My lovely better half hits the big one on April 2nd and I'm in the process of finding a restaurant for 20 people for a Saturday evening dinner. So far, Persimmon Restaurant in Bethesda, MD can accommodate us, but they don't allow corkage. In DC, Butterfield 9 can take us but their minimum f and b is more than I planned on spending. Equinox can take us and allows corkage. Kinkeads and Zola can't take us and I'm waiting to hear back from Palena, but I'm sure it'll be more than I want to spend. I'm racking my brain trying to find other restaurants, so here's an SOS to the DC Cru and others that know the DC restaurant scene, for your help. Any suggestions?

T-Rep

travelrep: I found Kinkeads to be over priced. I loved Palena, a great place, well worth the money, & all around nice restaurant.

Palena probably won't take you, T-Rep. Their kitchen is TINY. The biggest group they could probably handle would be an 8-top.

Have you thought about Tosca? Maybe that is too pricey.

You might try Cashion's Eat Place. I haven't been in about 18 months or so, but I've always enjoyed my meals there. Might be a bit loud though.

What about DC Coast?

Equinox is quite good, so that is certainly an option.

Zaytinya might be fun, what with all of the mezzes choices -- but that might get out of control with 20 people.

CAfe Atlantico is good too. But I am not sure if they'll let you BYOW.

Tosca, Taberna del Alabardero, New Heights, Marcel's (likely yoo pricey), Melrose are all places to consider. (I never went to the last two.)

a

I'd try David Greggory as well.

For all you DC Cruians who care, or those of you who don't, I decided to entertain and feed the family at Equinox in DC. We've never eaten there, but it's on our hit list, so I decided to give it a try. They can give us a table for 20 in the atrium area out front, I can choose either a 3, 4, or 6 course menu and bring in my own wine and pay a $20 corkage/btl. Will report back in early April as to how it all went.

T-Rep

T-Rep,

The very first DC Cru dinner (organized by our own TJ as VC Rocks Equinox) was at Equinox. They were very accomodating as we had about 25 folks and were doing blind tastings. You can read the obscenely long thread about that dinner here http://www.vinocellar.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=12535&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1

The only think I would caution is that the Atrium can be a little chilly on a cold night. But the restaurant served us a great meal, the service was great, and we all had a grand time.

P.S. Surely you have been married long enough to know better than to advertise that your better half is going to be 50. Though mine hits that milestone a week from today.

Equinox should make you happy, T-Rep. And the Atrium area isn't all THAT chilly. Just start drinking some wine right as soon as you get there.

Din:

Thanks for the tip off about the Equinox thread. I'll have to give it a quick read...as for advertising over the internet that my better half is hitting a milestone, luckily she doesn't read VC and won't see my posts....

T-Rep

Sounds like a great choice, T-rep. Look forward to the write-up!

Doc

I hope I made the right choice....last evening Mrs. T was telling me of two friends of hers that were supposed to eat at the new City Zen in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel a week or so ago but the reservation got screwed up. Where did the friends eat? Equinox of course. And the wife of the twosome said to Mrs. T that she didn't like Equinox. I couldn't spill the beans but it should be interesting when we all pull up to the restaurant and she sees where we're eating....I trust the DC Cru comments more than her friends....will do a write up.

T-Rep

Well, how was it?

Well, we had Mrs. T-Rep's 50th "Non Birthday Party" party this past Saturday. We ended up not having it in DC since none of the restaurants I contacted had a private room available. We ended up going to a restaurant in Falls Church, VA called 2941. We had their "Koi Room" and three tables set for 20 people. We started out with some Nicolas Feuillatte Grand Cru NV champagne. Then, we had a 4 course menu....the first course was a Radicchio and Baby Arugula salad with pine nuts, dried cranberries and smoked garlic balsamic vinaigrette. We paired this with course with a 2003 Karl Steininger Gruner Veltliner. The appetizer was a choice of Cured Smoked Duck with pear lemon preserves and Pink Peppercorn and Herb Crusted Local Goat Cheese with fennel and toasted almond dressing. We paired this course with a 2002 Dom Monchol Riesling Kabinettt Astor...a really nice pairing and the WOTN. The entree selections were either a Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with shaved fennel, grain mustard remoulade and lemon lime cream or Honey and Soy Glazed Chilean Sea Bass with shitake mushrooms, scallions and Asian black bean lobster sauce. We paired this course with a 2002 Macon-Solutre, Bertillonnes Premier Cru, Dom. R. Denogent. The dessert course was Caramel Flan with cinnamon anglaise and crispy almond cookies and a Chocolate Ganache Torte. We paired the desserts with a 2003 Bonny Doone Vineyard Muscat Vin Glaciere.

Two other things that the restaurant does for its diners...when you leave, they give you a baguette of the bread that they serve, which is made by the father of the owner/chef, Jonathan Krinn, and they serve a flavor of cotton candy after dessert. Both are made on site.

Two problems that came up during the night....the weather was horrible, raining like crazy. They have valet parking but they were waaaay understaffed on Saturday, so that part of the evening was chaotic. The other problem was that we had selected another chocolate dessert to be offered but for some reason they heard Strawberry Shortcake. I inadvertantly signed off on the event order without looking more closely at this, but they were able to work with us to come up with another chocolate alternative.

All in all, a very, very good choice. If they offered corkage, I'd be a happier person, since although the wines weren't the most expensive on the wine list, they also weren't the cheapest.

And, to boot, Mrs. T-Rep got her diamond earrings....

T-Rep

Nice writeup T-Rep. Coolio. Mrs. TJ has heard of this place and I'll let her know about your report.