rehearsal dinner w/ no banquet space?

JessandWill2010

Hi all. My fiance and I are trying to figure out a location for our rehearsal dinner and we're hitting a bit of a dilemma. The ceremony and hotel are both downtown, so we'd like to keep our dinner there as well to avoid drunk driving after the rehearsal dinner. Me, my fiance, and my family are all big-time foodies, so we really want a place with delicious food. Fortunately, one of our favorite restaurants is downtown. The problem is that it doesn't have a separate banquet room, so we'd have to have the rehearsal dinner in the main restaurant space. We have one other viable option, but the food isn't nearly as good. Has anyone done a rehearsal dinner like that? If so, how did it go? Thanks in advance for your advice.

duckie1905

We had ours at a Chicago pizza place.  They just reserved a bunch of tables in the corner for us.  We were free to walk around and mingle without interrupting others eating dinner.

As long as they are willing to give you a block of tables together (so that you aren't constantly crossing other tables to get where you are going) I think it would be fine.  Also, they may consider moving the other tables just a tad away from your group, just to cut down on the noise.

mbcdefg

We actually booked our place last night. It doesn't have a "private" room, per se, but it's in the back of the restaurant (away from the bar area) and we won't be right on top of any other patrons.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

We're also doing something "semi-private" aka kind of roped off from the rest of the patrons, but not a separate room.