MIKE RICCETTI
  • The best of Houston dining
    • Best Values
    • Breakfast
    • Chinese
    • Cocktails
    • Fajitas
    • Hamburgers
    • The Heights
    • Italian
    • Indian / Pakistani
    • Mexican
    • Middle Eastern
    • Pizzerias
    • Sandwiches
    • Splurge-Worthy
    • Steakhouses
    • Sushi
    • Tacos
    • Tex-Mex
    • To Take Visitors
  • Musings on Houston Dining
    • The best new restaurants to open in 2023
    • Houston's Italian restaurant history
    • Restaurants open for lunch (or brunch) on Saturday
    • Restaurants open for Sunday dinner
    • Restaurants open for lunch on Monday
    • Restaurants open for dinner on Monday
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2022
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2021
  • The margherita pizza project
  • The martini project
  • Italian restaurant history
  • Italian & Italian-American
  • Entertaining tips
    • Booze basics
    • Styles of Cheeses
    • Handling Those Disruptive Guests
  • Wine
  • Beer
  • Cocktails and Spirits
  • Miscellaneous
  • Blog
  • The best of Houston dining
    • Best Values
    • Breakfast
    • Chinese
    • Cocktails
    • Fajitas
    • Hamburgers
    • The Heights
    • Italian
    • Indian / Pakistani
    • Mexican
    • Middle Eastern
    • Pizzerias
    • Sandwiches
    • Splurge-Worthy
    • Steakhouses
    • Sushi
    • Tacos
    • Tex-Mex
    • To Take Visitors
  • Musings on Houston Dining
    • The best new restaurants to open in 2023
    • Houston's Italian restaurant history
    • Restaurants open for lunch (or brunch) on Saturday
    • Restaurants open for Sunday dinner
    • Restaurants open for lunch on Monday
    • Restaurants open for dinner on Monday
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2022
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2021
  • The margherita pizza project
  • The martini project
  • Italian restaurant history
  • Italian & Italian-American
  • Entertaining tips
    • Booze basics
    • Styles of Cheeses
    • Handling Those Disruptive Guests
  • Wine
  • Beer
  • Cocktails and Spirits
  • Miscellaneous
  • Blog
MIKE RICCETTI

Mostly food and drink...

...and mostly set in Houston

Handling those disruptive guests....the first in a somewhat thorough list

12/19/2016

0 Comments

 
This is the season for parties, and if you haven't witnessed, and even had to handle, some kind of obnoxious guest, you likely have in the future. As a host, the relatively small get-togethers are where you might need to employ some skills and authority to ensure that one or more disruptive guests do not greatly detract from your event, especially when the majority of attendees are unencumbered (and sobered) by familial duties.  With larger parties, these usually unintentionally annoying people can be avoided more successfully, or they are often intimidated into acceptable behavior by the greater numbers. 

Adapted from The Guide to Ridiculously Easy Entertaining that I co-wrote some time ago, I try to identify some of the types of potentially disruptive guests that have been seen over the years, somewhat humorously, and then recommend an action on your part to mitigate their deleterious effect on your party.  This is the first post, the first disruptive guest of a fair number.

These people might be friends, or friends of friends (or possibly you, but it’s your party), who exhibit this behavior on a regular basis in social situations, or it could be one-off conduct induced by too many party beverages.  It’s useful to note that a guest’s conduct can change over the course of the event, from enjoyable to humorous to annoying.  Worse yet, it might pass through several types of bothersome, boorish or disruptive conduct.  Some behavior is much worse than others, and should be remembered so that you might not invite these people to future events.

What to do with those disruptive guests? For each of these types of guests, once they become a detriment to the party, take them aside, mention their offending actions, and ask them to moderate their behavior. 

If there is an alternate suggestion, it is listed after “What else you might try” following the description.


Attention Whore – This person feels the need to be at or near the center of attention in their immediate circle for most of the event.  If the stories are interesting, it can be tolerated for a while.  But, invariably, the incessant stories and conversation turns insipid and becomes distracting then annoying, and detracts from the general enjoyment.  At the dinner table, when guests cannot flee, this becomes a problem.  

​What else you might try – As the host, at the dinner table, you should gently tell that guest that other people should lead the conversation.  If this person does not get the hint, change the topic of conversation each time this person begins talking.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Author

    Mike Riccetti is a longtime Houston-based food writer and former editor for Zagat, and not incidentally the author of three editions of Houston Dining on the Cheap.

    Picture

    Archives

    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All
    Beer
    Cocktails
    Italian
    Margherita Pizzas
    Recipes
    Restaurants
    Wine

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.