Top it up every 15–20 minutes.
Keep the dry ice in the cauldron or an outer bowl, never in anyone’s glass. Handle it with tongs or gloves, and keep the room aired.
For shimmer, use dust labeled edible, not craft glitter marked “non-toxic.” A pinch swirls beautifully when the punch is stirred.
The little thingsDried herb bundles and mismatched brass candlesticks down the table.
The little thingsApothecary jars with labels: “eye of newt” turns out to be black olives.
The little thingsA fortune card at every place setting.
The little thingsA potion recipe card to take home, so the magic works again next week.
In the spirit of the 18th-century Paris salons: good food, sharp conversation, and a short reading list sent out with the invitation. The menu is French, the ideas are revolutionary, and the arguments are friendly.
On the menu
Warm gougères
Frisée salad with a mustardy vinaigrette
Coq au vin, or a ratatouille tart
A cheese course: Comté, Brie, Roquefort with walnuts
Tarte Tatin
The Cellar pick Crémant to start, a cru Beaujolais with dinner, and a little Sauternes with the Roquefort.
The reading list
Pick one or two. Short excerpts are welcome; nobody needs to finish a book.
Voltaire, Candide
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Woman
Rousseau, The Social Contract (the opening chapters)
Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Conversation prompts
What idea seems obvious today but might look radical in 200 years?
Candide ends with “tend your own garden.” Is that wisdom, or giving up?
Who gets a seat at the table, and who decides?
If you wrote a declaration of your own, what would the first line be?
The little thingsCandelabras, with stacks of old books as risers.
The little thingsPlace cards written with a quill and ink.
The little thingsA printed programme for the evening, course by course.
The little thingsEach guest gets one prompt card to raise between courses.