Max and Fred Guerrero, the patty-slanging brothers who reign the throne at Burgerlords in Los Angeles, set up the perfect alley-oop with DJ and food enthusiast ThemJeans and Basic Space Experiences to host a private dinner party at their Highland Park Location.

Feel the FOMO as you peruse photos from the event and glean some lessons on how to host the perfect party of your own.

THEMJEANS: I’ve thrown hundreds of dinner parties, BBQs and hangover brunches over the years. Below are some of my quick tips on how to make them actually work out for everyone, while remembering that you, yourself, should also be having fun 🙂

1. Don’t forget the “party” part of “dinner party.” Since I care so much about food, I often forget about all the other parts of what makes dinner parties successful. I believe the food gods can tell when you’re stressed out or upset when cooking, and those vibes will absolutely transfer onto the plate, so do whatever you need to do to snap out of it — 5-10mg of THC should do the trick.

2. Clear your mind and check off as many to-do-list items as possible before your guests show up. Buy all your groceries, utensils, (don’t forget the ice!) and everything else you need the day before.

3. When you inevitably forget the ice, make sure you delegate that bodega pickup to the person who deserves to be invited to your house the least.

4. Task your rich friend with purchasing the wines because they’re always looking for a subtle flex opportunity, don’t forget to overly compliment their selections.

5. Drink the good stuff first so you’re already buzzed when it’s time to drink the dusty bottle of Yellowtail, and chill your reds a bit if it’s hot out.

6. Now that everyone is here, put them all to work. We’ll need Spotify playlists pumping on the Sonos, gossiping about your friends who aren’t there, passing around phones to show videos of people eating Hot Cheetos for money. You can even get people to do the dishes for you if you play your cards right.

7. Try preparing almost everything ahead of time, and focus on impressive dishes that need extra time to cook as your main course.

8. Rule number one from Martha Stewart to Ina Garten is never cook something for the first time at a dinner party. Even if you successfully pull it off, you’ll still find something about it that bugs you.

9. Timing timing timing: The most difficult part of preparing a group dinner is having everything ready and plated all at the same time. Start with the dishes that take the longest, and end with salads, raw items, and things with immediate expiration dates like oysters or crudo need to be prepared last. I love a big pork shoulder, stew or lasagna for dinner parties because they can be made the day before and reheated and they end up tasting even better the next day.

10. Invest in some deli-cup style containers and have all your ingredients chopped and ready, checklist up on the fridge and plenty of parsley, dill and other herbs ready to be sprinkled on top of everything to make your friends think you know what you’re doing.

11. Chips and other snackables are super easy and delicious, but they’re lazy and bad for you. Switch them out with fancily cut veggies and healthy dips so guests can stress eat in the beginning without feeling the guilt of taking down 950 calories worth of Fritos Honey BBQ Flavor Twists.

12. Dessert should be something interactive. Guests can scoop their own cashew-based ice creams, slice their own stone fruit galette portions or just park a bowl of frozen grapes in the middle of the table on a hot day.

13. When a lull in conversation arises, tequila shots for everyone.

14. When it’s time for everyone to leave your house so you can watch Succession in silence, start stacking up plates and washing dishes. If you have nice friends they’ll begin offering help with the clean up. Turn down their advances a total of three times, and then pretend to give in and let them all clean your house while you crop your food pics for instagram stories.

15. Lastly, don’t feed your dog anything because all your friends will take care of that for you.

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