Comments on: the great birthday dinner debate

By: olivia

olivia — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:21:17 +0000

I’m really late to this, but I would like to say that I think up to 8 people is okay for dinner, but otherwise it’s a nightmare. I liked Henri’s idea about a flashmob at the restaurant tho. And I recently had an event that several people came late to, and the waiter was doing this angry thing, and so I’m a bit over the whole idea of groups at places where you have to make a reservation.

But then again, two years ago I had a great birthday at a probably-otherwise-boring club in London and I wouldn’t have thought that would be okay either. So who knows?

By: Sofia

Sofia — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:11:54 +0000

I agree, birthday dinners can be frustrating! I like Henri’s idea about the six to a table rule.

By: Mandy

Mandy — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:00:12 +0000

Oh, I loved the Happy New York Birthday, Sarah! party… I do remember that Debbie Downer guy behind Sarah, though, who was angry that we were taking pictures with a flash. I think he was just jealous that he wasn’t invited. Yeah, I think group dinners are hard, but activities are totally a good idea. Karaoke, groups having drinks, crime spree, uh, never mind!

By: weenston

weenston — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:31:24 +0000

a friend of mine has done something different when it comes to the bill. when he goes out to lunch with his coworkers (they go to lunch together regularly), they tell the waiter / waitress to take all their credit cards. he/she then selects one credit card with which to pay the bill. it’s credit card roulette. not for the faint of heart.

By: erin

erin — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 06:34:00 +0000

Also, Mere, we were drunk. Very, very, VERY drunk.

I never celebrate my birthday (except for when Meredith makes me) so I don’t know the pains of hosting a birthday dinner. But I do very much know the pains of going to them (Mi Luna 2007 excluded.). Sarah, I like what you and Henri did this year for your birthdays (even though I couldn’t go!) – Field Day! Also I’m just a fan of anything in which I might receive a participation ribbon.

By: talena

talena — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:56:55 +0000

Hmm… several ideas to consider since my birthday is coming up. I’m really enjoying the Iron Chef-esque Potluck.

By: Meredith

Meredith — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:11:16 +0000

I had a successful birthday dinner once (the only birthday dinner I’ve ever hosted)–at Mi Luna. Everyone shared tapas and pitchers of sangria, so the-split-everything-equally rule was fair! (Plus Mi Luna is totally affordable). Also, we all switched chairs every half hour or so and everyone was able to mingle equally. But generally, birthday dinners are a no.

By: joshkatz

joshkatz — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:28:52 +0000

I can endorse Henri’s “6 person” dinner rule exception. I’ll draft up some binding resolution language and have a contract to all parties by 9 am monday.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:04:21 +0000

We still do birthday dinners every so often, but then, we don’t have a huge social group either, so that probably plays into it. There’s also always been the “person pays for what person orders” rule in place and that’s always seemed to work. I like the ‘Iron Chef’ potluck idea. Might have to drag that one out at some point.

By: Henri

Henri — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:17:40 +0000

Yeah, I propose that birthday dinners may still exist, but there can never be more than six people at a table. If you have more people that want to come out, great – they can have another table.

It’s not like the people on opposite ends of tables talk to each other anyway, and when you’re all at one big table, even the people with the “choice” seats in the middle end up getting dragged from side to side, never really getting to dive into one big conversation.

If, however, you have a big group at many different tables, you’ve accomplished an awesome take over of the whole restaurant, and when the birthday girl’s table starts singing “Happy Birthday”, people all over the restaurant will chime in, and it will be this fun little birthday flashmob moment.

And then after dinner, when everyone meets up at a pub or goes dancing or whatever, you’ll all be able to share the tidbits of fun conversation that came from the other table you were at.

There are, of course, ways to have an exception to this Pants World Law. The 2007 birthday dinner actually went quite well, even though there was a large group, because we had a group activity that we all participated in – giving Sarah funny presents from BookPeople and reading emails out loud. That forced the whole group to interact as one, which is the only way a big group dinner works that I can think of…