For 30-year-old actress and comedian Livia Scott, potluck dinners bring back fond memories of growing up in the Pacific Northwest.
“I’m a big ‘potluckian,’ ” says the Portland, Ore., native, who hosts dinners in her Sunnyside, Queens, studio about once a month. “It was something that my mom and her friends did and my grandma did . . . it was really popular, sort of a neighborhood thing.”
She’s far from the only New Yorker making the once-uncool gatherings hip again. Eric Waldman, a 29-year-old lawyer, started hosting and attending potlucks in January with a group of 20 to 25 friends he doesn’t get to see often. “I have a lot of friends who live in Hoboken and northern New Jersey,” says Waldman, “and I thought this was a good way to see them once a month.”
The dinners started out centered on different cuisines — Greek, Thai and Italian — but, like so many things in New York, they’ve now become a competition.
The partygoer who cooks the best dish chooses the ingredient that attendees must use the next time they meet. Last time, beer was the key ingredient, and Waldman’s girlfriend won for her chocolate stout cake.
Welcome to the potluck resurgence, in which young New Yorkers — tired of elbowing their way into crowded restaurants — are cooking up at-home feasts where each friend shares a dish and a spot on the couch.
“It’s kind of like having Thanksgiving every month,” Waldman says.
Lauren Benner, a 31-year-old fashion designer, started monthly “girls’ dinners” with a group of six to 12 friends about three years ago. Last weekend, she played hostess in her Williamsburg apartment.
“It’s an opportunity to get together once a month — sometimes it’s the only time we get to see each other,” says Benner, who prepared two pizzas for the occasion.
Colleen Goodhue, a 23-year-old freelance filmmaker, hosts potlucks in her Greenpoint apartment about once a month for 10 to 15 people. For her, potlucks are more social in nature than anything else — the tradition started in college, and she likes the way dinner parties allow friends to socialize in a casual setting rather than a loud restaurant.
“You have a larger time frame to eat together,” she says, “and you can move freely around the apartment.”
Last weekend, Goodhue hosted a “fall harvest”-themed dinner for her birthday. On the menu: an apple, walnut and spinach salad, quiche and vegan “crab” cakes with remoulade. Tommy Strauss, a college friend and regular attendee, brought a bread pudding.
“[Colleen and I] have always made meals together — definitely when we moved to New York, just because we all live so close by,” says Strauss. “But it’s still hard to see each other, so we wanted to have a night where we all cleared our schedules and forced ourselves to get together.”
For Kara Rota, who started hosting dinners over the summer in her grandparents’ Upper East Side apartment, potlucks are about expressing her personality through cooking.
“What you eat is an expression of who you are,” says the 23-year-old magazine editor. “I like being able to introduce myself to people by saying, ‘I’m Kara, fall is my favorite season and I’m really into this pumpkin cake.’ ”
When Rota plays host, she says it’s about having a personal culinary experience that you just can’t get at a restaurant.
“When you go out to eat, your food appears in front of you, and then it’s gone,” she says. “When you make a meal, you can go shopping together and do all the prep work — it’s more of a creative enterprise, and the experience lasts longer.”
This fall, Rota has made her pumpkin cake for five different parties. More than anything, though, she enjoys preparing new dishes.
“It’s kind of exciting to know that you might fail and it might turn out terribly. You can always do it again!” she says.
Although potlucks can allow for more menu options than restaurants and can also be cheaper, the costs can add up if you’re the one hosting. “You tend to buy extra things, like more beverages, so it’s more expensive,” says Waldman, who estimates he spends $50 on food and $75 to $100 on drinks, plates and utensils when hosting.
“And a lot of these cuisines are exotic — you have to go out and buy things like vanilla extract, which is expensive for a big bottle.”
That said, you can’t put a price on a cozy night in with friends — and not having to shout over the din of a restaurant or bar.
“I’m not interested in screaming so that people can hear me,” says Scott. “Every now and then I’ll go and do something like that [with friends] — but we’re hunting for guys.”
camoroso@nypost.com
POTLUCK POINTERS:
Organization is key: “I ask people to e-mail me with what they’re bringing, and I fill out the rest of it. If it seems like there’s a lot of meat, I’m definitely going to make a big salad,” says Livia Scott.
Make sure you’re stocked with supplies: “We were scrambling [for utensils] last time, but since then we made a trip to Ikea and have more dishes now!” Colleen Goodhue says.
Cost-saving tips for hosts: “Hosting a dinner party is pretty expensive, but there’s a whole lot you can do with pasta and beans. Being on a budget forces you to think in interesting ways. Go to farmers markets and buy what’s in season when possible,” says Kara Rota. And make something in bulk that can serve a lot of people: Rota recommends chilies and soups.