Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiran403
Any recommendations for a spot for dinner and drinks for a 40th birthday party that isn't a pub or brewery or video game related? I'm trying to come up with something for my wife's 40th birthday. She surprised me with an awesome party over the summer at Greta but I was hoping to do something a bit different as she's not really big into videogames or beer. I'd still like something that allows for a group of 15-18 people to interact with each other. Open to dinner and/or entertainment options.
|
You might want to give a slight idea how much you want to spend. It's too easy to blow a ton of money on a private room in Deane House for a cocktail party or high tea that perhaps doesn't properly fit your needs. Bigger groups are a wonky one. It's kinda hard to find the right balance at times in terms of ability to interact/socialize, fanciness of food/drinks, price point, location, ability to book etc. and large groups like these are often times too loud at certain venues to really properly socialize. I love house parties personally as there's a ton of places to find that are quieter for good conversations... but that might not be what you want.
Assuming it's easy enough to look on open table and see who would be willing to host 15-20 people... Some "average priced" ideas:
--------------
Anatolia? They don't serve drinks, but you can bring your own wine. Overall atmosphere generally is good enough for socializing and good food and drinks, but drink wise it's only what you bring yourself (they don't sell alcohol).
-----------
You could consider catering or ordering enough takeout to host something at yours/friend's place/Air BnB or a community hall? You could even bring in a bartender (get a liquor license for the community hall though, it's cheap enough and not worth the headache of skimping on).
http://cheerscalgary.com
------------
If you're OK with the idea of a little bit more DIY sort of thing, you can go a little further than just catering the whole ordeal. A sous vide is stupidly fantastic for dinner parties. In fact, I've seen cocktail parties at Deane House that had sous vided food that was served on demand. It's super easy to sous vide a bunch of steaks (add salt and garlic powder to "brine") with a sous vide and finish it off by merely searing it on a BBQ, Oven or on a hot pan.
Assuming you don't regularly sous vide, all it requires is a stock pot, large freezer bags and a sous vide (likely easily borrowed from someone or cheap enough to purchase). You will need a separate sous vide/stock pot for different types of foods at different temperatures, but the best part is you don't need someone to stand around and cook, generally anyone can season and sear quickly without too much error so people can take turns, and food can be brought out as needed so you don't have a ton of food that goes cold over the evening and doesn't overcook. IMO, it's almost cheating to use a sous vide to prep food.
- Beef/Lamb/Pork steaks, ribs or roasts with salt and garlic powder (to brine) then finished on BBQ/Oven/Pan with a bit of seasoning.
- Meatballs (ie: Costco) and finish off on stove with spicy jelly
- Seafood boil finish off by pouring a premade sauce on top
- Desserts (Some you make before the event, some you can pop in pre-prepared stuff the sous vides halfway through after you finish your main meal foods)
etc.
I've successfully hosted lunches/dinners of 15-20 on a regular basis and still had the ability to interact and socialize for more than half of the event. Unlike BBQs or other dinner parties I used to host in the past where I spent more than 3/4 of the evening prepping and working a BBQ/stove.
Again, you can consider hiring a bartender for the evening too.
-------------------
My SIL is actually doing something like this for a birthday party. Community hall, take out, booze etc. for about 50 people, so we kinda toyed around with a few of these DIY ideas already.
================
If it's a little less about dinner and drinks, then a private wine and cheese event is pretty fun and still works fine with younger kids. Plenty of places that sell wine and cheese might be able to host something like this. I'm also thinking a place that sells alcohol might be willing to do a private tasting too.
Such places could be separated as the entertainment portion after a meal. A friend did this for a large group and it was pretty darn fun and reasonably priced for everyone involved.
================
If you and your wife are really into wines one activity that I saw once that worked quite well was a raffle/gift steal with alcohol. You'd have everyone buy in for the game at a specific price range (20-30 bucks).
You have 1/3 of revealed bottles that are submitted slightly below the average of the price range and the remaining are all mystery bottles acquired by someone not you nor your wife and wrapped in a way where the bottle cannot be seen (ie: tissue paper or a covered wine bag). For 10-15 participants for instance, you have 3-5 revealed bottles and 7-10 hidden bottles that range from $10-50 bucks but not beyond the overall budget of whatever the buy in was (ie: $300-400 bucks total).
Game works as any typical gift steal, but the birthday individual has extra abilities he/she can choose to utilize:
1. Veto steal (birthday individual takes whatever bottle from whoever even if it has been stolen enough times to be "locked")
2. Force swap (similar to above, but the birthday individual is not involved)
3. Set aside (locks a bottle out of the game to be reintroduced when the final 1/3 of individuals are left, often works great with a really nice bottle you know everyone will try to lock up ASAP).
4. Drink! (Bottle is removed immediately to be shared by everyone, but only works if there's extra bottles that can be substituted into the game)
Have your wife sign all the bottles and it's kinda a fun thing to have the guests leave the party with.