We recently hosted a little belated Valentine’s Day soiree at our house with a 1940s Casablanca theme. The idea came from our friend, and evil genius, who gets a lot of fun and crazy ideas. This is easily explained by the fact that he is an artist by profession (he recently published an awesome book on monster mythology called “Monster Mythos” with several other artists), and does things like work on the animation team for Cartoon Network’s Sym-Bionic Titan, so he’s basically paid to dream up craziness every day. (He even gave everyone names for the night . . . I’ll share in a second . . . .)
We gave our house a festive feel, hanging up some mini white Christmas lights and some paper lanterns.
Then we gave the dinner table an elegant vintage makeover.
Everyone came dressed to the nines. Our cool cats:
Left to Right: Danny Marco, Sam Blackwell, Mark Raeburn, and Tony Bandana
The dames:
Left to Right: Kathleen Connor, Lola “Smoky” Freemont, Isabel Morgan, and Tanya Joyce
For dinner, we started with a cheese plate and sliced baguettes.
To drink, we had bottles of sparkling cider and a non-alcoholic sangria (like this recipe from Epicurious, but with strawberries instead of cranberries).
We followed up the bread and cheese with a simple creamy tomato soup, sprinkled with a bit of fresh basil.
For the main course, we had a fresh green salad with strawberries in it, and I made a quiche lorraine, using the recipe out of Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table
After finishing the main course, we moved into the family room to watch the movie Casablanca.
While we watched the movie, I served a rich chocolate mousse, topped with whipped cream and fresh raspberries (also from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table). You can find the recipe on bonnappetit.com.
It was a perfect evening—good food, good friends, lots of fun, and plenty of romance.
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What a great post! These pictures are priceless and I’m sure your friends are very happy to have them. What a great idea and party. I am rather inspired to try something like this myself now. Thank you!
LOVING this SO MUCH! How fun and wonderful!
so creative! and oh, so delicious food! i’m craving a nice wedge of brie right now!
As if I didn’t already wish I lived closer to you ; )
What A fun theme! I love it…and the black and white photos are just icing on the cake :)
SO fun! What a gorgeous spread of food, people and fun!
So much fun Rachael – it’s *nearly* like we were there with you!
Very cool article! I’m actually looking into writing a story that takes place after the war ends in 1945. Any suggestions on where I should start looking for information?
AWESOME dinner party! LOVE it! I’m going ga ga over your fabulous pics! Eveyrone looks so chic and sassy! :)
What a wonderful party and menu. I love how you put together a great collection of easy and elegant dishes – I’m sure your guests had a great time. I’ve been thinking of throwing a themed dinner party and am now inspired!
Looks like it was a fun party!
Oh my gosh, I love love love theme parties!!! No one I know ever throws them! And I love Casablanca! Great, simple menu– I can’t wait to try Dorie’s mousse au chocolat! I have a recipe that’s pretty hard to top, so I’m eager to test hers.
What a fun idea! You all look fabulous!
Awesome – I SOOOO wish I was there!
Isn’t it nice stepping back into the past? I love the vintage look of the photos. So, when is the next party? :)
What a genius idea for a dinner party. How fun!
And you look smashing, my dear… simply smashing!
Great menu, and everyone looked especially smashing in all those B&W shots. :)
Wonderful idea, fabulous food and the perfect pictures. Thanks for sharing your evening with us, dahling.
wow,..
So now you’re officially ”Lola”……I like!! And what great vintage curlery you have!!
Phenomenal photos and I’m sure a treasure for all involved. Genius to do them in B+W.
Fun idea and execution.
Love this idea! I’m thinking the cocktail party needs to make a return… but this is even better.
How inspiring!! how fun!!! love it!!
What a great idea! Love it!
WOW! Such an eye for details and even the photo’s look like they were taken from the 40’s. Thank you for sharing.
Rachael, such a super fun dinner party with your friends. You are as adorable as always!!! xo
Love this idea, Rachael! You all look just smashing. And those pink martini glasses? Wow.
Wow, I love that idea!
I take it that you are all American – I am amazed at your idea of a fancy menu and can’t help but to wonder what you eat normally. We Europeans would serve cheese towards the end of a meal not as a starter. We might consider making the effort to use cheese as part of canapés and the thin quiche with a garnish of leaves seems fine for a fast light supper at home but pretty meagre to offer guests – even if you were intent on reproducing a 1940s meal, even then there would have been a little potato salad too – perhaps you were thinking of the privations and lack of eggs suffered by your Continental Cousins. By the way, they didn’t have access to chocolate – that was only provided to American Servicemen! I am old enough to know all this. Á toute a l’heure
ooops, sorry, meant to add…. you look like a lovely group of friends having a good time – well done for making an ‘event’ of watching the film.
Ive never watched cassablanca before but have always wanted to. I think this would be the perfect way to do so!
I really like what you guys are up too. This sort of clever work and exposure!
Keep up the good works guys I’ve you guys to blogroll.
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This is a great idea. I do similar things when I watch special movies, usually on an annual basis. Casablanca is one, but my favorite is Dr. Zhivago. There is so much you can do for a Dr. Zhivago watch party. Just as an aside, not sure if you know that there is a little series of cookbooks around movies. There is a Casablanca Cookbook (probably from the 1990’s. I also have a “Christmas Carol” cookbook, “Gone with the Wind” cookbook, “It’s a Wonderful Life” cookbook, “Wizard of Oz” cookbook, and the aforementioned “Casablanca” cookbook. If you Google these names, I’m sure you will find them used on some sites. They lend a lot of atmosphere to the party and have trivia and very good recipes. Nice post. Thanks for sharing the photos!
Love this party idea! I liked how the activity was just simple by watching the movie Casablanca. I threw a 1920’s party which was a blast… Now I want to throw a 1940’s party!!!!
Thank you so much AJ! Oooh, a 1920s party sounds so fun! What did you do?
Sounds like fun. We’re looking to do a Casablanca 1942 murder mystery party. Any suggestions on decor or costumes?
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