W3 Book Club - The Great Gatsby

by Laura Chin, Tastemaker in Residence photos by by Teri E. Popp, Tastemaker in Residence

“The Great Gatsby” conjures up visions of the 1920’s, flappers, and round-the-clock partying.  With that in mind, W3 Book Club decided to host a party-within-a-party and surprise one of our members on her special birthday! 

The group set out to research food and potential libations by attending the recent Leonardo DiCaprio movie of Gatsby. To our great delight, it appeared that people in the rollicking 1920’s lived on champagne cocktails, desserts, and more champagne cocktails. Therefore, we ordered champagne. Oh, and desserts. 
 
And, since we needed to eat a decent meal before we drank all that champagne, we served the following 1920’s appropriate food (as researched by our resident expert).

Menu

Oysters Rockefeller
BBQ meatballs
Finger sandwiches
Shrimp cocktail shooters
Cheese stuffed mushrooms
Deviled eggs
Waldorf Salad
Along with lots and lots of desserts
 
Also served:  Pinin Farina Vino Rosso, Auxey Duresses White Burgundy and champagne cocktails.
 
"We met as “book club” for two hours while our spouses hid in the “gin joint” we had all created in the basement earlier in the day. We then surprised our birthday girl when we took her to join in the fun festivities downstairs. Our Dapper Dan’s awaited us at the foot of the stairs as we then proceeded to Charleston the night away to vintage jazz music--as any proper flapper would do!”