Trendy spot for a gift certificate

A coworker asked me for a recommendation. She needs to give a gift certificate - $150 - and wants to choose a trendy, happening, restaurant. Since I have two young children (and have never really been hip or trendy before that anyways), I'm not sure what to recommend. She does not necessarily intend for the $150 to cover the entire cost of a dinner for two. In the past she gave them a gc to Girl and the Goat and to Carnivale, for frame of reference.


TIA

Marmish wrote:A coworker asked me for a recommendation. She needs to give a gift certificate - $150 - and wants to choose a trendy, happening, restaurant. Since I have two young children (and have never really been hip or trendy before that anyways), I'm not sure what to recommend. She does not necessarily intend for the $150 to cover the entire cost of a dinner for two. In the past she gave them a gc to Girl and the Goat and to Carnivale, for frame of reference.


TIA

Intro, the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant, might be a good choice. It has the added benefit of being part of the Lettuce Entertain You empire and you get an extra $25 card for every $100 spent, so the $150 gift can be $175 (although the extra $25 has some restrictions on use).

Hogsalt gift cards are accepted at the following locations:
Au Cheval, Bavette's, Gilt Bar, Green Street Smoked Meats, High Five Ramen, Maude's and Small Cheval.

http://hogsalt.securetree.com/Products/Gift-Cards/

Parachute

The nice thing about a gift certificate for Lettuce Entertain You (and, to a lesser extent, Hogsalt) is that it's good at any of their dozens of restaurants, which cover a vast array of price points and cuisines and are generally excellent at what they do. That means that the recipient can choose whether to spend it all at a high-end place, or go multiple times to more moderately priced places, and also what type of food is most appealing. Also, if they don't spend the entire balance at one place, there are plenty of options for using the remaining balance.

The problem with getting a gift certificate good at only one restaurant is, maybe it's not a place they want to go, plus any unused balance means they have to go back there to use it.

Shasson wrote:Hogsalt gift cards are accepted at the following locations:
Au Cheval, Bavette's, Gilt Bar, Green Street Smoked Meats, High Five Ramen, Maude's and Small Cheval.

http://hogsalt.securetree.com/Products/Gift-Cards/

That's a great idea...another option would be the Bristol or Boka group card. I wouldn't consider a Lettuce gift card trendy.

milz50 wrote:

Shasson wrote:Hogsalt gift cards are accepted at the following locations:
Au Cheval, Bavette's, Gilt Bar, Green Street Smoked Meats, High Five Ramen, Maude's and Small Cheval.

http://hogsalt.securetree.com/Products/Gift-Cards/

That's a great idea...another option would be the Bristol or Boka group card. I wouldn't consider a Lettuce gift card trendy.

I agree. But Lettuce includes Hub 51, Intro, Paris, RPM Steak and RPM Italian, Ramen-San, Summer House Santa Monica, and Three Dots and a Dash and I think a lot of folks consider some of those spots trendy.

At first Lettuce seems like a staid choice but when you look at the variety of places the recipient could go I think it is a lovely gift.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I will pass them on to her.

Have you considered Brindille?

Another possibility, for the ultimate in flexibility, is an American Express prepaid gift card, which you can buy from their website. It's accepted anywhere they accept the AmEx credit cards. You can give it with a suggestion of place(s) to use it, then leave it up to their discretion whether to go there or elsewhere.

nsxtasy wrote:Another possibility, for the ultimate in flexibility, is an American Express prepaid gift card, which you can buy from their website. It's accepted anywhere they accept the AmEx credit cards. You can give it with a suggestion of place(s) to use it, then leave it up to their discretion whether to go there or elsewhere.

Well shit, you might as well just give them a $100 bill and tell them to google "trendy restaurants".

I understand that you feel that an important aspect of a gift is its liquidity, but I find the AMEX suggestion unhelpful and/or unnecessary to people posting on the site for specific suggestions. Many (perhaps most) people like to give and perhaps receive a personalized gift.

milz50 wrote:I understand that you feel that an important aspect of a gift is its liquidity

NOT liquidity. FLEXIBILITY, so that the recipient can choose from numerous restaurants, rather than being forced to go to a restaurant they might not like (perhaps more than once, if there is a leftover balance).

milz50 wrote:I find the AMEX suggestion unhelpful and/or unnecessary to people posting on the site for specific suggestions.

There's no need to deride a HELPFUL, CONSTRUCTIVE suggestion as anything otherwise. Maybe you might not want to give that, but maybe the OP might want to consider it. The OP will undoubtedly read all suggestions provided and decide on the best, most appropriate choice for his/her needs, so more suggestions is a good thing, regardless of whether or not you agree with any of them. (And I notice you didn't bash the previous equally-flexible suggestions of LEY or Hogsalt, so this unprovoked and needlessly snarky reply seems to me like evidence of a personal grudge, especially since it is not the first time you have directed such a reply my way.)

milz50 wrote:Many (perhaps most) people like to give and perhaps receive a personalized gift.

If a personalized gift is desired, there are lots of ways you can go, many of which have nothing to do with food. When purchasing a restaurant meal for someone, though, it's only really going to be "personalized" if the giver already knows about favorite restaurant(s) of the recipient, in which case he/she wouldn't be asking friends for suggestions as indicated here.

nsxtasy wrote:Another possibility, for the ultimate in flexibility, is an American Express prepaid gift card, which you can buy from their website. It's accepted anywhere they accept the AmEx credit cards. You can give it with a suggestion of place(s) to use it, then leave it up to their discretion whether to go there or elsewhere.

At that point, you may as well just give them cash and a list of places to try.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

nsxtasy wrote:Another possibility, for the ultimate in flexibility, is an American Express prepaid gift card, which you can buy from their website. It's accepted anywhere they accept the AmEx credit cards. You can give it with a suggestion of place(s) to use it, then leave it up to their discretion whether to go there or elsewhere.

At that point, you may as well just give them cash and a list of places to try.

=R=

And now you have reminded me of a Seinfeld episode! http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ ... y.mp4/view