Party Food and Drinks Calculator

The hardest part of party planning is not the recipes, it is the quantities. Most hosts either run out of food in the first hour or spend the following week eating the same casserole.

Protein is the anchor. Get this number right and the rest falls into place.

Drinks run on the one-per-hour rule, with a first-hour surge. Everyone arrives thirsty and nobody is eating yet, so the first hour is closer to 1.5 to 2 drinks a head and every hour after settles to about one. A standard drink is 12 oz of beer, 5 oz of wine, or 1.5 oz of spirits. Cocktail parties run a little higher because there is nothing else to hold.

Take alcohol out and the count goes up, not down. People drink soft drinks roughly twice as fast, partly because a soda is finished in ten minutes and partly because there is no self-regulation. Budget about double. A mixed bar sits between the two, maybe 15% above an alcohol-only count, since the drivers and the non-drinkers are getting through the soda at that faster rate.

Appetizers depend entirely on whether they are the meal.

• Preceding a dinner: 3 to 5 pieces per person for the appetizer window. More than that and nobody eats the food you spent the afternoon on.
• As the meal, at a cocktail party: about 6 pieces per person in the first hour, then 4 an hour after. Plan 4 or 5 different bites and mix hot with cold.

Two adjustments worth making. Outdoor summer events run about 20% higher on drinks, because heat does the work. Morning and early-afternoon gatherings run about 15% lower across the board. A 2 PM baby shower and a 7 PM dinner party with the same guest list are not the same shopping trip.

One caterer’s habit worth stealing: buy the drinks you can return. Most liquor stores take back unopened cases, so over-buying beer and soda is nearly free while over-buying brisket is not.