Progressive dinners

Party planning can be a daunting affair. Planning the regular type of party can be so "old hat" and boring. But, finding a party with a difference is not always that easy. Planning a progressive dinner party may be the solution to those boring, conventional home dinner parties or restaurant meals.

What is a progressive dinner?

As the word progressive describes; a progressive dinner party is a party that progresses from one location to the next. This usually involves translocating from house to house and serving a different course at each of the houses. Progressive dinners are especially suited to three couples, where each couple is responsible for one course of the meal, often kept as a surprise. Progressive dinners work well when all the couples live in the same area, but it is not a necessity. We have travelled to a neighboring town, about 60 km far, for a progressive dinner evening on many occasions. In these instances our house was exempted from serving a course.

An alternative to the surprise progressive dinner is the theme based progressive dinner. A theme based progressive dinner could involve courses from a particular country, where all courses or some of them are traditional courses of a particular country. It can be very interesting reading up on specific food dishes of different countries and even more interesting trying to match up vegetables, meats and condiments. Another theme is to serve only sea food or only vegetarian as starter and main dish.

This is how a progressive dinner works

There are three steps to the progressive dinner:

• Step 1

  One group (couple) is responsible for a starter. The other two groups meet at the home where the starter is served. Usually the guests are greeted with a glass of sherry, with the starter to follow.

• Step 2

  The guests then all travel to the next home, where the main course is served.

• Step 3

  Finally the guests travel to the last home, where dessert, coffee and liqueurs are served.

An alternative progressive dinner

In some groups the progressive dinners have evolved to include a visit to a restaurant as well. The starter and dessert are served at different homes, but the main meal is eaten at a restaurant. This form of progressive dinner is not limited to only three groups and could involve more guests.

We are a group of eight, four couples that meet once a month for a progressive dinner evening. We circulate the starting point and ending point. Because two couples travel a distance we include only two house visits and a visit to a restaurant for the main course. The hosts for the evening, the couple serving the starter, keep the name of the restaurant a surprise.