Group dining on a budget in River North
Hi everyone. I am looking for a restaurant in River North that is open until at least 10PM on Sunday nights where we can go with a large group (at least 30 people) where everyone is dressed really nicely. It does not have to be a formal dress code, but somewhere, like Wildfire, where we would not feel out of place dressing up. The budget is about $20-$30 a person, including tax and gratuity. Does such a place exist?
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My general recommendation for large groups is Quartino. You can be as dressed up or down as you like. Otherwise, there's really nothing at your price point outside of pizza and Portillo's. Reza's on Ontario might also work, but I'm not a big fan (although many people really like it) - Reza's even has a $20/person family style dining option.
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Quartino
626 N. State Street, Chicago, IL 60654 -
nsxtasy
Jul 26, 2011 06:00 PM
With a group that big, you will want to get a private dining room, which many restaurants offer. With your own dining room, you can dress however you like.
$20-30 rules some places out, but many others are happy to work with you to create a menu that will fit within whatever budget you have.
Here are two places where you can find information about private dining rooms. First, you could try giving the folks at Lettuce Entertain You a call. They have one contact that can arrange private parties at all 40-50 of their restaurants so they can advise you on which ones might be suitable for your budget, and available for your date. www.lettuceparties.com
You can also see a list showing the size of private rooms available for many of the restaurants on Opentable, at: www.opentable.com/info/banquets.aspx?m=3 You'll notice there are dollar signs on their listings to show how expensive the restaurants listed are.
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re: Jami86e
nsxtasy
Jul 26, 2011 06:16 PM
>> Private rooms all cost extra.
Not necessarily.
I've arranged private dining numerous times over the years. Some places have a minimum charge or room charges for Friday or Saturday nights, that they waive on other nights of the week. Some places don't have minimums or room charges at all. I've called places where they have expensive private party menus and minimums stated on their websites, but when I described what we needed, they were more than happy to come up with a lower priced menu with no minimums or room charges. Many places are more than happy to work with you to come up with a solution that meets your needs and budget. You just need to talk to them and tell them what you have in mind, and see if they can respond with what you need. Some places may not be able to give you what you need, and they'll tell you that right up front. But you'd be surprised how flexible and accommodating many other places can be.
My suggestion to you is to call Lettuce Entertain You and/or look through the Opentable listings. What's nice about the Lettuce folks is that you can make one phone call and they can immediately tell you whether they can do it or not, and which of their restaurants could meet your needs. You should be able to find that out in five minutes over the phone. The nice thing about that Opentable list is you can look through it and zero in on whichever of those places are (a) in the area you want (River North, Mag Mile); (b) listed with two dollar signs (inexpensive); and (c) have a private room of a suitable size for your group. You can then look through the places meeting those criteria, check out the menus on their websites to see which kinds of food sound good, and start making calls. I would be willing to bet that if you take this approach and call ten different restaurants, at least five of them can meet your budget. JUST TRY IT!
*EDIT: I just noticed that that Opentable list lets you specify a group size and price category, as well as limiting it to the city or parts of the suburbs. So click here for a list of places in the city which can handle private parties of 21-50 people and are in the $$ category: www.opentable.com/info/banquets.aspx?...
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re: Jami86e
nsxtasy
Jul 26, 2011 06:49 PM
>> LEYE charges extra for private rooms.
Not always. I've worked with them and they've submitted proposals for our dinners in which there was no extra charge for the private room. (However, we wound up not going with them because we also talked with several other places who were able to do better in terms of price and an overall package.)
When you call any place and reach their private party coordinator, they will ask you what kind of budget you have in mind. So tell them $20-30/pp. Either they can come up with a proposal in that range, or they can't - but either way, they should be able to tell you within the first five minutes of the phone call.
Make some calls tomorrow afternoon and you can see for yourself. If LEYE tells you they can't meet your budget at any of their restaurants, call some of the places listed on Opentable, or call any other places you like. YOU NEED TO MAKE THESE CALLS to find out for yourself what they can do for you.
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