Ep. 95: Dinner Parties

On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Nathan and Breanna discuss all things dinner parties. The two begin by discussing what they like about dinner parties and their personal experiences hosting and attending them. They then review common features of traditional dinner parties (cocktail hour, place settings, multiple course meals, and after-dinner entertainment) before detailing how they have changed over time. Amongst other things they discuss how Emily Post and Martha Stewart presented competing visions of the high-effort dinner party, how the depreciation of dining-related antiques demonstrates the decline of dinner parties in America, and how modern dinner parties emphasize a relaxed approach that is best demonstrated by Allison Roman’s Nothing Fancy. 

Links:

Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home by Emily Post

How Dinner Parties Became the Fuzzy Blanket of Adulthood by Alissa Wilkinson

The Dinners That Shaped History by Brenda Wineapple

Eating Together : Food, Friendship and Inequality Alice P. Julier

The Pleasure of Your Company (but No Gaucheries, Please!): Dinner Parties in 19th-Century America by mansionmusings

Entirely Entertaining: Dishing Dinner Party Trends Through the Decades

I Tracked Down The Company Ruining Restaurants

The Art of Entertaining

Why Dinner Parties Still Matter

Entertaining by Martha Stewart

Martha (2024)

Martha Stewart wheelbarrow clip

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Why the dinner party is a declining art by Harmeet Kaur

Politics on the menu in Seoul as Donald Trump dines on shrimp from disputed waters and 360-year-old soy sauce by Nicola Smith

Cameron praises Obama at lavish state dinner by Mark Madell

Presidents at State Dinners: A Historical Overview

Nothing Fancy by Allison Roman

Alison Roman’s “Nothing Fancy” and the Art of the Unpretentious Dinner Party by Michele Moses

With 'Nothing Fancy,' Alison Roman Aims To Rebrand Having People Over For Dinner by Wynne Davis

Artwork:

Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton (and others) at a party given for Rudolph Valentino

Recorded on 02/08/2026