Vibe with these laugh-out-loud and heartful essays about falling in love with the messiness of life and with yourself from a chef and community organizer who’s going through it too
“Well, so, I’m gay.” Chef, writer, and community organizer Garrett Schlichte suspected his mom probably already knew this, but this canon event—coming out!—was still a really big deal. He grew up in the south, in bedroom decorated purple and silver, spending most of his time in his mom’s hair salon—he almost had to be gay. And still, it was almost too hard to say. As a chronic people pleaser and two-time Homecoming King (almost), Garrett worried that this announcement would change his relationship with his parents forever—and he found that it did, but not in the ways he feared.
In Dinner Party Stories, Garrett shares the stories that have helped him find connection with friends, lovers, and with himself. From coming out in his sister’s bedroom to stumbling onto reality TV and opening a restaurant in the woods of Northen California, he doesn’t hold back when it comes to finding the beauty in the messiness of life.
Armed with humor, rose colored glasses, and a dirty martini, Garrett takes readers on a journey of self-discovery, breakups on public transit, experimentation, and bisexual rock-climbing heartthrobs. Throughout it all, Garrett uses food to gather the people we love most and celebrate together. This book is for people who are unabashedly in love with everything that comes with being fully alive in a world that is trying to keep us quiet.
“Food is one of the most primal ways to give and receive the experience of love, and Schlichte’s Dinner Party Stories takes it a little further—this is a table-for-one read, the sort of book you’d take to dinner by yourself, a book that’s like sitting down with a dishy friend. It’s also a loving portrait of the life lived around these meals—funny, tender, smart and wise.”
—Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
“Dinner Party Stories is so charming, poignant, and honest you could pair it with any wine. What a find. Schlichte manages heartbreak and triumph with humor and, above all, kindness. A whole meal in a book. What more could you want?”
—Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less
“Generous, vibrant, as fun as it is deeply touching, Dinner Party Stories is sure to be the talk of the town, perfect for book clubs or a long solo lunch. Nora Ephron meets Queer as Folk but with a special San Francisco flavor!”
—Brittany Newell, author of Soft Core
“Bold and refreshing, the essays in Dinner Party Stories shimmy off the page with charisma. With human connection as the centerpiece to this bountiful collection, Garrett Schlichte beckons us to the table with the urgency of good gossip—with love and humor, with heartfelt shit-talk—to reaffirm that all the risk and uncertainty it takes to find yourself, to surprise yourself with a life you actually want, might, just might, be (spoiler alert) worth it.”
—Hieu Minh Nguyen, author of Staying Still