The Latest Party Trend? Hosts Who Say ‘No’ to Serving Alcohol
Ellen Ben Basat of Tarzana, whose husband is an Israeli-born contractor, frequently entertains friends and business associates and has a fully stocked bar.
But the bar at the Ben Basats always goes unused and the guests go home sober.
The couple doesn’t serve liquor at dinner parties because “we’re not drinkers” and the guests, Ben Basat says, don’t complain.
Ben Basat serves seltzer, mineral waters and non-alcoholic fruit coolers when she entertains and says she likes being able to talk to guests without the distortion of intoxication.
“We like to have a good laugh and remain clear-headed,” she said. “I like being a guest at my own party.”
The Ben Basats, who have a 12-year-old daughter, Danielle, may provide an occasional glass of zinfandel or Japanese plum wine on request, but not very often “just because it’s our way of life and a lot of people ask for water.”
Way of Life
Because of the continuing trend toward good nutrition and physical fitness, the dry dinner party has become a way of life for a growing number of families who have substituted bottled, sparkling and flavored waters for alcohol. Entertaining without alcohol is a trend in itself, these families say.
Per-capita consumption of distilled spirits in the United States has been declining steadily in the 1980s, according to industry sources, and liquor sales have dropped dramatically, down 22% since 1980. Wine and beer consumption has peaked and is dropping, too, but not as quickly.
Lynne Strange of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, which represents producers and marketers, said higher liquor taxes, more restrictions on the sale of liquor, concern about drunk drivers and the “so-called health and fitness trend that’s taken the country” have sharply cut into the sale of spirits.
“People are much more health- and fitness-minded,” she said. So they’re drinking less of all kinds of alcoholic beverages, including wine and beer.
At the same time, Americans’ taste for bottled waters of all kinds--including some that resemble fruit-flavored soda pop--is soaring, said Geary Campbell, a spokeswoman for the International Bottled Water Assn., a trade group representing dozens of domestic and foreign bottled-water producers.
Sales Up 500%
Campbell said that since 1980, sales of bottled water have jumped 500%, with Evian, a non-sparkling imported French mineral water, leading the increasingly competitive pack.
Last year alone, the sale of imported sparkling and non-sparkling waters jumped 33.6%, due partly to the rate of consumption in California, which ranks as the largest consumer of bottled water in the United States.
Ruth Friedman and her husband Edward, an electrical contractor, have been married 36 years and they “next to never drink or serve alcohol” at dinner parties or luncheons in their home.
In fact, Ruth Friedman says, she has never kept a store of liquor in her home and never served spirits as a matter of course.
“Years ago, I started to serve crudites with apple cider or sparkling cranberry juice, which is harder to find,” the Sepulveda resident said. “People tell me they appreciate not having to drink liquor.”
For a more elegant touch, she serves sparkling cranberry or apple juice in a champagne glass with a strawberry garnish.
Gift Bottles Returned
If a guest does ask for an alcoholic drink, he will get a glass of zinfandel and “that’s it.” In fact, when the Friedmans are given liquor as gifts by business associates and others, they return the bottle with a note, asking the giver to make a donation instead to the Foundation for the Junior Blind in Los Angeles.
After her son’s recent bar mitzvah, Friedman entertained guests at a luncheon at their home. The traditional wine was served at the service, but the Friedmans did not toast with wine or whiskey at home.
Instead, guests were offered sparkling waters mixed with fruit juice, fresh-fruit smoothies and malts.
“I don’t care for alcohol,” Ruth Friedman said. “I don’t appreciate it, I’m not familiar with it and I don’t want to be responsible for any problems as far as my guests” are concerned. And “I prefer good nutrition.”
Cathy Carlton does a lot of entertaining at her Westlake Village home, and the North Carolina-born wife and mother says she is a traditionalist.
For guests, she sets a formal table, with fine china and crystal, bread-and-butter plates, individual silver salt and pepper servers, and a lace tablecloth. Fresh flowers--often roses--are a must.
Dinner is never served buffet-style, and dessert is always served at the dining table, not in the living room or den.
But dinner party tradition at the Carltons ends there--they do not serve liquor.
Carlton, the 1988-89 Outstanding Junior of the Westlake Women’s Club, says her family has always been health conscious but that she has noticed a trend away from hard liquor in home entertaining.
The former program director of maternal health services for the San Fernando region of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Carlton now does volunteer work and raises her two daughters, Janie, 9, and Jennifer, 7. Her husband, Dana, is a periodontist.
Carlton says she has noticed a decline in the consumption of hard liquor at other homes in the last few years. “There was a time when more drinking was done,” she said, but “not as many people want to drink mixed drinks” these days. “People are more knowledgeable about wine, about vineyards and years. They want good wine. And they’re drinking less.”
There has never been an absolute ban on alcoholic drinks at the Carltons, but “the people we associate with seem to be doing less drinking in general,” Carlton said.
“There seems to be a gradual trend, one I’ve noticed within the last year, first toward wine, then onto the next stage, to a variety of these waters. I keep them on hand for my family, too. . . . Our guests are relaxed when they walk through the door,” she said. “They don’t need alcohol to create that. I don’t think it changes the tone of the dinner. With good company and good friends, it’s certainly not a requirement.”
The couple does maintain a fully stocked bar, a longtime custom, just in case someone asks.
“We would offer anyone anything they would want,” she said. But “it’s just very rare here today.”
Cathy Rogers of Malibu teaches cooking classes at Let’s Get Cooking in Westlake Village and at the Godmother in Malibu.
Informal Style
Her home entertaining style is informal and much of the time excludes alcohol.
She and her husband Jeff, a real estate developer, prefer to serve cranberry juice mixed with sparkling water or Perrier and lime instead of wine or spirits.
By skipping the aperitif and the wine with dinner, “you can really taste the food, instead of intoxicating the palate. You would be amazed at the taste treat,” Rogers said.
Dinner parties at the Rogers home are not for adults only. “I like to have dinner parties with our friends who have kids our childrens’ ages,” she said. Ryan is 18 and Chad is 12.
“Especially on holidays, we entertain with our friends and their children. We serve a lot of Pellegrino or Perrier and fresh grapefruit, orange or cranberry juice, mixed half and half, with club soda.”
‘Sunrise Effect’
To make non-alcoholic drinks more attractive, she serves them in a tall glass, pouring the juice in first, half way up, then adding seltzer or club soda for a “sunrise effect.” Lime is used as a garnish.
Rogers also serves non-alcoholic “champagne cocktails” made without champagne, but served in champagne glasses. The base is sparkling apple juice, mixed with fresh raspberry puree or fresh peach puree. It looks elegant, she says, and “gives you this fabulous feeling.”
Linda Laffey of Woodland Hills doesn’t serve alcoholic drinks at her dinner parties, even though her husband may have a drink when they dine out.
“Good old H2O on the rocks” is what she prefers. “It’s very refreshing, and that’s fine for me,” she said.
Laffey, a designer of hand-painted casual wear, and her husband Tom, a lawyer who heads the Century City office of Folger & Levin, a San Francisco-based firm, frequently entertain at home, and most of their parties are alcohol-free.
The Laffeys, who have two young children--Samantha, 5, and Kelly, 2--keep most hard liquor on hand but “it hardly comes out because no one’s interested.” They also have wine and beer at home, but guests who are offered the option usually choose a non-alcoholic drink.
