Everything You Need for Eating Outside This Summer

Peak Picnic

Tinned Fish and Canned Wine That Easily Upgrade an Outdoor Meal

Clockwise from left: Oona Wine Barbera Rosé, $68 for eight cans, oonawine.com; Gohar World anchovies and sardines, $38 each, gohar.world; Gohar World extra virgin olive oil, $45, gohar.world; Gohar World olive oil dark chocolate, $22, gohar.world.Credit…Clockwise from top left: courtesy of the brand; Rhea Karam (4)

The principles of summer entertaining are refreshingly simple: Elevate the ingredients, dial down the fuss. After all, it’s a season centered around farmers’ market jewels that barely need polishing and weather that encourages languid gatherings. Lately, that sense of ease arrives in the form of chef-approved staples already dressed for the table. EAT Gohar, a new pantry suite from the home goods brand Gohar World, reads like an age-old shopping list: olive oil and tinned fish, chocolate and tea. “We partnered with the best small food producers we know, from Korea to Lebanon,” says the company’s co-founder, artist Laila Gohar. “It feels like a never-ending dinner party from around the world.” Cantabrian anchovies and Atlantic sardines with preserved lemon, sustainably sourced in collaboration with the tinned-fish brand Fishwife, come in giftable striped boxes. (Bring along a baguette in Gohar’s beribboned carrier.) And for “endless pitchers of iced tea,” Gohar and her sister Nadia offer a peppermint rose hip blend alongside citrus-spiked black tea by way of Seoul. Equally quenching is the elegant canned wine from Oona, a new label that counts chefs among its founding partners. Each release is presented with a meal’s worth of recipes, such as Natasha Pickowicz’s Eton mess, starring strawberries macerated in a barbera rosé from California’s central coast. Later this month, Oona will launch a skin-contact pinot gris for orange-wine heads. “I just went kayaking and we brought a case,” says Alexis DeBoschnek, another Oona founding partner and author of the cookbook “To the Last Bite,” noting the can’s versatility: suitable for a picnic, a rooftop or cracked open for a houseguest fresh off the ferry.

Light Work

Cordless Lamps for Illuminated Deck Dining

Artful lighting makes for a mood, and portable tabletop lamps can be especially useful for hosting indoor-outdoor gatherings on long summer days. “The best dinner parties are the ones that move from space to space as the night moves on,” says Helen Rice, who runs the antique and contemporary design shop Ponytail out of her home in Charleston, S.C. An avid collector, Rice stocks lighting by just one brand, the Barcelona company Santa & Cole. Her personal favorite is the Sylvestrina, a rechargeable, dimmable LED lamp that appears like a candle, with a glass tube neck and a ceramic base that lends a warm photo-friendly glow. Other centerpiece-worthy options include the Gry table lamp by Ferm Living. Named for the Danish word for “dawn,” it features a touch dimmer and a tall domed glass fiber lampshade that softly diffuses textured light. For a more industrial outdoor aesthetic, the touch-activated Rod lamp by Diesel Living pairs an opaque aluminum base and shade with a steel neck resembling rebar.

Clean Fun

Cloth Napkins That Bring Personality to the Table

From sweet juicy fruits to buttery corn on the cob and fat oysters heaped on a platter, many of summer’s classic foods are hand-held, making napkins an important consideration. Lilli Elias, the Amsterdam-based creator of Autumn Sonata, who produces her line in Portugal, is inspired by archival fabrics in antique markets in the Netherlands and patterns from dusty bookshops in upstate New York. For one set she launched in the spring of this year, Elias used a paisley motif she found in a German anthology of prints from the Middle Ages. Andrea Hill, the New York-based founder behind Tortuga Forma, launched a line of bright patterned napkins in June. In jewel tones that camouflage stains and a cotton material that doesn’t require ironing, they’re intended for everyday use. When Shay Carrillo started her Portland-based housewares brand Madre, her goal was to combine visual appeal with function. She’d struggled to find a napkin for her children’s lunchboxes that was “simple and beautiful and not covered with obnoxious kid characters,” Carrillo says, “so I made my own.” On July 22, she’ll release her second collection of linens with a rolled red hem finish in shades including papaya, wasabi and dulce de leche.