Ideas for 1960s party

Classic sixties dessert would be Black Forest cherry cake and I would guess classic main course would be coq au vin. If you don't want to do prawn cocktail or any variation of it, melon and Parma ham would be right on the nose and still really quite tasty. I would skip sixties-style canapés which were inedible and disgusting. Ditto drinks like snowballs (advocaat and lemonade).

How about devilled eggs for a starter?

There are lots of inexpensive CDs of 60s music available.

Lots of ideas here

Thanks for that link! I had forgotten pineapple upside down cake, and Black Forest gateau can be yummy. I have vague memories of angel delight in my house. Don't want to recreate that.

Oh those 60s starters grapefruit, halved, sprinkled with sugar and grilled,was one in my house.

With a glacé cherry on top grannyknot?

I loved angel delight! Black Forest gateaux too. I still have a taste for outrageously sweet desserts.

Who remembers scampi or chicken in a basket? A real treat was steak and chips at Berni Inn. Oh the sophistication .

absent how could I forget the "cherry on the top"?

I know avocados also featured often in the starter repertoire, but I think they were filled with prawns.

Wasn't Beef Wellington "to do" back then as a main course?

Chicken Kiev or chicken cordon bleu were top favourites too. And who could forget 'those little cheesy pineapple ones'.

Oh, and kipper pâté to start and baked Alaska for pud.

A pineapple centre stage, surrounded by cocktail onions, sausages and cheese on sticks of course. We knew how to enjoy ourselves in a sophisticated way in the 60's

Tinned pineapple chunks with a cube of cheddar stuck into half a grapefruit to look like a hedgehog also springs to mind. I might just go for a buffet 60s style.

Abba wigs and music?
I used to segment a grapefruit and return it to the shell mixed with prawns and mayonnaise.

Chicken and chips in a basket. There wouldn't be much available for veggies in the '60s. Baked beans? Perhaps not!

Sorry, checked dates, Abba were 70s.

Throwing your keys into the middle of the table. I heard so much about that practice but never once saw it happen.

When DH and I first started dating (which is dating in itself!!), in 1969/70, going out for a meal often meant going to a local hotel to eat. I remember starters of soup or fruit juice, occasionally pate, mains as mentioned above but the height of sophistication was the cheese board!

I meant to say that we loved going for a Berni!!

We drank Mateus Rose or Blue Nun as I recall both of which we have tried lately and decided against trying again!!

On our first date, DH took me to an Egon Ronay listed restaurant (the only one for miles) - I was seriously impressed. There was a tiny glass dance floor which had live tropical fish swimming under one's feet. There was also a flamenco guitarist who had one leg shorter than the other.

Blue Nun got too popular for its own good, and mass production wrecked the quality.

If you do serve grapefruit, make sure you prepare it properly - these days no-one seems able to. You use a small pointed serrated knife (ideally a proper grapefruit knife with a curved end) to cut round the outer edge of the segments, then down the inside of each side segment. Each should lift out easily with a long-pointed grapefruit spoon.

The object of preparing food is to make it easier for the customer to eat. Restaurants seem to have forgotten how to present a grapefruit (or a plate of strawberries - why do they leave on the stems and leaves?)

My aunt used to make a grapefruit and gin sorbet. I think it is somewhere (?) in my recipe stash.

Should have added - The flesh should lift out without the individual skins on the segments.

That time for me was mods and rockers. Small Faces for music as I was a mod. Can't really remember the food. All we had ever had was meat and two veg and never went out to eat!

Melon boats (with ginger of course), steak chasseur with chips and passion fruit pavlova.

Another regular dessert was Pear Belle Helen - always known in our family as Pear Bekke Heken due to our local restaurant employing a waitress who wanted to earn some money so she could complete her typing course!!

We went to one when I was in my early 30s. I went in full flower power stuff, there were catsuits and all sorts of amazing outfits.

But a very elderly couple turned up, shuffling around and causing consternation - until they pulled off their grey wigs and feigned surprise, saying that they had thought it was a '60s' party so that was what they had come dressed as!

Having seen them lately, they look spookily similar to those outfits of 20-odd years ago!

I could lend you my yellow/orange checked tablecloth if you like.
It actually went quite well with the mustard yellow pots I had

60s parties usually started with a glass of sherry - offer a choice of oloroso, amontillado and fino. I hear it could be back in fashion!

I can remember port and lemon being the height of sophistication. And I vaguely remember fondue sets, but I never had one myself. Anyone still got one or did they just rust away in a cupboard?

The cast iron set still comes out occasionally for a fondue bourguignonne. Never liked cheese fondues much.