Party people about to meet hosts offering drinks (11)
I believe the answer is:
republicans
'party people' is the definition.
(members of the Republican Party)
'about to meet hosts offering drinks' is the wordplay.
'about' becomes 're' (regarding).
'to meet' says to put letters next to each other.
'hosts offering drinks' becomes 'publicans' (owners of pubs).
're'+'publicans'='REPUBLICANS'
(Other definitions for republicans that I've seen before include "Those against the monarchy" , "US political group" .)