I am looking for a venue to host a dinner for approximately 60 people of all ages and tastes. Ideally it would be on the strip or nearby as most guests will be from out of town. Cost is not a concern. In searching this board I've seen several recommendations for Magianos but I'd rather have something a bit more upscale or interesting than that. I'd like a private room. It need not be fancy, such that a great barbecue fest could be fun, but a "nice" restaurant would work, as well, so long as the food is good and approachable and the location suitable for a group. It would be on a Friday night about a year from now. Any suggestions you may have will be greatly appreciated.
Yardbird, at the Venetian, has private rooms and I now has many different plans. And although the cuisine is southern comfort food, it ain't cheap. Because you say it's a diverse group, I thought of Yardbird because the kids will be happy with fried chicken, the rich desserts, etc.
Hi zook - I always seem to be aligned with your food preferences so thought I'd throw in a few suggestions. ;)
I agree with Dave on the food/atmosphere at Yardbird, however I don't believe their private dining space could hold 60. Here are some other thoughts in no particular order. All should have private rooms that can accommodate your size of group.
CP/Forum Shoppes:
Mr. Chow
Rao's
Joe's Prime Steak & Crab
Palm Restaurant
Spago
MB/Delano:
I believe Rivea could work, possibly combining two spaces
Not sure if Foundation Room has private rooms large enough or not but the view is great, so might be worth checking in to
Aureole
Bellagio:
Harvest (could combine 2 private rooms)
Wynn/Encore:
Lakeside (couple of rooms that could work and a nice view)
Crystals/City Center:
Wolfgang Puck Cucina
Mastro's (would combine two rooms)
V/P
Carnevino has the Amarone Room that I believe holds up to 80
Delmonico Steakhouse (could combine 2 private rooms)
Paris
Might be a little kitschy, but the Eiffel Tower has a room that can seat up to 80...might be a fun experience for the young (and the young at heart)
Let us know what you land on and good luck!
I think I misinterpreted something on the website, and it might be true that there are only 20 seats for a proper sit-down dinner. At another point in the site, it mentions that it can accommodate 300 -- it's unclear exactly where they would be sitting, or if it's some combination of standing and high-tops.
Dave, I agree it's confusing...and I noticed those larger numbers were given by many of the casino restaurants I viewed. In my limited experience, when the headcount number is 100+, it's usually considered a "buyout" where the party host would purchase the entire dining room for the evening.
Thank you both for the suggestions. I've got my work cut out for me when I'm back next month to check them all out. I'll report back on progress. BTW, I'm also going to need a venue for Sunday brunch for this same group. I previously checked out the Veranda but their private rooms are too small although they did offer the option of holding it in one of the hotel's meeting rooms. Another option under consideration is Border Grill which looks promising, but if you have other thoughts on this, please chime in.
butterfli, I don't know if you have been to the Palm recently but I would suggest avoiding it like the plague! We just returned from our yearly trip and could have had THE WORST meal in my Las Vegas career. Service was spotty by a waiter who was too high to really care. The chef must have been high too as no chef in his right mind would have sent out these dishes. And the manager must have been high too as he argued with us until the end saying that we were all wrong. I'll let you decide. Below are pictures of our medium rare to rare prime rib and our veal Milanese. Oh wait...how about bartender who made Dark and Stormys with white rum. Then when asked if they had dark rum he responded "Oh,was I suppose to use dark rum? I promise I'll make it up on the next one." Guess what...
I have hosted private dinners for 30-40 at a number of Las Vegas strip restaurants. For food, nothing beats Joe's in the Caesars Forum shoppes, IMHO. They should have no trouble accommodating 60 in their "back" dining room. Not cheap, but really delicious!
Canaletto in the Venetian also has great private rooms. Food is just ok, but the rooms are lovely with french doors opening up onto the "piazza" below.
re: Veranda, it is one of the better if not the BEST brunch in Vegas. Might be worth checking if there is anyway they could handle your group in the pool area adjacent to the restaurant?
Thanks. Although Joe's is good, that won't do much for my crowd as we are mostly from SoFla and have the original Joe's right around the corner from us. I'm hoping to find someplace that we don't have here. I've found that although many restaurants have private rooms, the cutoff on many of them is 50 people. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can keep my numbers below that; hence my continued search. I will check out all the rex on this board, along with a few others, when I'm there in November, and will report back upon my return.
Update to our search: During our week in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving, we had an opportunity to check out several venues. I sort of feel like Goldilocks because we still haven't found the perfect venue for one reason or another. In the interim, we did secure the private room at Nora's for the rehearsal dinner but because that only seats 50, we will have to restrict the rehearsal dinner guests to those in the wedding party and their plus ones along with immediate family to keep it under that limit.
This resulted in our consideration of plan B...holding the rehearsal dinner at Nora's early and then hosting another event on the strip afterwards for our out of town friends and family who were not part of the rehearsal dinner. The idea would be to provide cocktails and tapas or the like. This lead us to Lago which has the perfect venue (the outdoor patio area overlooking the fountains which can be expanded by including the private room that opens up to said patio). The space is lovely and the food and drinks excellent and the location would be conducive to most who plan to stay at the Bellagio or elsewhere on the strip. However, it is VERY pricey. I know I said in my original post that cost is not a concern, estimates of $7500-20,000 not including cocktails, tax or the 22% service charge seems somewhat exorbitant to me. I am still in communication with them to see if we can make the cost more reasonable especially now that we might be hosting two different events the same night.
I also am waiting to hear back from Spago regarding when they plan to move to the Olives space in the Bellagio to see if their current space is a possibility on the date we need or whether they plan to remodel the Olives space to include some viable private space in time for our event.
So, if we go with Plan B, if anyone has any suggestions about where to host a cocktail party for about 50-60 folks on a Friday evening in October, that has great cocktails and food/tapas, please let me know. I'm going back to Las Vegas in three weeks and will have a few days to check out other venues. As always, thanks again for your help.
Final update:
We finally held our two events recently. The rehearsal dinner was at Joe's in the Forum Shops at Caesers and the post wedding brunch was at Border Grill. We had 63 folks attend the dinner and 59 attend the brunch. Both venues were perfect. The dinner was held in the GiGi room which is quite beautiful. The staff was terrific as was their event planner. They were easy to work with and very accommodating on requests and the countless questions we had along the way. Their contract was straightforward unlike many other venues we had considered. The bartender was great and the food was terrific. Everyone really enjoyed the evening. The event planner for Border Grill was also very easy to work with and their contract was also straightforward. They set up a buffet brunch for us on the upstairs outside patio overlooking the pool which also happened to be the site of the proposal. The food was very good and the staff did a great job constantly replenishing the serving trays and taking drink orders. I would highly recommend both venues for anyone looking to host an event in town.
As an aside, because we were staying in a huge suite in the Bellagio, we had the space to hold a pizza party one evening for about 20 people. We got the pizza and salad and cannolis from Naked City on Paradise. Their staff was very friendly although not quite as easy to work with. A few hours before we had scheduled delivery, we were advised that we'd have to pick up our order as their staff was working on a special event that evening. When we go there at the appointed time, the pizzas were just coming out of the oven; although the salad was ready to go. The salad, while tasty, didn't quite comport with our order in that it had cheese in it when they were specifically told no cheese. The chef made up the cannoli filling fresh while we waited for our order which sounded great until we got back to the room and found that it had run all over and didn't have the right consistency to serve our guests. We shoved them in the frig to solidify but they never got solid enough to serve. Of course, that didn't stop my husband from eating them for breakfast/snacks over the following week. The taste was great, they just ended up looking awful and needed a spoon to eat.
Also, on this trip, we had another really great dinner at Partage, as well as terrific dinners and drinks at both Sparrow and Wolfe and Therapy. We hit up the Bellagio buffet one morning since it was comped, but that was a huge disappointment. Since it was a buffet, there was just enough items that were decent but if I had to pay for it, I'd have been sorely disappointed. I'm sure there are better buffets around town. We did have a decent lunch at the Bellagio pool cafe and another very good lunch at Lago.
Zook, Thanks, as always, for reporting back. Glad that both of your important group meetings went well. I'm surprised re: Naked City Pizza -- they are usually more reliable.
Question -- do you think Partage might be an appropriate choice for the post asking about dinner for 12? I was thinking about the private room there.
Yes, if French food is something they’d be interested in. The private room looked a little tight, but very beautiful, with a very cool dining table to eat at. This last time I was there was to celebrate a birthday, and four of the six of us had never been there before and all really enjoyed it. For some reason when I read the other poster’s request, my mind immediately went to steak house, but you are correct, that Partage would fit the request quite nicely.
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