Whether it’s a long, lazy dinner by the flicker of citronella candlelight or a post-work apéro on the terrace, summer entertaining is in full swing, and we’ve enlisted the help of the most stylish hosts we know to serve up their party tricks. Pour yourself a Campari soda and settle in—it’s Aperitivo Hour.
You don’t have to be too much of a Francophile to have heard that Paris has recently been spending some time on the dark side of the Celsius meter: the city, in all its mostly un-air-conditioned glory, is in the midst of a heatwave. Everyone is coping differently—some through fashion, some by fleeing. Others, like the writer (and Montmartre resident) Rebekah Peppler, are celebrating the brief breaks between the heat by way of an apéro at home.
“Recently, we had a few friends over to fête the end of a particularly intense canicule,” says Peppler, who has lived in the French capital for over a decade. “My partner and I host regularly in our apartment and it always gives me so much joy when a low-key apéro hour with friends turns into dinner turns into late-night champagne on the balcony.”
Peppler—who runs the food and travel newsletter Shortlisted, and has also authored three cookbooks, Apéritif, À Table and Le Sud—is no stranger to the art of French hosting. Heatwave or not, she usually lets the day’s morning market findings set the tone for the menu. For this evening’s gathering, she and her partner Laila Said settled on a simple cast of characters: a massive platter of aïoli surrounded by baby potatoes, snap peas, and cucumbers for dipping, tinned fish dressed up with a squeeze of lemon, a plate of soft-boiled eggs, a crusty baguette, and slivers of cheese. Everything is simple, fresh, good for a crowd—and, crucially, nothing requires turning on the oven.
Set the Scene
“My tabletop is a very heavy, very lovely oval slab of marble I got off Leboncoin; I love it because it’s beautiful and you can spill wine and wax and tomato juice all over it without any worries. I rarely choose to cover it with a linen (though if I were going to, it would be the nappe repas du bistrot tablecloth by Sarah Espeute)
I set the table earlier in the day, using Post-Its to note what is going on each serving dish. (This is a holdover from my food styling days and makes life so much easier when hosting). Then, depending on the number of people I need to fit around the table, I’ll opt for either standard-size dinner plates or smaller ones closer to salad or even dessert size—if we’re packed around the table, the smaller sizes help keep everyone a bit more comfortable, allow me to fit more food on the table, and encourage seconds, thirds, and fourths.”
The Hosting Outfit
“In summer, when it’s hot out and the balcony doors are open and the sun is streaming in, I’m usually in some palette of white, beige, and tan. (As for spills, they’re part of life. I just keep some seltzer nearby and a good stain stick in the house if anyone needs it.) My go-to hosting outfit is usually something that feels chic yet comfortable; often, pants I can move in, an oversized white button-up, and a red lip.
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake makes especially great pants for hosting. I own perhaps too many white button-ups at this point, but it’s a three-way tie between Chava Studio, Sézane, and By Malene Birger for current favorites. For jewelry, I’m pretty minimal; I always wear my Dua ring by the phenomenal Ina Beissner. When I want to dress something up a bit, I put on the pearl and black cord necklace I picked up in Amsterdam, from Rika Studios x By Marichelle. My lipstick is either Chanel’s Rouge Allure l’Extrait or Violette FR’s Bisou Balm.”
Tabletop Heroes
“I do love to layer heights on the table so I’ll pull out a cake stand or two and throw gougères or eggs mayo or a pile of seasonal fruit on top to mix it up. For napkins, I tend to pull out a beautiful cotton set Laila and I picked up in Mexico City a few trips back—these Dove and Donkey ones are similar. My cutlery is pretty much all vintage, sourced at the flea markets here in Paris and in the South of France (with a few pieces from Sabre Paris and Catalunya-based Pallarès Solsona mixed in).”
What’s on the Menu
“For apéro, I start by putting out olives and make the gougères from my book À Table—they’re always a hit. There are always a few fresh baguettes, a bowl of flaky salt, a jar of mustard, and some good butter on the table. Since it’s summer right now and turning on the oven feels unnecessary, I’ve been leaning hard into making a grand aïoli and letting people build their perfect bites. Basically, it’s just a big, freshly made batch of garlicky aïoli surrounded by a glut of vegetables (little potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, radishes, fennel, whatever else looks good at the market), some soft-boiled eggs, and depending on the people coming, some tins of fish or steamed mussels or even a roast chicken from the neighborhood boucherie. It’s easy to make or prep everything in advance. Rounded out with a big green salad and some cheese, it’s the ideal meal for a hot summer night.
For dessert, I’m keeping it simple with a few good chocolate bars—these are from my collaboration with Casa Bosques—a pile of seasonal fruit, and a bowl of crème cru.”
Drinks Station
“I don’t do a proper drink station—my apartment simply isn’t big enough! Honestly, drinks at my dinner parties are usually simple: some good bottles of wine tucked in vintage ice buckets. For wine glasses, I love the collaboration between Ann Demeulemeester and Serax. Our water glasses are Tokyo Sadaki tumblers and I love them. They’re ridiculously hard to break.
I love to start and end the night with something bubbly; if Laila has her way, it’s bubbles all night long. To deal with the heatwave, we made our glasses of wine into piscines—wine with ice.”
All in the Details
“Once the sun gets low enough, I have a mix of tapers and pillars I light. I especially like Trudon for tapers. A dear friend gifted us a gruyère candle from Gohar World that lives on our living room fireplace mantel and never actually gets burned because I love looking at it too much.
For florals, I tend to pick up whatever is beautiful and in-season on the way home and throw them in a vase. We don’t have a ton of space on the table because I prefer to fill that space with food and plates and people; I keep flowers on the side fireplace mantel and maybe tuck a few in a small vase in the bathroom.”
Dinner Party Dos & Don’ts
“Not offering to bring something. Ask your host what they need (be it ice or wine or a bag of chips or a last-minute ingredient they forgot that you can pick up on the way). If they say nothing, bring something to drink—either wine or something nonalcoholic, depending on the vibe—or flowers.”
“Laila makes all the playlists in our house and I am forever grateful to her for this because they are phenomenal and really set the vibe for the party. This one is my current hosting favorite—it starts with early evening apéro hour energy and mellows out as the night progresses.”
“It really depends on what the party is but I always look to find a bit of balance in energies, especially if there are people who don’t know each other in advance. I don’t do seating charts for a myriad of reasons. The first being that I personally hate it when they’re imposed on me and the second is that my table is petite enough for everyone to see and talk to each other with ease. That said, if I have someone over who I know has social anxiety, I invite them to sit next to me.”
“I make sure there’s enough wine chilling, and then I pour myself a glass as I get ready. I try to make sure that by the time people start to show up I’m able to meet them at the door and offer each person a proper welcome. It immediately sets the tone for the night. We live in a walk-up and so, especially in warm weather, after we say hello I ask what they want to drink, send them directly onto the balcony to catch their breath, and meet them there with whatever cold beverage they’ve asked for.”