Cloudship

Does anyone have advice for running a monthly restaurant night? By this, I mean a group of people who go out to a different restaurant each month as group. I am figuring probably 8-10 people right now, may grow to 15 at some point. How do you choose where? How do you handle paying?

MSPeconomist

If the group is too large, most restaurants won't let you reserve a table, but you might be able to make two or more reservations (in different names). For 15, a small private dining room or "boardroom" might make sense, depending on the additional cost or minimum spend requirements.

IME most USA restaurants are willing to do separate checks, so that each person or couple can pay with their own credit cards. However, this won't eliminate the mandatory tip than many restaurants impose for groups of 6 or more. If a small subgroup wants to share a bottle of wine, it can be put on one check with the others paying their shares in cash to the person who is paying for the wine with a credit card. Of course, it's simpler if people just order wine by the glass. Be sure the server knows about the separate checks before you order anything.

You might want to have an agreement or discussion about the types of restaurants and price ranges, although once you name the restaurant, it's easy to check the menu and pricing (plus other policies, such as a mandatory service charge, happy hour specials, etc.) on most restaurant websites.

Good luck and enjoy!

pseudoswede

Sweet Willie organizes FT dining outings in Chicago, maybe you can ping him to get more details on how to he runs things.

Yes, you probably want to call the restaurant ahead of time and say that you are bringing a group of 8-10 people and get confirmation that they can split checks.

Have either a Facebook group or e-mail list or Meetup page or Signup Genius page with details and let people RSVP (and have a wait list).

If at all possible, try to avoid weekends if the place is popular.

Not sure how trustworthy the people you are considering, but maybe have some kind of rule where if you no-show or bail within X days/hours a certain number of times, that person will be kicked out. There's nothing worse for a restaurant saying you need a table for 10, and only five show up.

Sweet Willie

Thanks pseudoswede , happy to share how most of the FT Do's in Chicago go.

Most of the outings in Chicago are now done family style. This is so everyone can get a taste of much of the menu. While some menus are not set up family style, we generally order enough appetizers, a salad, and main courses thus covering a good portion of most menus. Most attendees I'm assuming like this approach as they keep returning.
To someone who isn't familiar with this approach or is a diner that wants their own dish and isn't interested in sharing, this approach can be off-putting to some, but as stated, many of the same folks keep returning so I think we've got a good approach.

We try to plan weeknight dinner Do's. For two reasons. Primary is flexibility, most restaurants are not that busy on Mon-Thurs evenings, so they don't mind if the attendee list fluctuates from 5 to 20 to 10 attendees. The other benefit is quality is generally better during weekday evenings than on busy weekend evenings as the kitchen and wait staff can ensure quality as opposed to rushing to get out/produce quantity.

Cost is a factor to most folks, so communicate approx costs upfront if possible if the restaurant is "pricey". Most of the Do's I arrange are at "economical" ethnic restaurants where our group can share numerous dishes and the bill will be generally $15-25 per person.

The big issue is alcohol cost as there are some who want to drink heavily and those that don't drink alcohol at all. Our groups have done a good job of pitching in their cost of what alcohol they drank.

As a group organizer you will run into the very cheap person, who will complain and moan that they didn't want to try all those items or Susan drank much more than everyone else. Be upfront and transparent as much as possible and if they still complain, cut bait, they aren't worth the aggravation to you the organizer as you will find you spend much more time organizing than you thought you would. (for instance there are times where I'll have a conversation with the owner/Gen mgr and explain the family style approach to craft a menu of dishes for our group, this takes time & effort)

Those are thoughts I have off the top of my head, feel free to ask any questions.