I actually had no idea what to call this post but the idea came to me when I realised how many good nights my other half and I have shared over the simplest of meals. Of course, we love to explore new restaurants and moving to Shrewsbury has meant we have a whole bunch of new establishments to check out. But I’m not talking about those kinds of ‘date nights’. I’m not even talking about the kind where we go through all our saved recipes, choose the ingredients, go shopping and come back to make a meal together – although those are lovely too.

I’m talking about the super quick and easy ones. The nights where you both look at each other and realise neither of you have the energy to cook nor the energy to get dolled up to go out to a proper restaurant (that’s normally me then). These are the nights you bung a pizza in the oven or call on your favourite takeaway. You pop open a couple of cold beers, relax knowing there’s no hard work ahead and just simply enjoy each others’ company.

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So I thought it might be nice to show you can dress up even the simplest of meals – in this case, it’s pizza and beer but really it can be just about anything – and create something just a tiny bit special without a huge amount of effort.

Keep It Simple

So the first thing I did in terms of the table setting was to keep things simple by working to a really simple colour palette. Shades of pink, black and gold were the easiest for me because, well, that’s what I have in my cupboards. The black plates I’ve had for a while (they are from H&M) and manage to make even a slice of pizza and a handful of crisps (potato chips for my US readers!) look a little sexier.

I didn’t purchase anything special for this table so use what you already have and consider mixing and matching to make things a little more interesting. A gold milk jug is perfectly acceptable to use instead of sticking the bottle of salad dressing on the table and a fancy champagne bucket can hold beer! It’s all about elevating the mundane to make it feel special.

The only thing I recently purchased were those lovely leaf-patterned paper napkins from Sainsbury’s believe it or not – the same place I ended up picking up all the food. See? Easy! (And no, this is not sponsored, it just happened to be where we did our food shop that week!).

Upgrade Your Glassware

I personally don’t care to drink beer from a pint glass so we have these really lovely half-pint stemmed beer glasses that just feel a bit classier. I bought these ones from eBay (these are similar) and we use them all the time. I decided to use my gorgeous pink and gold coasters for the table too to add a touch of glam.

Quick & Easy Salad

I decided the least I could do was throw together a salad which required only a tiny bit of effort – I love the peppery taste of rocket (aka Arugula) with a pizza and it does seem to balance out the heaviness of doughy greasy pizza. So in a couple of pretty peach bowls (from Anthropologie), I threw in rocket, sliced black olives, sliced cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, a mix of sprouts and croutons and just topped it with some simple balsamic and olive oil. It took like 2 minutes. Easy.

Serving Style

I also filled a cute marble bowl with some ‘fancy’ crisps – Kettle are one of my favourites – and filled a nice ice bucket (this one is similar) with a few beers and some ice to keep it all cold! My pizza was just served on a large wooden chopping board so it just went from the oven onto that and then straight on the table! Some pesto & mozzarella swirls were also picked up with the Salami, Prosciutto & Chorizo Pizza in the fridge section of the supermarket.

Don’t Forget the Candles

To finish off the table and add a little bit of “romance”, I used a few small bowls I had around the house and used a simple tealight in each. I actually initially had long taper candles on the table and realise they would just get knocked over as were grabbing a beer or another handful of crisps and so practicality definitely won out. This whole set up is really all about pretty but practical!

And that was it! My pizza and beer date night table setting was complete so we could turn off our phones, turn up the music and just relax. Sometimes simple but pretty really is best! Do you do simple date nights with your other half? Let me know in the comments!

 

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I linked to what I have myself or similar so you can do a Pizza & Beer night Swoon Worthy style! ;)