Restaurant for a Large Rehearsal Dinner Party?

jellybeann

I'm getting married in December and am starting to plan the rehearsal dinner. My FI's parents have graciously offered to host the dinner, so we are starting to look for restaurants in the Oakland/Downtown/South Side area. The kicker is that the dinner will be for ~60 guests. Does anyone have any suggestions for restaurants? I'm from Pittsburgh but haven't lived there officially for seven years so I'm not up on the restaurant scene. Currently some options on the table are Lidia's, McCormick and Schmick's on the South Side, and Mallorca. We looked at Eleven, SoBa, and one other (can't remember it now) but they were a little too expensive. Any help is appreciated!

csuave

The places you named are good options.

Some other ideas: LeMont, Houlihan's, Spaghetti Warehouse, Rock Bottom (Waterfront). 

Any place that you can have a wedding should work too like all of the hotels.  A recent poster on this board mentioned the Pittsburgh Golf Club, I had never heard of it before but it looks like it is a country club type place in the city which is a good bet.  

Pepperally

There's a McCormick & Schmicks downtown as well as the southside, also look into Sixth Penn downtown, they have large party info on their website. 

alm199

The Penn Brewery has a room they rent out for rehearsal dinners/weddings. Joe Mamma's in Oakland has a large upstairs that they hold events in.

Tampgh

We had ours at the Grand Concourse recently in Station Square.  They have private rooms that should accomodate that size.

Raye1004

hi! we will have approximately 40 people for our rehearsal dinner at La Tavola in Mt. Washington in September. It's not too fancy but the food is great. I definitely picked out BYOB restaurants to cut on costs. We also checked out Sausalido (Bloomfield) which is also BYOB, they sent us a proposal. We ended up choosing 3 entrees and did a $400 deposit to hold the date. They have a room devoted to large parties and always booked. So you should probably call them right away since they book up quick. The owner is very nice.

tacomom

I'm not sure if this spot could fit 60 people, but we recently hosted our 35 person rehearsal dinner at E2, and it was incredible. I called MANY other places in town, including all of the ones you mentioned in your post (which, IMO, aren't really even great restaurants to begin with), and E2 was the clear winner in terms of food quality (it's amazing), the service/event coordination (very clear, straightforward), the cost ($30/head for buffet, $35/head for 3 course family style meal, $45/head for short menu with individual entree orders, and BYOB!), and the gorgeous private space (that was much better than Sausalido's, we thought). I cannot recommend this place enough, and Kate, the owner, and her staff were A+ to work with.