St Paul Hotel has a good restaurant (I think there's also a less formal cafe but I know nothing about their bar) and the new HP in St Paul is great and has a very nice huge lobby area that's divided into separate conversation areas with some divided off by partial walls or partitions of some sort. The bar area itself is small with maybe a half dozen bar stools, but you'd want to take your drink into one of these very inviting and comfy seating areas.

W has the usual living room concept for the lobby, a pretty big high counter with bar stools (not good for conversation) in its (expensive of course) steak restaurant, and a small but popular (and noisy) historic bar on the top floor, in the former office of the company's president from the Foshay days.

Westin downtown has almost no lobby, just a couple chairs by the front desk and an open business center there with one or two desktops and a printer. It's restaurant BANK is very good and has a nice sophisticated (open plan) bar scene, including some private rooms of various sizes, some furnished with an executive boardroom table for dining and some that remind me of the private rooms in Asian karaoke bars.

Ivy has a large and very pleasant lobby that was recently renovated, very sophisticated with lots of ivory and comfy but stylish furniture arranged in lots of conversational groupings, where I think some of the smaller chairs might be able to be moved for a larger group. There's a good bar with a good bar menu and a redone Italian restaurant concept that I haven't tried yet, but I do know that they do a southern Italian fixed price dinner on Sunday night (which doesn't appeal to me). The Ivy has a small outdoor patio. Their specialty suites are quirky but nice and would be suitable for hosting about four couples.

LM has redone its restaurant too so I can't say much about it, but there's a large gated patio area (sometimes with F&B service) with a fire pit (and IIRC smoking allowed there). Their luxury and specialty suites could be used to host a group of about four couples, but the property has very strict noise and occupancy rules so this might not be allowed. Unlike what I think would happen at the W, they simply do not permit young people to have rowdy parties here. [I think the Ivy would not permit it either, but the LM makes the rules very clear and says that if they do a service recovery gesture for another guest over noise or inconvenience caused by you or your guests, the cost will be billed to your room.

BTW, the corner one bedroom suites on every floor of Westin Edina Galleria are huge, with an entryway, separate large powder room, dining table for six, and a large living room with a big sofa and a couple soft chairs. It has a pretty normal lobby between the front desk and bar/restaurant (McCormick and Schmicks) but then some normally very quiet soft seating areas (sofa or two and a couple chairs) in the huge pre-function area as you walk toward the attached parking garage and (upscale) shopping mall, which has about a half dozen restaurants and bars at various styles and price points.