Host! to ensure the success of a Literary Feast
The 2024 Literary Feast sold out early. With more hosts, the event would have been able to accommodate more people. Can you help next time around?
The feast depends on its hosts. If (after reading this) you decide you’d like to host (or have questions about hosting), email Todd Cymrot.
This event is usually around the third Saturday of October and has three goals:
Goal #1
Raise money for the Capitol Hill Community Foundation’s grants to neighborhood schools. You can view the details about the Foundation here.
Goal #2
Serve as a community mixer. The feasts are a rare opportunity for neighbors from all across Capitol Hill to meet and dine together. There are few social events that attract a crowd as varied and diverse as the Literary Feast, and we really ask the hosts to put a premium on the social aspect of the dinner. The ideal dinner size is 8-12 guests, with a minimum of 8 (any smaller, and it can feel a little “un-festive,” especially when we have a last minute cancellation). People come expecting good food and drink, but even more so, they come hoping to meet the hosts and the other guests. Ice-breaker games are encouraged (but not required).
One of your most important roles is keeping the conversation flowing at the dinner table… so it is best to plan a meal that doesn't require you to disappear into the kitchen! Some hosts share the hosting with a neighboring house, so guests meet at one house for cocktails and appetizers, and then walk to a nearby house for the main course… this is a good way of mixing up guests mid-event (and also a great way to share the hosting burdens). After the dinner, guests and hosts are invited to meet up for an "After Party" at Hill Center at 921 Pennsylvania Ave for desserts and music.
Goal #3
Share the work of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation. We will provide information about the Foundation, and we try to seat as many board members and friends of the Foundation across the dinners as possible. If we don't have enough to go around, we do ask the hosts to give a brief spiel about the Foundation (we'll provide talking points).
Logistics
-The dinners are all held on a Saturday night from 6:30-8:30pm and then guests are invited to the Hill Center for dessert, drinks, and live music.
-All dinners are based on a book, but this is not a book discussion… the books are just inspiration for the Feasts (ie. The Godfather was an Italian dinner, and for Our Man in Havana, the hosts sent telegram-style messages to their guests inviting them to dress like spies in Cuba with white linen to their Cuban-style meal, etc.). Most guests will not have read the books because they only find out their dinners assignment the week prior.
-Guests select their top six dinners based on the books and the description of the menus. They do not know who the hosts are (and we ask hosts to keep this a secret!), and then guests are assigned their dinners about a week prior to the event. Hosts will be given guests' email addresses so they can communicate any last minute information, but we do the majority of coordination.
We assign all guests and let them know where their hosts' homes are.
Menus
-We generally need hosts to pin down their books and menus by August 1. This means choosing a book and a plan for what you will serve. We then pass this on to our writer, and she transforms these into compelling "teasers" about each dinner. We create print and web materials with these descriptions during the month of August, and then people begin signing up the first week of September. So, while the event is many months away, we do need to know your plans pretty quickly!
-We ask that hosts designate their dinners as Meat, Pescetarian, Vegetarian, and/or Gluten free. In our experience, the vegetarian and pescetarian guests choose dinners that are clearly featuring these kinds of foods, so don’t go out of your way to try to be all things to all people (i.e., a meat-focused dinner that also has a vegetarian option is not picked as frequently as a clearly meat dinner and a clearly vegetarian dinner).
-As much as we wish guests were more adventurous, the dinners that tend to get selected are the ones you'd expect (Italian, French, Indian, Asian, etc.). We seem to have a harder time filling the dinners featuring food from England, Scotland, Ireland (our apologies to the British!), and dinners that may be more difficult to know what to expect ((i.e., “Green Eggs and Ham”, or “Excel for Dummies” were prior themes that were actually great dinners, but few people selected them!). If you do pick a book with an unclear culinary theme, please help us with the description of the menu.
All of your expenses for the Literary Feast dinner are tax deductible, so keep your receipts for the IRS should they ever ask. You don’t need to submit receipts to us… the Foundation will issue a letter indicating your “donation” as a host of the Literary Feast fundraiser.
