For my birthday this year I wanted to channel all the Nancy-Meyers-Coastal-Girlie-Whose-Dad-Owns-A-Boat vibes that I see on Pinterest and Tiktok. To bring the aesthetic to my NYC apartment, I figured the best way was to focus on the food and then make everything else blue.
I've been craving lobster rolls all summer but they're soooo expensive to buy out and I can never justify it unless I'm literally sitting in Maine. That gave me my starting point for the menu and the rest came together from there. Oysters felt like a fancy way to start things off and to really give us that ~Cape Cod~ feel, what better way than with Cape Cod chips and a bit of onion dip? I don't think onion dip is really a coastal thing but there's something about it that just screams summer to me.
I ordered all the seafood online from Allfreshseafood.com (#notsponosred). While obviously getting seafood overnighted is expensive, this was the best deal I found--especially for just the lobster meat since I'm way to soft to kill a lobster in my apartment. Also if you need help rationalizing... $100 for fish is still less than you'd pay for just your share of the check going out for dinner in NYC instead of cooking at home. I ordered 1lb of fresh Maine lobster knuckles and claws and then a dozen Blue Point oysters. I feel like the oysters would have been cheaper at the grocery store but I needed them to make the shipping minimum so c'est la vie.
My friend shucked the oysters for me using a tool we bought on Amazon for $5 and after watching a YouTube video for a few minutes... so while I personally can't speak to how easy it was to do, it's definitely possible! We dressed them with a simple mignonette sauce (that I prepped the night before) and a squeeze of lemon on top.
I think most people know how to make onion dip from a Lipton's packet so I won't go into a lot of detail here...but I always find using 2 packets with 16oz of sour cream tastes way better than the 1 packet that's advised on the box.
For the main course, I tried to think of sides that felt like summer without being too close to the mayo-filled BBQ favorites. I chose a warm potato salad flavored with two types of mustard. What's great about this recipe is you can make the dressing the night before and then roasting the potatoes the day of the event is super easy and you can dress them in seconds. Similarly for the pasta salad, I decided to go with a vinaigrette inspired version. I made the dressing the night before and then the day of the party I boiled the pasta, crisped up the prosciutto, and just sliced up the tomatoes and peaches. The peaches gave this dish such a summer feeling and I feel like people went mostly for seconds of this. To keep things simple, I just made lemon garlic string beans as the final side--an easy crowd pleaser.
I couldn't decide if I wanted a Connecticut or Maine style lobster roll so... I found a recipe that does a little bit of both. And before you hate on it, they were really good! You cook up the lobster in a little bit of butter for a few minutes before mixing in a mayo/lemon sauce filled with fresh chives. I feel like this is a great fix for people at a dinner party, because you're bound to please guests on either side of the debate. Also if you're looking for split top hotdog buns, Trader Joe's sells a brioche style for less than $4 for 8!
For dessert, I prepared an Earl Grey Lemon cake that was decorated in these cute little lemons. I did make the fatal mistake of not taking the cake out early enough to come to room temperature, but it still tasted great! The Earl Grey flavor really comes through but I think if I were to make it again I would include more lemon curd because I felt like I was losing the lemon amid the buttercream and tea flavors. We finished off the meal with some Palomas that I forgot to get pictures of, but the grapefruit flavors were a great note to end on.
You can probably tell from the pictures above, but the table setting was relatively simple. I used hydrangeas from Trader Joe's in both blue and white. The napkins and napkin rings were from Amazon and I'm linking them here because I spent about an hour on Etsy filtering through drop sellers before I could finally find decent quality napkins that weren't $100. The chargers and glassware were all from Crate & Barrel and I used some plastic gold silverware from Target that I had leftover from another event (I am so sorry to the environment).
I thought printing out the menus would be a nice touch to make dinner feel a bit more special. I designed them on Canva and then just got them printed at Staples as 5x7s. If anyone wants the Canva template let me know!
Overall, I highly recommend this theme for an upcoming dinner party. It's a great way to let the food sell your theme without having to lean too much into decorating. The decor you do provide is also super reusable and versatile--I originally bought these chargers for my Italian themed dinner party and the napkin rings and napkins are in neutral tones that I can see myself using a lot.
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