Need LTH Input for a Holiday Dinner/Party

I've been tasked to come up with some ideas for my division's holiday party this year. These folks are coming in from all over the country, and are pretty much leaving the plans to me. Talk about pressure!! There will be about 50 of us, and am open to any types of food. Everyone will be staying downtown so something somewhat close would be preferred - and prices just need to be reasonable..... not looing for Alinea here.

thanks!!

rmtraut

DISCLAIMER - I did a search on previous threads and am looking for some fresher ideas.

Lettuce Entertain You gets a bit of disdain around here (and perhaps are in your "not-fresh-enough" category) but if you're planning a party for an average group of folks, they do a very nice job. My company has used LEYE for holiday parties several times in years past (yes, people may have been tempted by the personal "frequent diner" points accrued for charging the event to their cards...) We've been to Ben Pao, Wildfire, Cafe Ba-ba-reeba, and Scoozi. Our numbers are usually in the range of your group, or a little bigger.

But seriously, I don't work with a lot of adventuresome diners. (Just to give you an idea, we had a few people upset last year that the menu was chinese as opposed to "regular food", so we're toeing a fine line.) LEYE's approach provides a fairly comfortable setting (several who "didn't like Chinese" came away satisfied). It's not the most haute or innovative, but the food has been legitimately good.

I'd have to second that. We've done a number of holiday dinners and I've never had a problem at an LEYE restaurant. Wildfire is decent and always pretty good. I might also suggest a Phil Stefani restaurant, like Tuscany or 437 Rush. I've always had good experiences at his restaurants, and you can look at the party menus on the website.

Wildfire
159 W Erie, Chicago, IL
312-787-9000

Tuscany
1040 W Taylor, Chicago, IL
312-829-1990

437 Rush
437 N Rush Street, Chicago, IL
312-222-0101

Don't wait too long ... many of the good places fill up fairly quickly.

Greek Islands?

I also heartily endorse LEYE places for parties. In terms of party planning they really are so trustworthy and reliable and when you're dealing with a holiday party and lots of different tastes -- it's a no brainer to use them. Plus most of the restaurants are tasty and dependable if not amazing cuisine.

I would also note contacting KDK -- Jerry Kleiner's group -- for any of their places. I've thrown parties at Carnivale, Marche and Gioco (Gioco has a fabulous room called the Speakeasy which gives you a very nice old Chicago feel -- it really was a speakeasy back in the day!) and they've been really well received and fun. Food might be a trifle more interesting at one of them over the LEYE places.

Quartino has a great party room upstairs -- although it did strike me as very loud and the Gage on Michigan Avenue has a great private bar downstairs that might be a wonderful spot for a party.

Good luck and do book soon -- Christmas gets booked by Halloween in this town.

Shannon

What you really want is a restaurant that can give your group a private room. Most restaurant websites have information about their private rooms (if they have them), including the range of sizes they can accommodate, usually under a link for "private parties", or "banquets", etc. And they usually have contact information there, a specific individual who is experienced in party planning and can walk you through all the options. So check out the websites for the above suggestions and any others you receive.

Just to demonstrate the info available for a few of the above suggestions as examples...

All Lettuce Entertain You restaurants

Greek Islands ("party rooms seat 35-120 persons")

Gioco ("Our 'Ballroom' can accommodate 35 to 70 people, while our more intimate 'Speakeasy' is perfect for a party of 14 to 36 people.")

etc.