Restaurant for a large group of wildly different people

Hello everyone,

I'm about ready to start tearing my hair out, and I hope you wonderful people can help me.

A coworker will soon be leaving to get married and move back to New Jersey with his fiancee. We would like to have a nice going-away lunch for them as a joint wedding/going away present.

The problems:

1. Guests of honor are vegetarian, but nobody else is.
2. Our place of employment is on the Southwest side and most employees live nearby. However, guests of honor do not.
3. Several people find travelling beyond their southwest side neighborhood to be a horrible inconvenience and will complain endlessly if asked to travel too far.
4. One employee is the pickiest eater I have ever encountered. (This is less of a concern for me than the other problems.
5. We work at a public library, and consequently, don't make much money.

So, I need a vegetarian friendly place within easy distance of I-55 that will cost around $20/person and can host around 20 people on a Sunday afternoon.

Any suggestions?? Please help.

I thought of Steve's Shish Kabob House, thinking that Middle Eastern, like Greek or Chinese, is always good for mixed company, only to discover that Antonious has already done the definitive write-up of vegetarian dining at Steve's.

Which just proves what a good thought it was. It's small, but I bet they'd be delighted to host your group.


Steve's Shish-Kabab
3816 West 63rd Street
Chicago, IL
773-581-8920

The vibe might not be right, but I think Steve's Shish Kabob on 63rd could be a good choice. It's a couple miles from 55. Very good food, vegetarian friendly, and inexpensive.

Many others have written about it, but Antonius had a great post about it a while back.

Steve's Shish Kabob
3816 W 63rd St
Chicago, IL 60629
773-581-8920

edit: And I'm narrowly beaten out by my mom. Damn.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to check this place out. It's actually rather close to our library.

Now, does anybody have any ideas for a place that is closer to downtown? A few of us make the commute out that way everyday for work, and I think I will get a bit of perverse pleasure out of making these people leave their damn neighborhood for once.

My first thought was also Steve's Shish Kabob.

My second thought was that you could see if any of the Italian restaurants on Oakley south of Cermak would fit your budget (Bruna's, Ignotz...)

Good luck!

p.s. just saw merkay's second post -- Oakley would definitely be closer to downtown...

Well, sure, closer to downtown there's anything in Greektown (a place with a private room might be best, which includes most places in the area), Chinatown, and Pilsen or Little Village.

Lots of posts for all those regions elsewhere here, so I'd recommend doing a few quick searches..