How to find dinner party guest

Its harder than you think to find last minute dinner party guest...unless you live in a country town.

Last Saturday I had penciled in a dinner party for six.

My friend Simon was going to cook so I invited two other couples and preparations were well underway.

aperitivo plate for starters

Until...one of the couples canceled 24 hours before. Which wouldn't normally be a problem if you had lived in town a long time and knew everyone.  But I'm new and so is Simon, but we wanted six guests as I had already bought the pork roast.

So Friday night we set out to find two others to fill the two empty seats.

As I said it's not that easy to find two new guest, since you need people who are happy to converse with people they don't know and hopefully even throw in a few hilarious anecdotes while they are at it.

Finding Alison wasn't so hard, I'd met her at the Bruthen farmers markets some time back and she had a weekend without her two sons, so it was a perfect fit. She was a local, and she loved op-shops, so what was not to like!

My co-host Simon prepares the table

Finding a bloke to take the other seat was a little more challenging....

Friday night we had an event organised by the Bairnsdale Social Network, an excellent idea for young professionals like myself. We get together and 'network' without having to go to old mans pubs or the local nightclub. I'm not trying to diss the nightclub but there are no lovely lounge bars like the Emerald Peacock or 1806 (sigh.)

So we organise our own social events for people in town who want to meet others with a more bigger priorities than how many jugs of Bundy and coke we can drink in one night.

Who wouldn't want to come to this dinner party?

We went to the Stables, a renovated art gallery which is a cafe during the day and occasionally opens up as a bar in the evening.

So as the night went on, we were still a man down for the dinner party. I employed the direct marketing approach and went up to two chaps, one of whom I knew and said.


"Listen fellas, I'm having a dinner party tommorow night, the food will be fabulous and I have even bought fairy lights for the occasion but I'm a man down. So who wants to come?"

It turned out one of them (lets call him the Kiwi with excellent wine knowledge) wanted to come. And he did.

The point I'm trying to make is I could not have approached some guys in a bar in Melbourne or any city really and ask them to dinner. But in a country town...no problem.

Simon adds wine to the slow roasted pork

And it turned out Mr Kiwi knew another of the guests because they worked together...ahh small towns.

And because I had someone from overseas at the dinner party I had an excuse to drag out my atlas...any excuse!

And yes the food was fabo, the conversation great and they even laughed at my (probably not so hilarious) anecdotes.


Dinner party menu:

Starters - aperitivo plate

Entree - ensalate caprese

Main - slow roasted pork with roast root vegetable salad and panzanella

Dessert -berry and stone fruit salad