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AT A SUSAN MACTAVISH BEST party, you might find yourself squeezed in the hallway next to a venture capitalist, or a trombone player, or a neuroscientist, deep in an unexpected conversation. Or maybe you’re in the dining room, helping yourself to a vast spread of food—beef tenderloin, smoked trout, roasted pork, tapenade. Or in the living room, sprawled on a sheepskin, listening to a musical performance or a talk on genetics or the history of Scotch whisky. You leave with business cards and phone numbers and new ideas, merrier than when you arrived.
At least twice a month, here at her San Francisco townhouse and at her loft in New York, Best hosts 50 to 125 people—all with, she says, “a minimum of fuss.” As founder of a lifestyle…
