How to Throw a Mad Men Style 60's Cocktail Party

Now this is the perfect how to throw a Mad Men style 60's cocktail party guide!
Season 6 of Mad Men starts April 7th, but you don't have to wait a whole two months to have that iconic 60's debonair and style in your life.
Here's a guide to adding some Don Draper to your next party at home.

Invite the Guests

Letting your guests know about your party shouldn't be a drab email or Facebook event. Bring the class of Mad Men to the invitations too, not just the party. For easy invitations, just add the Mad Men logo to your party details using as many terms from the 60's as possible, such as "shindig" and "it'll be a gas!". If you're feeling ambitious and are artistically inclined, made a 60's styled print ad like the Mad Men team would make for your party. This will take some Photoshop skills, but it'll really set the tone for the party to come.

Stock the Bar

Just like the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, the main ingredient to the night should be alcohol. Steer clear of beer for the evening as much as possible. This Mad Men Party should be a cocktails only event. Stock your bar with plenty of great bourbons, scotches, and vodkas. A good starting point is to get a bottle of each of these: Kettle One Vodka, Knob Creek Rye, Maker's Mark Bourbon, Glenfiddich Scotch Whiskey, and Beefeater Gin.
Besides liquor, you also need to make sure to have a dapper set of cocktail glasses. If you don't have anything up to snuff, here's a perfect Mad Men style cocktail glass or some other cocktail glassware for the night.
After the alcohol and glassware is in order, you need to gather a list of classic cocktail recipes that Don and the Mad Men crew would drink. Skip anything pink or any crazy cocktails like an orange mocha frappatini. Here are a few cocktail recipes to get you started:

Classic Manhattan Cocktail 
 (Printable Recipe)

Ingredients
1 3/4 ounces bourbon or rye
3/4 ounces sweet vermouth
2 dashes bitters
1 maraschino cherry
Instructions
Add whiskey, vermouth, bitters and ice to shaker and mix. Pour into a martini glass and garnish with a cherry.

Old Fashioned Cocktail 
 (Printable Recipe)
> Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces rye
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 ounce soda water
2 dashes bitters
1 cherry
1 thin orange slice
Instructions
Traditionally made with bourbon, Donald Draper famously likes his made with rye. Pour sugar, bitters and soda water into a cocktail glass. Add orange slice and cherry, mash with a muddler. Add ice and pour bourbon. Stir and serve.

Vodka Gimlet Cocktail
 (Printable Recipe)
> Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces vodka
3/4 ounce lime juice lime slices
Instructions 
Pour vodka and lime juice over ice into a cocktail shaker and shake. Pour and garnish with lime slices.

Tom Collins Cocktail
 (Printable Recipe)
> Ingredients
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar lemon slices
1 1/2 ounce of gin
1 ounce soda water
Instructions 
Mix gin, sugar and lemon juice in shaker. Pour and add soda water. Garnish with lemon slices.

Get Some 60's Snacks

The 60's were a dodgy time, to say the least, for home entertaining snacks and recipes. Cream cheese was a staple in hors d'ourves recipes, and the mixture of canned fruit and cheap cheese was unfortunately all to common. Here's a few recipes to get your guests to reminisce without grossing them out.

Cheese Fondue
 (Printable Recipe)
> Ingredients 
1/2 small garlic clove
1 cup white wine
3/4 lb Gruyere cheese
3/4 pound Appenzeller cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
Grated nutmeg
Carrots, celery, Italian bread cubes, broccoli, salami and/or chestnuts
Instructions 
1. Add wine and finely diced garlic to a low boil over medium high heat.
2. Mix shredded cheeses and cornstarch together in a large bowl, gradually adding mixture to the simmering wine. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Jello Mold 
(Printable Recipe)
> Ingredients 
1 bundt cake pan
1 package of orange jello
1 package of cherry jello
1 small jar of maraschino cherries
1 medium orange
Instructions
Mix orange and cherry jello in separate bowls. Pour orange jello mixture first into the bundt cake mold and add cherries to the layer. Refrigerate for 1 hour and add cherry jello mixture on top, garnishing this layer with thinly sliced orange slices. Refrigerate until firm.

Deviled Eggs 
 (Printable Recipe)
> Ingredients 
2 dozen hard boiled eggs
4 teaspoons divided pink peppercorns
2 teaspoons whole white peppercorns
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
2 teaspoons whole green peppercorns
1 cup mayonnaise
4 teaspoons mustard
2 teaspoons caper liquid
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Slice eggs in half and extract the yolks. Grind the white, black, and green peppercorns in a pepper grinder. Mix ground pepper, mustard, salt, and caper liquid with the egg yolks. Stir. Pour mixture into a large Ziploc bag and cut one of the bottom corners. Add mixture back to the egg whites and garnish with ground pink peppercorns. Chill and serve.

Stock Your Smokes

Besides the rampant alcoholism and over the top misogyny, another central aspect of Mad Men is smoking. Stock up on candy cigarettes for your guests to puff on throughout the night. Because you rarely see a room full of people chain smoking anymore, you'd be surprised just how much this will transport you and your guests back into the 60's. If any of your guests smoke, make sure to stock your porch or smoking room with plenty of lucky strike and other classic, non-filtered cigarettes. While I certainly do not condone smoking, this is a great touch for your smoker guests.

Create the Right Playlist

It isn't a Mad Men cocktail party without great tunes from the period. Again, when making a play list think WWDDD (what would Don Draper do?). You'll want to focus on classy 60's songs and skip over a lot of "Woodstock" music. A good starting point is Ella Fitzgerald, Sam Cooke, Chubby Checker, and the R2D2 Mad Men theme song.

Reminisce with Your Friends

If your guests are the right age, ask them to optionally bring their high school year book from the 60's. Lay them around the coffee table for people to flip through and gawk at each other's terrible high school pictures. This isn't strictly speaking "Mad Men" themed, but it's a great little activity to get people talking.

Guest Blogger Bio: Trevor Nelson specializes in creative, memorable home entertaining ideas and cocktail party planning. Professionally, Trevor works as the Homewetbar.com content writer, and focuses on helping others celebrate the time they share with friends.
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