do it yourself

a courtyard

Everybody who lives above you is already invited, whether you ask them or not.

A courtyard is the easiest place to gather and the hardest to be forgiven in. The acoustics are perfect, the tap is right there, and every window above belongs to somebody who did not agree to your evening. So go up the stairwell first — not for permission, for their pots. Lend somebody a part in it and you have a host rather than a complaint.

Somewhere else, on a day like the one you are planning. About 35 people stayed and ate.

what it takes

a note in the stairwell a week before: date, hour, your first name, what you are cooking
the tap, and a hose long enough to reach the pot
one table down the middle, not against a wall
pots you have borrowed rather than pots you own
something for children to do, because in a courtyard there will be children
lights on a string, and everything finished by eleven

Borrowed beats bought, every time, and nothing on this list has to match anything else on it. Half of it is not cooking equipment: the chalk, the game, the one light and the spare seat are what turn a place into an evening.

what to do

Put the note up a week before, with a first name on it. A note with a name is an invitation; a note without one is a notice.
Knock on the two doors nearest the courtyard. They hear the chairs before anybody else does.
Ask for a pot, not for permission. Lending you something makes a person part of it, and they come down to watch it used.
Cook something slow. The smell reaches the fourth floor long before the food does, and it is the invitation nobody has to read.
Put the table down the middle. Against the wall it is a buffet; down the middle it is a dinner.
Lay two more places than you have people, visibly. An empty place with a bowl at it is easier to take than an offer.
Feed the children first. The parents follow them down.
Ask for the recipes, and cook one of them next time. That is the difference between an event and a neighbourhood.
Wash up at the tap, finish before eleven, and leave the courtyard cleaner and wetter than you found it.

and then

Send us a photograph of the people, not of the food. That is the whole ask — no forms, no affiliation, nothing to join. If you want a hand first, the handbook is the long version of this, and asking us costs nothing.

This page is meant to be passed on. Its address is www.promenoodology.com/do-it-yourself/a-courtyard.