Originally Posted by Rapp's yellow CF
Roy,
I am so sorry, does having two teenage kids help explain my lack of follow up on your suggestion? I have included your idea here for the group to consider. I am willing to do what ever the group picks. I haven't found a Friday night restaurant yet. I was going to find something either on Woodward or near the hotel. If everyone is interested in having a "mix up" dinner I'd like it if someone could handle the planning. Between Apkano/Steve and us we can help with restaurant locations. Members post here what you think/want. I'll keep looking for a place for the group together as well as make note of places smaller groups could go to. Ann
"Hi Ann:
Trust you received my money order for the parking.
I think you should keep the Saturday night at Tavern 13 as planned, for the reasons you mentioned.........that was a good plan.
Now for Friday night. Here is my suggestion:
Have everyone meet at a set time on late Friday afternoon, prior to dinner time (meet at Marriott Opdyke hotel). Also, can you list 6-8 restaurants that could be used for smaller groups.
My suggestion is that we select smaller groups at random (you could use a draw process) and we go as separate smaller groups to those restaurants. This way we will be forced to meet others that we might not normally meet. It removes the logistics of trying to find one restaurant that can handle forty people or more. I would suggest that the smaller groups would be no more than about 8 people (4-5 cars). Whether we would need reservations at those restaurants, I would have to leave that for you to decide.
The key point is to get a commitment from those Friday Niters and communicate the process to them and have them at the hotel at a certain time (mandatory). Have written directions to each of the restaurants (give copies to each group driver) and possibly we could all do a Cruise down Woodward Avenue before we breakup to go to our designated restaurants by a certain time frame.
It may seem like an "off the wall" suggestion but I think it could work. When preparing for the group random draw, you might want to keep the 'singles' separate from the 'couples'................just a thought." Mbepic/Roy
Ann, I was not being critical of you.........I know you must have your plate full and Woodward weekend should not be the highest priority in your life.
I just raised this suggestion publicly because the alternate 'large group at one restaurant' appears to not be too easy to resolve. We appreciate what you have done for the Saturday night.
If you locals can come up with a suitable number of small 'informal' eateries that we could use for smaller groups, (we would need written directions for each of the eateries, directing each small group from a central point at the end of the Woodward Avenue drive. I would certainly be willing to help plan the process for getting us into small groups Hopefully meeting at the Marriot Hotel at a predetermined time should not be an obstacle for us getting organized into those smaller groups.
What do all of you, who are arriving on the Friday (by late afternoon), think of this suggestion??? You don't have to stay at the Marriott, just be there to organize into small groups for dinner get togethers later.