A Very Good Reason to Have People Over

Author: Kayla Perez-Fontaine

We are always waiting for a reason to have people over.

A birthday, a new apartment, a holiday, a promotion, a dinner party that has been planned three weeks in advance. Preferably, there should also be a clean house, enough chairs, or anything that suggests you have your life together.

It’s a lot of pressure for something that is, at its best, just people sitting around eating.

Some of my favorite gatherings have been the least planned. Someone texts in the afternoon. What are you doing tonight? An hour later, there’s a bottle of wine on the counter, someone is cutting a loaf of bread, and you’re standing in the kitchen eating cheese from the package before you’ve even put anything on a plate.

You don’t really need to cook. In fact, I think there’s something to be said for not cooking at all. Put out a few good things and let everyone make their way through them. A soft cheese,
something salty, fruit, good crackers, maybe something sweet for later. Open the bottle you’ve been saving for that “special occasion”.

This is more or less the reason we love the market at Bon Vivant. You can come in without much of a plan and leave with the makings of one. Maybe you find a cheese you’ve never tried, a yummy bar of chocolate, something salty to put beside it, and a bottle you didn’t know you needed until you saw it. You don’t have to know exactly what you’re making, but sometimes the fun is figuring it out as you go.

The best part of these impromptu gatherings is that no one has to sit down at the same time. Someone is always getting up for another glass of wine. Someone finds the thing they like and goes back for more. A conversation that started in the kitchen somehow ends up on the couch. Eventually, you realize you’ve been there for four hours.

Maybe we’ve gotten too good at waiting for an occasion to use the good things. We save the nice bottle, the serving board, the food we’ve been meaning to try. Meanwhile, another day, another month, another year goes by. So invite some people over. You don’t need a birthday or a dinner party or any particularly good excuse. You just need a table, a few things worth sharing, and someone you’d like to see.

We’ll have all the things waiting at Bon Vivant.