In one of our childhood homes (Carrie’s), we called it a name borrowed from Shakey‘s famous Supreme Pizza: “Once Around the Kitchen.” It was generally a meal made by finishing jars of pickles and olives, a hunk of cheese, the ends of boxes of crackers, a tin of smoked oysters and whatever else was in the corners of cupboards.
In the other childhood home, where it was just a single working mom and Laura, we would abandon our meal plans once in a while (if we even had any) and head to the Baskin Robbins for a sundae dinner.
It took influencers in the 2020s to give it a name that stuck. Suddenly, every restaurant worth its salt was catering to women looking for a bargain glass of bubbly — or the perfect dirty martini — alongside a charcuterie board or a shared order of fries and a perfectly dressed Caesar salad.
What every Girl Dinner has in common is a combination of ingredients that, in reality, shouldn’t constitute a full meal but that scratches every itch. It’s the solution for whatever your body is craving when you’re home alone or out with a girlfriend — or three.
When you’re eating alone, girl dinner is meant to be easy. Just dump things on a plate and enjoy. Though you might not even need the plate. When you’re doing it with a friend — or friends — it’s perfect because no one has to decide on the one thing they want to eat; it’s made for sharing small bites of true decadence and an excuse to be out with the girls.
And in case you’ve been molding in the back of the cheese drawer, there are two official kinds of Girl Dinner:
- Out: Caesar Salad, French fries and a martini (dirty or espresso), a glass of Champagne or — in a pinch — a glass of prosecco.
- In: Charcuterie — and by charcuterie we mean whatever you have around that looks good — and a bottle of wine (or cocktail that’s been on your list).
Now that we’ve established the rules (of which, let’s be real, there aren’t any), here are a few of our favorite ways to Girl Dinner. Remember, it’s all about the vibe, the people you’re sharing it with, or that rare night when you — the person who carries the load of meal planning — finally gets a night off. Any dinner can be Girl Dinner if you have the right attitude.
Go Out to The Warehouse
When we were brainstorming ideas for this column, we met for happy hour at one of our favorites: The Warehouse. A couple glasses of prosecco, a shared Caesar salad and an order of their fries and Chips with Truffle Onion Dip — or maybe they were truffle chips with onion dip? which sadly came off the menu shortly after, but do seem to rotate back from time to time. But with that, Girl Dinner was added to the schedule.
Their happy hour is 4-6 p.m., Tuesday-Friday, and they have awesome prices on select appetizers and dips, half off wine by the glass, as well as cocktail and beer specials.
Go to Golden Hour
This place understands, and they have added Girl Dinner to their menu. It’s only available on Saturdays and Sundays, but we will forgive them for not realizing a Tuesday Girl Dinner might taste even better than a weekend GD.
For $28 you get a Little Gem Wedge (add protein for $9), choice of Dirty Martini or Espresso Martini, and an order of fries.
Find Your Own
The good news is that if you subscribe to the salad-and-fries definition of a Girl Dinner, it’s not hard to find a place to satisfy that urge. And it’s easy to find a good happy hour or a local haunt with shareable items to write your own Girl Dinner story.
DIY at Home
Even though home Girl Dinner can be super casual, Laura has been known to throw out an invitation for a porch drink that’s accompanied by the most glorious charcuterie spread. She builds a board of impossibly perfect meat roses, cheeses that all belong together (often scored from traveling or a seasonal gem at Trader Joe’s), just the right mix of crackers, and little supporting characters like cornichons, Marcona almonds, honey or fig jam that make each bite intentional. Some people discovered Girl Dinner on TikTok. Laura’s been living it since before it had a hashtag.
We mentioned in our last column about besties that we share a lot via Instagram. As we send Reels back and forth, this becomes DIY Plan 2.0 and we save some to “Foodz we should eat, drinks we should drank,” which is our Girl Dinner bucket list. Dirty martini dip? Burrata? Baked brie? Fancy cocktails using Empress Gin (which became a favorite of ours when we were at home bartending during the pandemic)? They’re all saved and ready to be called to the lineup.
But if there’s one rule of Girl Dinner — OK, we’re also using Girl Math here since we did say there were no rules — it’s that someone always finds a better cheese, a better dip, or a better martini, so we’d love to hear yours.
Share your favorite Girl Dinner spots, recipes, pics or must-try combinations at our Springsmag Instagram or Facebook. We’re always looking for another excuse to buy fancy cheese.
