My birthday & I get to pick! Two nights!!
I will be the lucky recipient of two birthday dinner outings - my choice! Sweet...
The first night (a Friday) will be a group outing for 12-15 people. It should be Village/SoHo/LES, be reasonably priced with a lively atmosphere but obviously with killer food. One recc has been SUPPER, but I've never been. Any ideas?
Second night (Sat) my wife will be taking me out for a special dinner. Again my choice. Here are my finalists. What do you think?
Red Cat, Hearth, Blue Hill, Apizz, Cookshop. Babbo was my first choice but it's booked - shocker!
Thanks Chowhounds!
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Another option for the friday night is La Palapa Rockola in the West Village. Just did my wife's 30th there and it was great. I worked with Steven and he was very helpful. Let us tailor the menu exactly how we wanted. A ton of food, pretty good too, for around $32 a head (choice of taco, then salad, tamale, choice of entree and we brought in dessert). And we did pitchers of Margaritas and Sangria all night.
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For the first night you can try to do Peasant or I've done a group party at the Orchard (when it was BYOB- which obviously saves on the $$). I heard that you can reserve a big table downstairs at Blue Ribbon Bakery. Might be worth checking out.
For night two I would go with Blue Hill. My wife took me there for my birthday last year. I've been to all the other places and they all are great (obviously Babbo is the hands down winner), but Blue Hill is a more special and intimate atmosphere than the others. Comes off being elegant with great (& ethical) food, but without the pretenciousness.
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What about Stanton Social for Friday...not sure what reasonably-priced means to you, but it's great for groups
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re: Todd
Agreed. Had my 30th there and they did a terrific job. $45 per person for a ton of food. Though that can get pricey when you add booze. Most of the food was pretty good, its not going to blow you away, but we had great time.
Red Cat, Hearth and Blue Hill are all great choices. Red Cat at this point is probably one of my favorites, if not my favorite, (reasonably priced) restaurant.
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re: Todd
I would love to do Stanton Social, but I think it's a little too pricey for inviting a variety of people to. I think price needs to be a little more accessible. Has anyone had a group outing at CUBA on Thompson St?
I'm leaning toward either Red Cat or Hearth for the second night. Hearth is more expensive. Is it that much more special?
Thanks again.
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re: billyeats
Hearth is more different and refined than Red Cat, which is more of a comfort food place. I've always had reliably good, if unexciting meals at the Red Cat. On my first visit to Hearth, I loved it, but on my most recent visit I wasn't as impressed. My boyfriend took me to celebrate a new job, but we both left annoyed b/c our waiter was too busy being one of the 3 servers waiting on a table of 8 behind us to check up on us--we waited a long time to order, to order new glasses of wine (and we only ordered one extra each), and to request our check. Plus, food was lackluster. Besides one very good starter, we had 2 skimpy-sized entrees and freezer-burned ice cream sandwiches (the dessert "special). The whole experience kind of soured me on Hearth as a special event place, but I'm sure I'll be back at some point.
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As far as night two goes, I'd say it's between Blue Hill (tried and true three-star) and cookshop (way more current buzz). Seems both are equally crunchy in terms of their politics and aesthetics. Full disclosure, haven't been to Cookshop yet but it's definitely on my short list. Tossup I guess.
