How to Throw a Breakfast for Dinner Party

At Kate’s Kitchen, we are obsessed with breakfast for dinner—and how could we not be? It’s all the best foods served at the first slow meal of the day, giving you the chance to sit down and really pay attention to what you’re eating and who you’re eating it with. And with that in mind, we started thinking: What if we dared to go one step further than breakfast for dinner? What if we dared to combine the most casual of dinners with the most formal of dinners? Did we dare to suggest a breakfast for dinner themed dinner party? You saw the headline and you know the answer, so keep reading to find out how!

Party Planning

Invitations

One of the first things you’ll want to figure out is how many people you’re inviting. Dinner parties are smaller than most other types of parties tend to be because dinner parties have a hard limit of ‘how many people can comfortably sit around your table?’ If you’re serving a larger group, consider serving food buffet-style instead of individual plates served at the table and set up additional folding tables and chairs if you have the space. Try to give people ample time to plan their attendance by doing invites at least two weeks ahead of the date you’ve chosen for the party.

Lists

Lists are so important for this kind of planning! Besides the guest list, you’ll want a grocery list to make sure you have all the necessary food ingredients; a list of any additional place settings and flatware you may need if you’re inviting a larger group than you usually host; a list of any décor you’ll want to acquire before the day, like fresh flowers; and a list breaking down the things you want to do to get ready for your party, broken out by time so you’ll know what to do the day before and when to do everything else the day of.

Themes

You don’t need a theme for your dinner party, but it can add a little something and give your guests an idea of what to expect when they arrive. Since it’s going to be breakfast foods, we recommend themes related to breakfast like Team Pancakes vs Team Waffles (you can even sort people into teams and play party games to decide the winner!), Retro Saturday Morning Cartoons (find some childhood classics to stream for nostalgia), or Pretend Snow Day (decorate the house with winter-themed decorations, remember what snow days were like as a kid and talk about how great it was when the world stopped because there was too much snow to go to school).

Menu Ideas

Consider The Humble Casserole

Anything you can cook in one baking dish is going to save you time compared to cooking anything that has to be prepared individually. Think about a hashbrown, bacon, egg and cheese casserole; a French toast and bacon casserole; or a more traditional offering like bread pudding to finish a savory meal with something sweet.

Plan Ahead and Cook in Batches

Anything that can be made a day ahead, or cooked in the morning and reheated before dinnertime, is going to save you time and stress once the party starts. Casseroles can be assembled the day before and cooked the day of, the same is true with waffle or pancake batter. Doing other prep ahead of time, like chopping ingredients and storing them in the fridge until they’re needed, is another way to save time.

Breakfast Bars

If you don’t feel like cooking at all, simply open a package of breakfast bars to serve to your guests. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. *checks notes* Okay, we got that wrong: We’re talking about a pancake bar, or waffle bar, or French toast bar, where guests can add their preferred toppings from a buffet-style table of dozens of options as fresh pancakes or waffles come out of the kitchen and onto their plates. This can also work for breakfast-themed drinks like Bloody Marys and sparkling wine mixed drinks like mimosas and Bellinis. While you might be tempted to set up more than one of these self-serve stations, we recommend limiting it to one course (like drinks or mains) unless your whole party is a buffet.

Variety In All Things

Any time you bring condiments to the table, consider bringing a really, really ridiculously excessive amount of the important ones. If you’re serving waffles or pancakes, think about finding a half dozen different flavor syrups to choose from. If you’re serving eggs, remember to get all of the hot sauces out of the fridge. If you have a friend that knows a guy who can get all the best homemade jams and jellies, make sure that friend is invited to the party and ask them to help you source the best ones.

Remember to Eat Your Veggies

Breakfast for dinner is still dinner, and dinner means a mad scramble to add some vegetables into your diet before the day is over. Serve something bright and green like green beans or asparagus with olive oil and lemon, or make a tossed green salad with a simple vinaigrette dressing. Does salad go with eggs? There was a whole song written about it, so we can only assume it works. If an entire dish made of vegetables doesn’t fit into the spirit of the breakfast for dinner party you’re trying to manifest, you can always add vegetables to other dishes, like omelets or casseroles, or serve vegetable juice or veggies blended up into fruit smoothies—we promise spinach or kale in a smoothie still counts as a vegetable for vegetable-counting purposes!

Kate’s Kitchen wants to help you throw a breakfast for dinner party to remember. Take a look at our breakfast menu for meal inspiration—or spend less time cooking and more time enjoying the party by ordering some (or all) of your party food from Kate’s! (We close at 2pm, but any of our tasty meals or desserts can be kept fresh in the fridge and reheated to eat later.) Serve breakfast at your next dinner party and you’ll wonder why you didn’t try this sooner!

Take a look at our breakfast menu!

Give us a call if you would like to place a to-go order!

Kate’s Kitchen… (816) 436-7200

Ronnie’s Restaurant… (913) 831-8600